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Personalized Gift Industry Is Up and Blooming With Innovative Companies Entering the Space This personalized gift shop is making waves with its unique and bespoke styles

By Sanjay Goel

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The gift industry is no doubt a very diverse market and owing to its huge capacity, no two business models can be the same. There are many dominating players in the market for personalized gift and this is where time-based competition comes at play. For the last five years, the industry has quadrupled itself with an increase of 25 per cent and addition of new categories of gift items. As the global retailing market increases, the revenue of the industry is expected to reach $77 billion by the end of 2022. This means that the gifting industry together with personal and corporate gifts will hold almost 80 per cent of the retail market share.

Diversity on the go

Owing to this diversity of gifts, there has also been an increase of purchasing power of the Millennials. The increase has led to the changing buying patterns of consumers. Affluent lifestyle and influence of social media has a huge impact of unconventional customized gifting. Moreover, the influence of the US—primarily Mother's Day, Father's Day and Thanksgiving—has given quite a boom to the personalized gifting market. The charm of personalized messages on top of this, has given an enormous boost to this service.

There is an emergence of new players, challenges and innovation in the market. There has been a considerable mind-shift of the consumers and the future potential of online gifting industry seems strong. Tailor-made products are in demand and they now constitute almost $20.4 billion of the market share. An especially growing trend of green gifting is taking over.

One such personalized gift company, 365Canvas, is ready and geared up for unique business features. The company provides a unique twist to personalized gift products which brings back nostalgia and memories of the sweet moments. The 365Canvas platform is such where everything is possible to be produced and is shipped within five working days. With their headquarters based in Delaware in the US, the company has opened factories and fulfillment centers across Mexico, Canada, UK and Australia. The company started after a lot of research and focusing on the gap in the market which showed the consumer demand for personalization of gifts. This gap also attributed to the increase in popularity of the gifting market. 365Canvas currently offers a unique business model that sets it apart from its competitors. It offers an effortless personalization tool, where customer experience is of utmost importance.

The company in line with the market trends is loaded with facilities that efficiently run their whole supply chain process from stakeholders to vendors, service providers and distributors. Founder and CEO, shares his story of how he first started looking for a gift to his fellow American friend. At the end of 2017, he wanted to gift something that was meaningful, held a purpose yet unique. It is then that he learnt the concept of personalized gift items. His friend was ecstatic!

Popularity of the personalized gift industry

Personalized gift item market is currently valued at $31.63 billion, with gifts ranging from canvas prints, novelty products and eco-friendly gifts.

Not to mention, the rising popularity of ecommerce is also said to be a contributing factor. The global e-commerce market is expected to grow by $200 billion by 2022. The online services especially will take a large share of the pie. This is already evident when online sales boomed during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The smallest of the companies received a 50 per cent sales boost in their ecommerce service.

CEO says that the USP which stood 365Canvas out from all companies is the "customer experience journey" which they strive to improve every day. Besides canvas prints, the company now with over 150,000 customers have extended their services on mugs, pillows, desktop plaques and ornaments. There are numerous designs to choose from. Each and every product are of the highest quality. The founders of 365Canvas are now pinning their hopes on expansion of the gift market. You might never know, this could easily become the biggest in South East Asian, the US markets too in the next few years.

Sanjay Goel

Consultant and Advisor

Having a golden experience in consulting and advisory, Sanjay Goel effectively studies the markets and provides communication guidance to companies from the South-East Asia. His clients include Asia Pacific brands like Charles & Keith, Ginger & Smart, and Kitte.
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