Email Helps Unlock Gifting Physical Items Without an Address

After a tumultuous two years for many people who saw fewer physical gatherings and connections with friends, it may be hard to keep track of who moved during the pandemic, or even remember what a person’s address was before March 2020.

For many, that means emailing gift cards to friends and family this year in lieu of tracking down dozens of addresses, something that may feel impersonal or ill-fitting for some relationships.

Laura Jennings, founder and CEO of online curated gifting company Knack, said that as the world has become more digital, gift-giving needs to not just replicate the in-person experience, but should also make it even better — which is the ethos behind the company’s newest feature, called Knest. “It’s adding this software layer, this experiential layer around giving a gift,” Jennings told PYMNTS in a recent interview.

Founded in 2015, Knack has been selling curated and customizable gift boxes for over five years — but with Knest, launched earlier this month, gift-givers are able to create a personalized web page with photos, videos and gifts for anyone on their lists. Customers choose between one and four items to be listed on the Knest page, and can email the personalized page to as many recipients as they want.

Nearly every part of Knest is customizable, down to the color of the background and text, which Jennings said also makes it a useful tool for corporate gifts. “It’s building this digital experience around the act of giving a gift, improving on what you can do in a brick-and-mortar world to really leverage the technology, not just kind of mimic it,” she noted.

Minimizing Returns

Knest can also potentially alleviate another point of friction in the gift-giving process: returning an unwanted item. By allowing customers to select several different gift options for recipients to select from, some of the pressure to choose the perfect present is removed.

“Everybody has these moments when they’ve given someone a gift that is so perfect, you just can’t wait for them to open it,” Jennings said. “That’s the best feeling in the world, and … we’re trying to help people by allowing them to shop their values and easily customize all of our gifts to create that feeling. We’re in the business of connecting people.”

Jennings noted that Knack initially envisioned that Knest would be primarily used for group gifts, as each person receives an email and web page personalized with their name, but the company has seen many customers creating gift pages for just a single recipient. “They want to create a really personal experience, even for a single gift, because it’s so easy to do,” she said.

No Address, No Problem

The ability to email a Knest to someone rather than inputting a mailing address is similar to a feature launched by Amazon in October that allows Prime members to send gifts to friends and family members via email or phone number. The recipient can then add their preferred delivery address or exchange the item for a gift card without notifying the giver.

Read more: Amazon’s Address-Free Gifting Tool Aims to Simplify Holiday Shopping

Software developed by Loop Commerce, which was acquired by Synchrony Financial in 2018, also allows merchants to put a GiftNow button on product pages, enabling customers to send items without having to select a size, color or other preferences.

“Gifting is a highly social engagement between people,” Roy Erez, founder and then-CEO of Loop Commerce, said in a 2016 interview with Karen Webster. “It’s about feeling good about what you’re buying; it’s about feeling great about what you’re receiving.”