Optimize your ecommerce gifting strategy to connect in a digital world with physical gifts that foster true, meaningful connections.
Key takeaways:
- Integrating digital and physical sales channels through an omnichannel retail strategy creates a seamless customer experience, boosting trust, retention, and sales through thoughtful gifting.
- Offering loyalty rewards, VIP gifts, and milestone-based perks fosters emotional connections with customers, turning routine purchases into memorable experiences and enhancing long-term engagement.
- Sending personalized gifts to influencers and brand advocates helps build relationships, create lasting impressions, and drive organic brand endorsements without heavy advertising costs.
- Leveraging contests, reward systems, and holiday-themed gifts encourages participation, strengthens customer and employee relationships, and enhances brand loyalty through creative engagement strategies.
One way retailers are optimizing their strategies is through a customer-centric approach that unifies both digital and physical channels. An ecommerce gifting strategy has the potential to create a shift by not just improving performance but also by driving new sales streams. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which ecommerce retailers are using online retail rewards to monopolize an online space and turn digital-to-physical gifts into memorable buyer journeys.
What is an omnichannel retail strategy & how physical gifts can boost an ecommerce gifting strategy
An omnichannel retail strategy creates a seamless user experience by integrating various sales channels, including online stores, mobile apps, social media, third-party marketplaces and such. Instead of operating independently, these channels work together to ensure customers receive a consistent and connected experience, whether they browse online or engage on social media.
Leveraging an ecommerce gifting strategy has benefits for both the customer and the business alike. Being rewarded with a physical gift creates a sense of reward for the buyer, while helping them build trust with the brand. Consequently, gifting ensures businesses strengthen customer relationships, boost retention, and refine marketing strategies, ultimately driving sales and long-term loyalty.
Loyalty Rewards & VIP Gifts
When businesses reward loyal customers with exclusive perks like discounts, early product access, or surprise gifts, they create a deeper emotional connection that fosters long-term engagement. Thoughtfully personalized rewards and gifts, for example those tailored to specific purchases or special milestones, such as the anniversary date of a customer joining a company or a high-value buy, demonstrate that a brand values its customers beyond their transactions. Likewise, VIP gifts add an element of surprise that can turn routine purchases into memorable buying experiences.
Pro tip: create a customized gift catalog with ecommerce loyalty gifts or luxury items for customers, and allow them to choose their own gift by accessing a giveaway link. These shareable gift links negate the need for knowing the delivery information of your recipient beforehand and can be shared on any messaging platform. Once the gift is chosen, the recipient provides their delivery address; thereby ensuring the accuracy of the information gathered.
Influencer & Brand Advocate Gifting
Using tangible gifts to appreciate or incentivize influencers has advantages that delve deeper than simple gratitude. It is a cost-effective way to drive brand awareness and engagement without traditional advertising expenses. A tangible gift, such as a customized gift basket for example, will make an influencer feel valued and appreciated before any formal collaboration – which can lead to more organic or enthusiastic endorsements. Gifting in this sense will also help businesses stand out and can create a memorable first impression before asking for anything in return.
Pro tip: when appreciating or acknowledging influencers or brand advocates – especially those that are international – use a global gifting platform, like Giftsenda, to send gifts. Giftsenda sources gifts from the country of residence of the recipient to minimize shipping costs; as well as boost the support of local businesses.
Holiday & Special Occasion Gifting
When a business takes the time to acknowledge important moments – whether it’s Christmas, birthdays, or company anniversaries, it can make the business connection feel more personal and authentic. It’s also the perfect time for companies to brand themselves in a celebratory or festive way, making for a unique way of advertising.
For example, businesses can customize their Christmas gift baskets to include holiday cookies or festive decorations. As part of New Year’s gifting strategies, companies can send personalized calendars, planners or motivational books to set a positive tone for the upcoming year. Likewise, seasonal changes also provide gifting opportunities, such as wellness kits with sunscreen and water bottles for Summer or cozy packs with branded blankets and hot chocolate sets for Winter.
Pro tip: create a personalized email gift invite and customize the landing page with holiday themed background to celebrate the occasion. Add a thoughtful message for special milestones or achievements, and send a gift of your choice or a collection from which to choose. Also, choose to use a gifting concierge to help choose culturally-appropriate gifts that align with the company policies and adherences of your recipient for international holiday gifts, such as Diwali or Chinese New Year. This will reduce the time, effort and cost spent on doing these tasks manually; allowing you to appropriately streamline your ecommerce gifting strategy.
Gamification & Contest Rewards
The appeal of these strategies lies in the fact that they tap into people’s natural desire for competition and achievement, encouraging repeat engagement while at the same time strengthening brand loyalty. Businesses can set up a points-based system where employees earn rewards for achieving business targets, completing training, or engaging in team activities. These points can then be redeemed for personalized gifts or exclusive experiences. Similarly, in social media campaigns, companies can run contests where influencers or customers showcase their best use of a product, with winners receiving high-end corporate gifts. Also, themed monthly challenges, such as a wellness initiative where employees track their fitness progress and earn branded merchandise or wellness kits for reaching milestones, make for great internal engagement.
Pro tip: integrate your CRM with the Giftsenda gifting platform to ensure you have all your customer data on hand when optimizing your ecommerce gifting strategy. This will make for a seamless ecommerce gifting strategy and remove the need to toggle back and forth between applications. You can also create a company store on the platform that showcases customized or branded SWAG which recipients can redeem with allocated points as part of wellness initiatives and other programs.
Use Giftsenda to make a connection
Giftsenda is designed to simplify corporate gifting, allowing businesses to send personalized gifts to clients and employees with ease. It enhances an omnichannel retail strategy by integrating gift-giving and rewards seamlessly across digital and physical touchpoints. By offering a curated selection of gifts, it ensures consistency in brand messaging while improving online retail customer appreciation and employee engagement. Using an international gifting platform helps businesses foster stronger relationships through thoughtful and convenient gifting, driving loyalty and satisfaction for meaningful professional relationships.
