.png)
When you think about gifting, odds are good that your mind goes straight to peak Q4 gifting holidays. Cyber Monday, Christmas, Hanukkah — those old chestnuts are undoubtedly the apex of gift sales any given year. After all, Black Friday got its name because the day’s impressive sales are what propel many companies into the black.
While it’s true that the stretch from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve continues to see record-breaking sales year after year, it’s also true that all 12 months are littered with reasons to gift.
Because of the hyper-focus on Q4, many brands don’t see the whole scope of year-round gifting and the opportunity sitting right in front of them. And for the few brands that do invest in year-round gift promotions, they’re typically not armed with tools that show how many gifts they sell, gifting trends, or what percentage of overall revenue they can attribute to gifts.
The reality is, though, that more people than ever are looking to their favorite online brands to buy gifts for every occasion — or no occasion at all — all year long. The key to finding and converting these customers for every gifting itch lies in tying your brand to gifting every chance you get.
Unapologetically plug your gifting process, most giftable products, and gifting promos all year long. If you’re not sure where to start outside of the typical Q4 suspects, read on for seven occasions to amplify gifting with your audience and turn the channel into a year-round revenue machine.
1. Corporate Gifting
Your email list is most likely chock-full of consumers who are also members of Corporate America. These are HR professionals, CEOs, founders, team leads, and more who are regularly on the prowl for gifts for their peers and employees, and they’re honestly tired of buying cheap swag or tchotchkes that get dumped in the trash.
Instead, these people are looking for thoughtful, quality gifts that meet any number of business goals, like enhancing the employee experience, winning new clients, or nurturing prospects. In a nutshell, they’re looking for awesome products that your own store may be selling right now.
There are thousands upon thousands of amazing brands on the internet to pick from. The issue? Most of them overlook the big ol’ corporate gifting opportunity right in front of them.
Roughly half of businesses in the US are increasing their budget for corporate gifts, and the US market alone is bigger than $300 billion (and growing). Despite the numbers, most brands don’t communicate their corporate gifting channel, or that sending a corporate gift is even a possibility through their website.
The first step to making more revenue through gifting is to talk about gifting on your website, especially related to the extremely lucrative corporate gifting segment.
Tactic: Set up a landing page specifically for corporate gifting.
Milk Bar has tied itself closely to corporate gifting prospects by building out a landing page dedicated to corporate gifting and placing it smack dab in the middle of their nav menu.
2. Employee Milestones
Corporate gifting encompasses a wide swath of gifting events, and while you should gently remind your shoppers that your store offers a variety of B2B, it’s a good idea to get granular with your messaging.
Emphasize your premium presents and spotlight them as the best solution for employee milestones like work anniversaries, new hires, smashing quotas, birthdays, and beyond. The more you incorporate this language in your emails, ads, and content, the more likely your store is to be top of mind when the moment strikes.
Leverage a tool like Zest to create separate gifting storefronts outfitted with specific items fit for each milestone, then drive traffic to these super shoppable gifts from your social media or email marketing.
Tactic: Engage shoppers with emails about various employee milestones every month.
There are so many reasons for employers to gift their employees, and sometimes you simply have to remind people about them. Send short, thoughtful emails throughout the year that focus on these various reasons to celebrate a team member, or make it a regular section of your standard email marketing template.
Pssst! Remember to create automations in your email marketing tool that remind gifters of annual milestones like birthdays and anniversaries after they’ve placed their first order.
3. Personal Holidays
We know the Q4 holidays are A Pretty Big Deal, but the year is full of holidays all worthy of meaningful gifting. You don’t have to send a message about gifting every single holiday, but we recommend taking the time to distill which holidays may be most relevant to your unique audience and leveraging those dates in your marketing.
Zest partner UNTUCKit, for example, knows Father’s Day is a huge day for their audience. They know people are searching for a quality, intentional gift for Dad, and UNTUCKit’s products fit the bill. Flamingo Estate, on the other hand, knows that its line of tomato-scented candles and personalized olive oils may be more Mom’s jam, so they never skimp on Mother’s Day messaging.
Tactic: Pinpoint 4 to 6 non-Q4 holidays to highlight with your audience.
Many holidays outside of Q4 are more sentimental holidays celebrating specific loved ones or members or society. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Easter are also top holidays by ecommerce spend, so if you’re unsure where to start, these holidays have a proven consumer base and are a safe place to start touting your giftable products.
4. National Appreciation Holidays
Similar to holidays dedicated to celebrating individuals outside the workplace, the calendar is stuffed with holidays that acknowledge those within the workplace. These are prime corporate gifting holidays, which means thousands of shoppers are searching high and low for the best gift for these occasions.
Some national appreciation days include:
- National Fun at Work Day
- Employee Appreciation Day
- Boss’s Day
- Engineering Week
- Secretary Day
- Nurses Week
- Customer Service Week
- HR Professional Appreciation Day
- Administrative Professionals Day
That list just scratches the surface, but you get the gist. There are endless reasons to celebrate the people around you and show authentic appreciation. Make sure to share your catalog of premium presents and capture your corporate consumers who don’t want to settle for gift cards or swag from that one closet again.
Tactic: Send gift recommendations to your corporate clients.
Send an email to your list all about these business holidays. Send reminders in the weeks leading up to the day of the event and show that your store is the obvious solution to thoughtful gifting. Better yet, if you have a separate list of corporate clients or want to send an email to customers with business email addresses, that’s one way to get your message in front of the most relevant (albeit smaller) cohort of customers.
5. Events
Group gifting is a massive opportunity for online brands. Unlike the typical online transaction of one person buying for themselves, group gifts are just what they sound like: one person buying for many (maaanny) people. On top of the sheer quantity of products alone, gifters tend to also spend more per item if it’s being gifted. That means the average order value of a group gift can be like selling a week’s worth of products in one go.
Now, take that group gifting opportunity and blow it up by multiples. That’s what happens when you toss your brand into the ring of event gifting.
Corporate retreats, seminars, global conferences, weddings, company parties — these are just a few of the events fit for premium gifts. They’re itching for party favors, freebies, and giveaway swag that people actually want (no more lanyards or pens, please). To convert more gifters looking for an easy way to send many items to a central location for gifting, feature this super power on your website, and don’t be afraid to give your best event gifts the spotlight or incentivize gifters with volume discounts.
Tactic: Publish a landing page about your event gifting capabilities and processes.
If your store can handle a large-scale event gift order, it’s time to capitalize on that opportunity. Don’t bury the fact that your absolutely stacked catalog of primo presents is ready for your next event. We recommend dedicating a page on your site to event gifting so you can highlight how it’s done, who it’s for, and more details that can lead to a quick mega purchase.
Pro tip: Make sure to highlight if your event gifts can be customized with names or logos, which can be a massive selling point and win customers over your competition.
6. Lead Generation
Just how your email list most likely has a bunch of founders or CEOs on it, it’s also probably got more than a few marketers or sales professionals.
In their world, these people are always trying to get their company noticed. They’re trying to drum up leads, nurture prospects, close deals, and thank new clients — and gifts are some of the best tools they can leverage to do all of that.
Position your products as premium gifts that are easy to send and fit for every stage of the prospect journey. When appealing to the marketers in the group, reassure them that your gifts are the perfect add to their next Account-based marketing (ABM) campaign.
Better yet, if your brand offers kitting, wrapping, and shipping, shout about it. If all your customers have to do is submit an order and gift message so your team handles the rest, that’s a dream come true. They can watch their efforts pay off while your team crushes the logistical side of things.
Tactic: Underscore your products as the perfect addition to a lead gen gift box.
Help your customers picture your products in their next ABM gift box, or put many of your products in the box together and advertise the whole package as a one-stop shop for sales teams and marketers. They’ll appreciate a solution that isn’t another piece of swag or stress ball, and you’ll enjoy being the go-to for an entirely fresh group of shoppers.
7. Influencer Hype
Influencer marketing is still on the up and up. Through 2025, it’s expected that marketing spend on influencers will grow more than 14% compared with 2024, helping drive the whole industry past $24 billion.
More importantly, consumers trust influencers. More than 80% of millennials and Gen Z report having at least some trust in what influencers say, with 100% trust for influencers they already follow.
Influencer marketing can fall into two buckets: one where the influencer is talking about your brand on their account to their followers, and one where an influencer is using your script to promote your goods on your company’s account. The former is perfect for reaching new people while the latter is great for engaging a connected following.
If your company isn’t employing this tactic yet, now may be the time to get serious about doing so. More than half of B2B leaders plan on investing more in influencer marketing this year, and nearly 60% of those leveraging this newfound channel run ecommerce stores.
(In other words, your competitors are probably already doing this.)
The great thing about influencer marketing is that they can speak to an engaged audience not just about your products as gifts but also about the experience on your site. If you’re using Zest as your gifting platform, imagine an influencer sending gifts to their 17 bridesmaids in 2 minutes flat. That’s a demo worth its weight in gold, and it instantly ties your brand to the best gifting experience in front of thousands of people.
Zest e-gifting is also the perfect way to send your products as gifts to influencers since you don’t need a shipping address. Simply create a gift and slide into their DMs with a link and ask to talk about the gift recipient experience on their socials, and you’re on your way to a premium voucher for how great your store is for gifting.
Tactic: Identify influencers who could talk about your store’s gifting experience on their accounts.
Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing strategies, especially if the “mouth” is an über trusted influencer with a loyal following. However you choose to complete this tactic, whether that’s gifting an influencer directly or hiring someone to hype up your gifts and experience, this is great way to get the word out and sell more gifts.
Unwrap Gift Channel Revenue 24/7/365
It’s no question that Q4 holidays are the biggest drivers of gift sales for retail, but the rest of the year is still full of gifting opportunities.
When you communicate that your products make amazing gifts (and are extremely easy to gift if you’re teamed with Zest), you’re not only tying yourself to those giftable moments outside of Q4, but you’re also positioning yourself as the best place to buy gifts when Q4 does roll around.
Every mention of gifts and gifting on your website, in ads, by influencers, and in emails ties your brand closer to gifting in the subconscious of the shoppers who see your content.
So, if you’ve been sleeping on your gift messaging until September each year, it’s time to tap these tactics and grow your gift channel 24/7/365.
.png)
