Evolving NRI Gifting trends

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With the holiday season round the corner, gifting your loved ones takes the utmost time to plan. Especially if you are abroad, the task of sending gifts overseas requires even more planning. With numerous sites offering variety of gifts, choosing between the options and services available is quite cumbersome.

Facts & figures:
An independent survey on the NRI gifting trends shows 3 out of every 4 NRIs send gifts during seasonal periods. The gifting category comprises of flowers & cakes (30%), gift vouchers (15%), kids related gifts (15%), artificial jewellery (10%) and remaining 30% constitutes other gifting options like electronics, Indian mithais/ chocolates, apparels and personalized gifts.

According to Window2India, (NRI gifting portal from TimesofMoney) among the western countries (US & Europe), the last 4 years have recorded the highest NRI buys for ‘Gift Voucher’ category, whereas in other regions, it has often been flowers and gifts for kids. The top priorities in shopping have been on books, DVDs, music, CDs and apparels.

NRI online gifting trends* especially for NRIs based out of US/Europe indicate 68% shop online for gifting their relatives back home, in India, 43% shop for books/ magazines and Indian movies, this trend is far more than NRIs based in the Asia Pacific.

How it translates
Gifting from NRIs is becoming big for businesses, on an average a NRI spends between Rs. 1,000* on a gift. Other important part that plays a critical role in their purchase behavior is service. Thus they prefer service-oriented sites with ease of transaction and delivery promise.

Summary

• Gifting is an intrinsic activity for NRI
• Online medium is preferred by a majority of them
• The trend is moving up and so are the volumes and value of purchase.

* Source: Window2India (NRI gifting portal from TimesofMoney)