From Acing Balance Sheets To Spreading Smiles Across Miles: Decoding Amit Desai’s Journey With GiftstoIndia24x7.com
With a view to blur geographical boundaries and to make non-residential Indians feel closer to home, Mr Amit Desai embarked on his journey to deliver smiles across miles and started GiftstoIndia24x7. Over the years, the portal has emerged as the one-stop destination for all NRI gifting needs.
Established in 1999, GiftstoIndia24x7 is India’s premier gifting platform specially curated for the gifting needs of non – residential Indians. The e-commerce portal offers its users about 20,000 gift options for multiple occasions along with same-day delivery and mid-night delivery options.
The e-commerce platform delivers the largest distribution network and delivers to 1500+ locations in India. The platform boasts of a 24X7 customer service support which gives customers across the globe a personalized gifting experience, making them feel more connected with their family and friends back home.
We caught up with Mr Amit Desai to understand his journey from being a CA to an entrepreneur, here are some interesting excerpts from our conversation:
How did you decide to get into the gifting space?
My family has been in the gifting business for close to five decades, hence when it was about starting my own venture, I knew it always had to be something in the gifting space. Back in the day, we had a greeting card printing business. Every time I visited our manufacturing unit, I experienced a different kind of joy when I saw a heart-warming greeting. Hence, when I started GiftstoIndia24x7, I knew that the aim is to deliver this joy through my business and that has exactly been the vision of my company.
You are one of the first players in the e-commerce gifting space, how did you manage the logistics?
With technology reaching new heights, I always knew I wanted my business to harness the power of technology and reach as many people as possible. With greater reach, came greater logistics issue, however, I was fortunate enough to have a strong support system across cities. When we started off, my family in metro cities, took care of all deliveries. Looking at the demand, we then developed local delivery points across cities to take care of sourcing, packaging and deliveries. Today, we are a network of 3000+ delivery points ensuring smooth deliveries across the country.
What differentiates your brand from the others?
Through our five-decade long experience in the business, we understand customer needs and offer a wide range of over 20,000 products to meet all kinds of demands. Apart from a wide range of gifting products, we have curated end-to-end user experience. When the user visits our website, we offer an option of 24×7 assistance through which customers can talk to our executives who help them navigate through the website and select the best gifts for their loved ones. Additionally, the gifts are well categorized and the user can browse through gift options either as per the occasion or as per relation they share with the receiver of the gift. The highlight of our strong distribution channel is that we provide same day and midnight deliveries across 1500+ locations in India.
Can you throw some light on your offerings?
We offer a wide range of gifting options, which are suited to spread happiness on a normal day or to delight a special one on occasions like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Diwali, Christmas, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Eid amongst others. The gifts are well categorized and the user can browse through gift options either as per the occasion or as per relation they share with the receiver of the gift. Be it sending rakhis to India or sending Mother’s Day gifts to India, we have something different and exclusive for every customer. We also offer personalization services and have 1000+ personalized gifts for our users.
