The Gift Network is transforming the way you purchase gifts for weddings, birthdays and everything in between in the ultimate timesaving one-stop shop that guarantees hassle-free shopping and well-received gifts. The gift-buying dilemma is nothing new; Marshall’s started the first gift registry in the 1920s to solve the problem of what to buy newly married couples. People still don’t know what to buy people – the gift card business is a $7 billion dollar industry in Canada and $100 billion in the United States. For young professionals time is precious, and it just so happens to be that time again: wedding season. Thankfully, The Gift Network offers a centralized website that features close to 120 boutique retailers (think 120 unique registries in one) to satisfy the unique needs of today’s young couple and urban professionals in general. Not just for the bridal market, The Gift Network is set to transform the entire gift-giving game in Canada.
In terms of efficiency, The Gift Network offers clients the same one-stop shopping experience of a department store, but with a specialized and unique set of products in a completely free service that grants users access to The Gift Network’s store partners’ products on one user-friendly system. This eliminates the stress and hassle of creating a gift registry at the typical department stores (that offer a little bit of everything, but specialize in nothing) by providing unique options from carefully selected retailers.
One of the best features about The Gift Network is that they work with Canadian-owned, independent businesses that specialize in the products that they sell. Storeowners personally do the purchasing to ensure high-quality, unique products that make great gifts. As opposed to generic department stores, the specialized stores offered by The Gift Network mean specialized service. Not just an online entity, members can actually go into stores and register for The Gift Network as well as add things to their registry. The Gift Network then allows independent business owners to reach people who wouldn’t normally walk by their stores in addition to the capacity to sell online, with some people getting to know the store and products through the registry alone.
The Gift Network enables users to custom design their own profile for their registry, complete with a profile picture and tailored welcome message. You can even post links to other gift registries on The Gift Network Registry. The profile can take the place of the increasingly common wedding website. Once their profiles are created, members can create a registry where they can log on and easily add desired products to their wish lists. The registry entitles members to a Gift Network gift card that is reloadable and can be used at any partner store, with leftover money put back on the card and valid at any store or location. If gift buyers don’t find anything on the registry that appeals to them, they can opt to put money on the gift card.
When gifts are purchased, the member will be informed of any new gift and sent a message, whereby they can decline or accept the gift. If they decline, the cost of the gift will be put in their account including all of the taxes. A popular feature of the site is the “chip in factor” which allows members to prioritize gifts with the most expensive item – like a rare piece of art or a kitchen makeover – placed at the top of the list that allows gift-givers to chip in what they want. This saves the common occurrence of couples that return smaller items for store credit so that they may pool the money to purchase a larger item. If they don’t make it to the entire cost of the item, the money is put back on the gift card.
The mastermind behind The Gift Network is Toronto-based young professional Cole Diamond, who is the company’s Founder and President. Entrepreneurial in spirit from a young age, Diamond started his first company in high school along with Notable.ca Founder Julian Brass called Exquisite Events, a company that threw concerts and events for their young peers. Diamonds attended King’s College at Dalhousie University but left after his second year to fuel his desire to jump into the workplace and begin to make his mark. He did just that, landing prosperous and impactful positions at Rainbow Play Systems, Jonas Software and PPX. The idea for The Gift Network came to Diamond when his oldest cousin was getting married and he was directed to her gift registry. Baffled that she could be registered only at one store, he saw a major need for a better gift-giving system among his time-strapped and frequently gifting friends and the receivers, all with unique and refined tastes.
The Gift Network was founded December 2010 and went live in October 2011. According to Diamond, the creation of The Gift Network was more of a challenge than other entrepreneurial startups in that it required the creation of something from nothing, with nothing to copy. This was especially time consuming and challenging in that the nature of the site requires such extensive back-end work. Diamond, however, was taught not to rush and account for mistakes early on. It paid off – even without formal marketing procedures put into play, 70 people used The Gift Network to shop for the 2011 holiday season this past December. When the company celebrated the public launch in January, The Gift Network already had over 1000 registered brides.
The traction is not slowing down anytime soon. Currently featuring a strong team of nine key players (including Cole’s brother Ari Diamond as the Director of Operations), this will increase to eleven in the near future. The Gift Network also relies on the expertise of an advisory board and a part-time CFO and CTO. By October, The Gift Network is set to expand into Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa and increase its e-commerce activity to include a range of stores and services available through a Gift Network account, including spas, yoga studios, hotels and restaurants.
