How Country Road dials up personalisation with free digital gifting service

(Source: Supplied.)

Iconic Australian retailer Country Road has taken an innovative tech-led approach to maximising gift sales.

Launching late last year, every customer purchasing items online as gifts can guarantee the gift can be revealed to the recipient in time for the big day, thanks to the very latest instant digital gifting technology provided by Gift Flick.

Gift Flick is an e-commerce plug-in that enables consumers to virtually send any product or gift voucher in an e-tailer’s store. The gift can then be sent via the messaging channel of the customer’s choice, whenever the time is right to digitally unveil the gift. Country Road customers have been enjoying Gift Flick since December last year, which is available for both physical products and e-gift cards.

Gifts are revealed within a Gift Flick gift story that features a personalised message, photo and/or video, which are cleverly integrated into an animated or filmed story. Typically, these are 45 seconds to 1 minute long, enabling plenty of personalisation within a branded story-telling context. Take a look at Country Road’s latest Gift Flick gift story to see how it works – click here.

An end to the order deadlines for online gift shopping 

Helen Marsh, Gift Flick co-founder & CMO, says the aim is to remove the anxiety of ‘shopping before the shipping window cut-off date’ and replace that with a positive, creative new way for consumers to reveal physical gifts through a personalised digital experience.

The Gift Flick experience puts the focus on thoughtful gift selection and the relationship between the gifter and the receiver, leaving the retailer’s logistics company to deal with the task of shipping the physical items. 

A year-round gifting problem solver for both consumers and retailers alike

From birthdays to anniversaries, Christmas to Lunar New Year, graduations to new baby celebrations, Gift Flick is the perfect solution for those that leave gift shopping to the very last minute or are unable to see their loved ones in person. 

Country Road benefits from 20x ROI in Gift Flick

Country Road – which is an ‘always on’ partner of Gift Flick – is enjoying great success using the platform, with Christmas and Mother’s Day campaigns delivering 20 x ROI in sales. The dedicated Gift Flick customer EDM at Christmas received 20 per cent above benchmark engagement and more than 1 million views of paid and organic social advertising showed consumers were keen to learn more about innovative, personalised ways to gift.

Country Road marketing communications manager, Charlie Watt, said: “The brilliance of Gift Flick is twofold: the way in which our customers can now quickly and easily send a personalised gift message digitally to their loved ones using the social platform of their choice; and the benefit for our brand of an additional marketing channel to share our latest creative communications directly with customers. The opportunities for one-to-one storytelling through Gift Flick gift stories are endless, and we’re excited about this new opportunity.”

Solving headaches for retailers 

Create and send a Gift Flick for free today

As with any new technology, the easiest way to evaluate whether it could be of use to you is to try it out. Jump online to create and personalise your own gift story using Gift Flick technology, simply click here. 

Getting started with Gift Flick is easy

From a tech perspective, Gift Flick is incredibly easy to set up. Built as a lightweight API, Gift Flick servers do all the work so there’s no impact on website loading times and the experience is embedded entirely within the existing customer purchase journey. The Gift Flick team can integrate the technology into existing e-commerce platforms in as little as just one week. Learn more at giftflick.com.au or drop us a line at hello@giftflick.com.au.