In the last couple of years Covid stopped many people from seeing family and friends, now financial challenges due to the increase in living costs are making them think twice about spending time with loved ones.
Recent research by gift flick shows that half of Australians are no longer (27 per cent) or unsure (23 per cent) of whether they would be able to spend time with family due to financial constraints.
If they can’t be together 18 per cent won’t be gifting, 31 per cent say it will depend on how close the person is and, fortunately, 51 per cent say they will still give, meaning they’ll need to get posting now or look to innovative digital means, says gift flick co-founder and CMO, Helen Marsh.
“While sending e-gift cards or vouchers is one of Australia’s favourite ways to gift (62 per cent), our research shows there are some notable apprehensions with this method,” she explains.
“For those who do use e-gift cards or vouchers, more than half (53 per cent) worry that it comes across a bit lazy just sending a nominal value gift card, while almost 38 per cent were worried their gift might seem impersonal and a further 33 per cent weren’t really comfortable putting a nominal value on their gift.”
The message is clear―people have warmed to online gifting, but they worry about the lack of personalisation, connection and/or showing an appropriate amount of effort.
“gift flick provides an innovative way to digitally gift with personalised ‘gift stories’ that include video and/or written notes and digitally ‘reveals’ physical gifts or vouchers that will be sent directly from the retailer.
“There’s a big share of the market who would welcome an innovative way to show their relatives they care in a more personal, thoughtful way, despite not being present themselves, having a tighter budget or not being able to physically get gifts to loved ones on time. We can solve all those problems,” adds Marsh.
gift flick has reached the milestone of 22 retail partners in 2022 including Country Road, David Jones, Adore Beauty and Zöe Foster-Blake’s Christmas gift range for Go-To Skin Care in the line-up.
“The vast majority of people don’t’ love the ‘crazy of Christmas’ and with tighter budgets this year, a collective sense of exhaustion―but the ongoing human desire to maintain personal connection―we think gift flick could be the saviour for many gifts this Christmas.”
