Policies to revamp e-gifting options underway for the upcoming festive season

Bengaluru: With people largely staying at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ecommerce firms are ramping up their selection and revamping policies to cater to online gifting, a segment that is expected to spike during the festive season. In fact, online has become the platform of choice for customers amid the virus outbreak as buyers prioritise safety over visiting crowded places. According to a survey conducted by location-based social app, Public, on about 500,000 users, 50% of the respondents said they would prefer to shop online since that can be done from homes at their convenience. Top executives at Amazon, Flipkart, Ferns N Petals, Qwikcilver, as well as brands such as TeaBox, Wow Skin Sciences and others told ET that they expect online gifting by consumers and businesses to pick up in the last quarter of the calendar year. Qwikcilver said its consumer gifting platform, Woohoo, has clocked 60% growth in transactions month-on-month since July. The company is projecting the buoyancy to reflect in the issuance of 200 million gift cards during the upcoming 10-week festive season up to November end, said Pratap TP, the cofounder of Qwikcilver, an online gift card platform that manages over 1.1 billion transactions annually. “People are looking for an occasion to celebrate, to rebuild the emotional connect with friends and family, whom they cannot physically meet and spend time with…,” said Kausshal Dugarr, founder of premium tea brand Teabox, which is focusing on curating gifts this year to infuse an emotional connect between gift-giver and recipient.