Traditional presents are passé: Bengaluru corporates take to digital gifting this festive season

BENGALURU: It’s a digital Diwali for many corporates and startups this year. Keeping in with the tech-savvy spirit of Bengaluru, companies such as Wipro, IBM and Infosys are replacing safe and routine options like sweets and white goods with digital vouchers for employees in this season of festive gifting. The idea is to give online-crazy millennials e-vouchers that can be redeemed for a gift of their own choice on ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

Alco-bev company Diageo switched to the digital gifting mode 18 months ago. Chief digital officer and VP Sridhar B says, “Technology has enabled gift personalisation, opened up non-conventional gifting categories and removed geographic distances through easy delivery. We live in a rushed world which also makes e-gifting a preferred mode for last-minute purchases.”

The gifting market reports of a bigger leap in this category this year. Brands like Uber, Allen Solly and Levis have forayed into the gifting industry and replacing hard cash to brand currency to attract buyers.

Online to offline gifting companies like Gyftr.com have attracted companies like Wipro and IBM this year. E-vouchers are being delivered to their employees via SMS and emails.

Arvind Prabhakar, CEO of Gyftr, says, “The digital voucher category has been growing at 70% year-onyear. It’s cost-effective for companies as there is no printing cost. Challenges faced by HR of IT firms in distributing gifts to a large workforce, employees working from multiple locations and over flexible hours has been overcome. Power of choice is given to the employee which makes the gift personal.”

While vouchers for apparel, electronic appliances and groceries on ecommerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart are the most popular, Prabhakar notes the sudden popularity of travel portals this year.

Agrees Pratap TP, cofounder of service-based gift card company Qwikcilver, which has clients in Infosys and a few banks. “Gifting vouchers of online travel brands like Makemytrip, Cleartrip and Thomas Cook is the fastest growing sector in e-gifting this year. Experiences are popular and company HRs want to give a memorable gift rather than putting extra money in their employees’ salaries,” Pratap says.

Bengalureans have been the earliest adopters of digital gifting. The trend, however, picked up dramatically this year, say experts. Digital gifting platform Storecheq, which started operations in 2016, notes that electronic vouchers have seen an upsurge in the past 12-18 months.

“Bengalureans have taken the least amount of time to make this switch. The workforce of these companies is large with limited interaction time. These employees want value-add gifts that suit their taste unlike Delhi which prefers fancy,” says cofounder Vivek Gupta.