Unwrapped: Why Hire a Gift Concierge?
It’s one of life’s truisms: sometimes gifting isn’t fun. Here, we explore how a gift concierge can help you give better and live better.
Think about the last time you bought a gift. Did you enjoy the process? Were you confident in your choices? Did you take joy in wrapping? If the thought doesn’t fill you with excitement, you aren’t alone.
I started to realise some people didn’t enjoy gifting when I was an editor at Martha Stewart Weddings. I wrote an article about gift ideas for newlyweds who love to entertain and received a flurry of emails asking for ideas for other couples – for the outdoorsy couple, the lovebirds who already live together, the power couple, the traditionalists. The more I wrote about gifts, the more people wanted to know. It was a trend that continued when I moved to Forbes’ Middle East office a few years later. Email after email that landed in my inbox sought advice on the “perfect” anniversary gift, Christmas present or birthday surprise.
Once I started having conversations with people about their experiences surrounding gifting, it became clear that most didn’t enjoy the process. I heard “It’s stressful”, “It’s time-consuming” and “I’m just not a very good gift-giver” a lot.
STRESS
Stress was the big one. As the days and weeks tick on with no gift found, people start to feel the pressure, and plump for something generic and impersonal, which they aren’t excited about giving, or they panic and blow their carefully considered budget.
TIME
In today’s fast-paced world, time has become one of our greatest luxuries, so whether you’re working 80-hour weeks or staying at home with the kids, most people don’t want to spend their precious time off trawling the shops or the internet for that one, great gift.
CREATIVITY
Finally, people want to give better and more creatively but a lot of them feel like they’ve run out of ideas, and need a fresh approach. At the same time, I’ve witnessed a definite shift in people’s gift-buying priorities. They care more about provenance, story and craftsmanship. They’re looking for gifts that are both personal and well-crafted.
Together, these combined issues have created a culture of thoughtless department-store gift sets and quick-fix gift guides – where people gift for the sake of it, rather than the joy. That’s where we step in. I wanted to create a gift service that not only removed those stressors, but put the joy and passion back into the lost art of gifting. At the heart of our philosophy is the desire to relieve the stress of gifting and give our clients back time, so they can enjoy the things and people they love.
SO, HOW DOES IT WORK?
After gathering all the intel, we scour the globe for a gift that really speaks to the essence of the receiver. Utilising the network of designers, makers and niche brands that we’ve built over years working in the worlds of design, art and fashion, we come up with two gift options. Our clients get to select one, and save the other idea for a rainy day. Then, we have the gift beautifully wrapped and delivered to our client, or straight to the recipient. And since none of the wrapping is branded, they’ll have no idea it was from us.