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How To Take Gifting to The Next Level with Human-to-Human Thinking: Gift Baskets Overseas Podcast

Today’s episode of Long-Distance Short, How To Take Gifting to The Next Level with Human-to-Human Thinking, dives into the exciting world of international gifting trends and the rise of human-to-human connections. Join Natasha K., Marketing Director at Gift Baskets Overseas, as she interviews Dmitriy Peregudov, Founder and Chief Gift Officer of Gift Baskets Overseas and Giftsenda.  Together, the two are here to walk you through corporate gifting trends and tips, how to navigate cultural differences, and the power of building human connections with personal gifts. Stay tuned to listen to these insights from an international gifting expert!

How To Take Gifting to The Next Level with Human-to-Human Thinking: Gift Baskets Overseas Podcast Transcript

NATASHA

Okay, so, shall we start?

DMITRIY

Sure — ready!

NATASHA

Hi, Dmitry! It’s been a while — thank you for joining us today!

DMITRY

Hi, Natasha, it’s a pleasure to be here; thanks for having me.

NATASHA

Recently, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of human-to-human connections in business-to-business interactions; could you please share what inspired you to explore this shift — in part for your Inc. articles, — and how have you seen it impact businesses that have embraced this approach?

DMITRY

Sure! Over time, gifting has been used in business for ages — and, certainly, there has been a shift in understanding that, behind the company, behind any business interaction, there’s a lot of human connection, and that’s really what drives the business decisions oftentimes.

And the gifting part has been sort of lagging behind that understanding; and lately, that’s been changing, too, — and that’s something that we also were part of. In the past, we’ve seen direct mail, gift boxes that were sort of standardized to a certain degree, on a budget, and there wasn’t a lot of thought given to the recipient, to the human behind the company that receives the gift and opens that box. And the relationship that can be built, an opportunity to build the relationship through the gift was something really missing in the process.

Now, that’s something that we’re actually touching quite a bit of, the way we do it today. And that’s something where the human-to-human shift happens: we’re no longer looking at that as a B2B or a B2C kind of gift: we’re looking at that as a human-to-human gift, and regardless of what realm it is — in the business context, personal context and so on, — there’s still a human behind there. So that’s really what we’re going for.

NATASHA

Sounds really… human — and inspiring! You’ve mentioned that empathy and authenticity in storytelling are crucial for corporate marketing today; can you share any practical examples of a company that’s successfully implemented these elements and saw a measurable difference?

DMITRY

Of course. On our Giftsenda side — this is the platform that we have that allows companies to automate gifting, but also keep it personal, — Giftsenda has a number of clients with various use cases where we have a chance to send a gift, make it really easy — as easy as sending an email, — and, at the same time, be able to connect that gift to a particular event, story, or a point in the sales funnel that the gift recipient is currently at.

So, if someone had enjoyed a sales meeting or an initial interaction of learning about the product, that’s a milestone to celebrate — that’s something that happened, and while in the past, that was followed by, perhaps, a dry email or a standardized workflow, today, that can also be followed by a gift — and one that contains something that the recipient would actually enjoy.

How To Take Gifting to The Next Level with Human-to-Human Thinking: Gift Baskets Overseas Podcast

And that speaks to something that, perhaps, was brought up during the sales call, where the salesperson might have learned something about the recipient — about their preferences, maybe. And I was part of that where we’ve used some information from LinkedIn, or some other criteria that let us believe that we know a little bit more about the recipient than we would have otherwise considered knowing.

Now, if you think about sending a gift, that’s sort of more personal than just sending an email, because it needs to consider something that the recipient will enjoy as a human being. And, again, that a situation where that milestone can be celebrated with a gift attached to it makes it a lot more memorable; the next step, beyond the introduction to a product or a service, — the next step is a lot more likely when that personal connection has been built, and a gift is one of the ways to do it.

That’s just an example; of course, you can do that in the case of a webinar, for example: you have webinar attendees, and you’ve had a lot more generic situation — you’ve had a chance to learn a lot about the recipients at the whole, and in that situation, maybe you have a story connecting to that event. And then, when you do send that, you can call back to what was discussed in the webinar context, and then, perhaps, you’re not going to be as detailed about personalizing the gift, but you would have stayed connected to the event itself — be that a webinar, a conference, or some other mass-attended event.

And then, from there, hopefully, you connect on a deep enough level: between the event itself and the gift that followed, it creates a more memorable experience still, and then, it follows on to the next step.

NATASHA

This totally makes sense: this hooks emotions to the memory of a product or an event, and allows your recipient to associate whatever you’re talking about with some emotion, which makes it pretty memorable.

DMITRY

Exactly.

NATASHA

As companies adapt to this approach more — this human-to-human rather than just business-to-business approach, — what do you think some challenges are that they may face?

DMITRY

One of the challenges that’s fairly clear is a lack of information about the recipients: learning what they like, figuring out what exactly the gift should look like, and in context of that, when is the best time to send it. Those are the kind of questions that come up in that context, and our platform certainly is an answer to some of these: we’ve built tools that allow not only sending a gift from a wide array of choices, but allowing the recipient to actually take the leading role in selecting the gift.

So, in many ways, if you don’t know the recipients very well, you don’t have to send them a particular gift: you can send them a gift collection, where they can choose a gift from a selection that you’ve determined within your budget, and then they would select the gift that best matches their needs. Say, they’re a wine drinker, but you don’t know that; or they don’t drink alcohol, and you decide to send them a wine basket — that’s not necessarily gonna fly too well. So, how do you make sure that they actually have a say in what they enjoy? So one of the ways is sending a collection.

Another way is sending them a gift that can be swapped for another gift. And lastly, some people don’t enjoy material gifts — but they want to make a donation instead. A donation gift is something that’s becoming quite trendy and popular lately, so one of the ways that a customer can send a gift, and then [the customer may] swap it out to a donation in their name to their favorite charity — that’s certainly an option as well.

Those are just a couple of ways to make the recipients matter and actually have a say in what gift they’re going to be getting.

NATASHA

Certainly makes sense. And for international businesses, cultural nuances and differences and cultural perception of gifts may also be a challenge — so let’s discuss the importance of understanding these cultural nuances in corporate gifting. Can you share a specific example of when, maybe, a lack of cultural awareness led to a gifting mishap?

DMITRY

Sure. It is a tough challenge, in a way, because we offer our service to Western customers — someone sending gifts from the US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and so on, — and sometimes these gifts come outside of the Western realm: they would be sent to Asia, Eastern Europe and other locations in the world, so cultural contexts are certainly very important.

On the one hand, we need to satisfy the tastes of the sender; on the other hand, we need to make sure that whatever the sender actually ends up picking isn’t offensive to the recipient or does not somehow send a wrong message. So there’s a lot to say on this.

In many cultures, when one is sending a gift or a basket, a certain color scheme may matter a lot. An example of that that comes to mind: a typical corporate gift that a Western sender typically selects would be a strict-looking box or a basket that is not super colorful — it may have one or two colors, maybe a bow at most, but certainly it wouldn’t have a lot of crazy colors, and the arrangement wouldn’t be multi-colored, so to speak. There are some occasions when it would be appropriate, but generally, in a corporate setting, if it’s a holiday gift in a corporate setting, or if it’s a gift in appreciation to some customer, you would expect that gift to have a strict color scheme.

But then, if you send it to Latin America, in Latin America, a typically expected gift would be very colorful, and certainly not a strict-looking black box, which would typically be a selection of the Western consumer in a similar setting. I’m just exaggerating, but in general, there would be a strict color scheme versus some very very wild, crazy colors on the Latin American side — or in the Caribbean, for that matter.

But then, in Asia, we can, perhaps, think about the examples of the New Year’s celebration when a certain color scheme of red and gold is respected, while some other colors aren’t so much, like the color brown, maybe: not the ideal color. Then, when I think of flowers, a typical example: take Eastern Europe, many countries in Eastern Europe, — take Ukraine, Serbia, Russia, for that matter, — typically, you would not send an even number of flowers, because an even number of flowers is sent for funerals, or as a sympathy arrangement, right?

So, you have to kind of know those things — that in India, perhaps, it’s more typical to send cakes that are eggless, because there’s a number of people that do not eat products with animal protein, — so, to make a cake a lot more universal gift, you have to think of cakes that have no eggs.

And there are, of course, things like alcohol in Muslim countries — that is typically frowned upon with most Muslims; you don’t necessarily want to send to a Jewish recipient something that isn’t kosher if you don’t know how religious they are, so there’s kosher laws, there’s halal laws to consider in the Muslim world. So a lot of that is part of the gift selection we try to educate our customer about — both on the Gift Baskets Overseas side and the Giftsenda side of the business, and those examples are just a few that come to mind.

NATASHA

Thank you! You highlight how personalized and thoughtful gifts can strengthen international business relationships — so let’s summarize: what are some key factors that companies should consider when choosing a gift for a partner, for a customer from a different cultural background?

DMITRY

Sure! I think general knowledge about the culture is helpful, like the ideas I’ve mentioned. Typically, it’s pretty easy to find that information; we are always ready to share, and we have a number of podcasts such as this one, as well as blogs — blog.giftbasketsoverseas.com — as well as resources online that we make available. Our catalogs are also fine-tuned with that in mind, so if you order from us, you are not very likely to send anything super offensive, because we do mind these cultural aspects in our company catalogs.

The other part is the personalization: knowing more about the recipient, understanding their needs, understanding their preferences, — those things will come quite handy in that context. If you’ve learned their personal preferences such as, you know, wine drinking, or love for sports, such as golf, or knowing that the person enjoys theater, for example, — those things can help you in selecting a gift or requesting a custom gift to be sent to someone, and really, be memorable in that event — not only that you can select from pre-selected items in our catalog, you would also, potentially knowing what the recipient will enjoy, you can really hit the bull’s eye with your gift, and hopefully, the gift will be something that will not only attached to emotion, but will build a long-lasting memory.

The idea isn’t only to close a deal or to thank someone for a purchase or a certain past event, but also, sometimes, it’s to build a relationship into the next event, and really, to understand the customer as a human, as we’ve talked — H2H thing — and then, take it forward! How do you keep learning about each other, how do you take that to the next level where any issue that ever happens is never going to be an issue because you have that relationship built, like, a priori. So if you have that, the issues that happen, — they’re just a checkbox to solve. When trusts exists in a relationship, that comes a long, long way.

NATASHA

I think you’ve already answered my next question, which would be how a business can stay informed enough today of the ever-evolving cultural norms, and preferences in corporate gifting.

So let me summarize, and let’s see if I’m getting this right: so, for sure, one needs to study the cultural background of their partner or customer — or even an employee, in case of an international team working across borders together; it really is important to also know personal restrictions and preferences of the recipient, and proactively learn about that, reading and exploring the changing environment in terms of cultural norms. In our time, I think, it is changing quite fluently. Anything else you would like to add to that?

DMITRY

Well, sometimes it’s hard to know, right, a person too well, or if you’re sending to a very large list of people and you don’t really know everyone — so there are cases where that information is just not available yet; but being open to learning that, and being open to exploring those — I mean, sometimes sending a generic gift to a large list is also fine: there are certain generic gifts that we have in our catalog that will satisfy a lot of people, especially if they can swap them in case if you don’t exactly get it right.

So, again, sort of playing between really customized — a gift that you can build a lot of your own AI around, and your own thought process is going to be very clear, you know exactly what you want to get, that’s almost like you’re sending a gift to someone you really know well, a friend or a relative — that sort of level; that’s sort of one angle of that, and we serve to that, and custom gifts make it happen as well if something isn’t available yet.

But then, the other part of this is generic gifts — say, Apple Airpods, right? A lot of people like the quality of Apple products, and if you don’t have an Apple product, you can still use Apple Airpods to make calls, and it’s a nice gift; or maybe it’s a smart watch of some sort; or maybe it’s some sort of item that is, perhaps, less specific, but, again, will be enjoyed — such as quality cutlery, like a knife of some sort, that has something that then makes its way into the kitchen of the recipient — and whenever they use it, they hopefully remember you, and they remember that you had that conversation, or that purchase they made.

So, again, connecting — of course, if you have to be aware of the cultural context, again, as Natasha mentioned, that’s super important, as you mentioned there, to talk about… the cultures where a knife, perhaps, is not the best gift — culturally, not always appropriate. So, I would you say, just, there can be two of those things: a generic gift for people that you don’t really know and allowing them to swap it when that’s not right, or if you really know what you’re doing, you know about the person, you know what they would enjoy, — just send them something you’re really sure they’ll enjoy.

And those are the two angles we kind of try to power here, with our platform.

NATASHA

Thank you. Let’s talk about the emerging trends in corporate gifting. What can you see now, with all your years of experience in this industry: which trend do you think will have the most significant impact in corporate gifting in the next few years?

DMITRY

A lot of trends, as we know, in general, with globalized commerce, — it’s hard to get it down quickly, right? Sometimes people want the gift delivery the next day, or the same day sometimes, or at least within a couple of days — which is what Gift Baskets Overseas and Giftsenda can do in most countries. That’s one of trends we certainly serve, and keep excelling at, and why there are initiatives we have in the company today — there’s the same-day initiative that allows us to be the quickest on the market to deliver in some of the countries that we service.

One of the things that comes to mind with that trend as well is the miles that the gift has to travel to go from the sender’s warehouse to the location of the recipient; and our model has actually been quite modern even before it became fashionable, where we deliver locally, within the country of delivery, although we do service global senders. So, by sending a gift, say, from the US to China, you’re symbolically sending it from the US to China, but actually, the gift gets delivered locally, within China, — it comes by our courier from our trusted warehouse.

So the miles — or kilometers, whatever you prefer — flown or driven are actually minimized, and also the time of delivery becomes super short, because instead of waiting for the border crossing, shipping, paying the fees to cross the border and paying the taxes on import — sometimes having that bill paid by the recipient, which is even more embarrassing — now, we don’t have to deal with any of that, we deliver the gift locally. From day one, as we created our model and built that model up, we always built it with that in mind: how do we make it done quickly, how do we make it done reliably, without having to cross borders, and having it done with the local suppliers.

Another trend, I think, that we’re seeing lately is preference for small brands, preference for small local suppliers and providers. And we also are always looking for more ways to make our catalogs as localized as possible, where local suppliers play a big role in both making our global gifts available locally, but also in allowing them to participate in the gift creation, and thereby, making the gift even more culturally appropriate for the country where we offer that gift for delivery.

So that’s another trend, I believe: that preference for local suppliers, for local providers, instead of doing it all from one global warehouse internationally. Again: saving time, saving money; for shipping, our delivery fees are very moderate: somewhere between $12 and $25 flat, and that’s because we can do it locally, and we can certainly make it quick.

So those are the main trends; some other ones are, we are looking at eco-friendly packaging, and we certainly have a store preference for that with our suppliers. We try… Again, by minimizing miles flown, we also don’t need to package it as crazily — across borders, sometimes there are a lot more strict guidelines for packaging, and for local, we can sometimes deliver within a particular city, without having to pack into gazillion boxes and putting a lot of plastic wrap in, and yet making it, still quickly and responsibly, available to the recipient — on the same day sometimes.

Those are the trends that are worth mentioning; again, it’s the speed of delivery being local, it’s preference for local suppliers, and, of course, the eco-friendly packaging.

NATASHA

Sustainability and eco-friendliness of the products that people send or have delivered to their doorstep, for sure, are not just an emergent, developing passing trend. Also, I would like you to speak a little bit about the convenience and reliability of the service for the customer — which is also a huge trend these days: what about the app?

DMITRY

Sure — that’s a good question! We definitely want to be at the fingertips of our senders — not only the business senders, but also the consumers, or business senders that just want to send a one-off gift, for example. And oftentimes, the more modern question is: is there an app for it?

And the good answer is yes, now there is! Gift Baskets Overseas has recently launched its first mobile app, with a lot of crazy nuts and bolts included: you get to see all your history from the website as well there, and if you prefer the app, you can do your business there, and switch to the website whenever needed. And in general, it’s just super quick and easy to do it, both on Android and Apple devices; you can also get customer service through the app, follow up on order tracking through the app, and do all the other things you’d want to do — right at your fingertips.

Potentially, you also have a lot of AI functionality included as part of that, where the greeting card generation, for example, can be done with AI, as well as gift recommendations, potentially, would be — it’s already part of how the website operates in “My account”, but on the app side, it would become available across the catalog display pages as well. So stay tuned for those updates, but meanwhile, it’s time to check out the app and actually download it — and let us know how we’re doing!

NATASHA

Thank you!

DMITRY

You’re welcome — and thanks for having me!