An innovative e-commerce platform is making waves by changing how South African consumers exchange gifts. Brand Hubb, which already offers an unparalleled business-to-consumer (B2C) experience, has applied its online acumen to redesign the age-old social practice of giving and receiving gifts. “We are expanding our business offering by leveraging technology to improve or reinvent ‘stuffy’ tradition,” says Rob Anderson, CEO of Brand Hubb. “The next big idea is usually found by identifying and resolving areas that cause consumers pain or stress”.
Brand Hubb’s Chip In gifting solution is a case in point. It was built to address the pain points that most consumers experience when giving gifts. Finding the perfect gift used to involve spending countless hours trawling through physical stores until, exhausted, the gift-giver capitulated by purchasing anything that relieved them of their gifting obligation. The process of choosing something that a friend or acquaintance would appreciate was no longer exciting, but rather a dreaded and stressful chore.
The recipient of a gift has a difficult time too. Time and again they are forced to feign enjoyment or surprise at receiving an impractical or totally worthless gift. Society dealt with the problems by making “wasting money on silly gifts” the norm. Think, for example, of the secret Santa practice that plays out at offices worldwide. Giving gifts became a meaningless gesture that involved drawing a name from a hat and buying a trinket under a pre-agreed and hopelessly inadequate budget.
Digital natives can thank the fourth industrial revolution for providing the technology that will restore the art of gifting. Chip In is an online solution that unites the gift-giver and gift-receiver around the common goal of a perfect gifting experience. It makes the gift-giver’s life simpler by removing the need to shop in the physical world. And it strips out the uncertainty of scanning thousands of pages of goods online by providing a list of gifts pre-approved by the receiver. The solution is frighteningly simple.
The gift-receiver, or the person organising a function or party on his or her behalf, can register on brandhubb.com and use the ‘Create Chip In List’ feature to set up a wish list of suitable gifts, with an end-date for that event or function. “You can think of Chip In as a virtual store, pre-stocked with the goods that the gift-receiver really wants,” says Anderson. “Each gift-giver is able to select and pay for an item on the wish list or make a cash contribution towards same”.
So, for example, the birthday boy or girl gets to create a list of items they would like to receive and then shares this list, using the Chip In functionality, with family and friends. Anyone who receives the list can contribute. “The Chip In facility is particularly useful when someone has their heart set on a ‘big ticket’ item for their birthday and need family and friends to contribute to make it possible,” says Anderson. Another example would be that of a family using the list to fund a sizeable gift for a couple’s 50th wedding anniversary. Brand Hubb functions seamlessly in the background to make sure that the wish list is actioned by the user-selected end-date. The ‘wish list’ is finalised, processed, and delivered to the recipient’s door.
Brand Hubb leveraged its experience in the digital business-to-consumer (B2C) market to offer Chip In users a wide selection of brands and products, via a single integrated platform. The Chip In feature joins existing innovations such as the Brand Rewards and MeBucks programmes in revolutionising how customers buy gifts and interact with brands online.
Chip In is a gifting solution that is perfectly aligned with today’s tech-savvy consumer. From today forward, gifts for anniversaries, baby showers, birthday parties, bridal showers, staff parties, weddings, and other occasions will be bought online and stress free. “This solution restores the art of gifting by addressing the pain points involved in doing things in the traditional way,” concludes Anderson. “We have created an online platform that allows the gift-giver and gift-receiver to exist on the same plane: Welcome to the new Zen in gifting; welcome to Chip In”.
