Gifter World - unique gift ideas

Gifter World – unique gift ideas

Gifter World offers unique gift ideas for those who have everything. Instead of searching the internet for hours trying to find the perfect gift, Gifter World does it for you. They have incredible gift ideas that will make an impression; from unique gifts to personalized items to gifts you’ve never even heard about. Gifter World doesn’t sell the items directly, but instead, they recommend a product and give you a link of the best place to buy it.

You can scroll through the gifts by category or look through some of the gift guides for specific people or interests. Or just type something into the search bar, such as a hobby or interest of the gift recipient.  Let’s say the recipient loves beer; type “beer” into the search bar and many gifts for beer lovers will pop up. Or you can type in the type of person such as grandma, men in their 50s, or 18th birthday, and you will surely find what you are looking for.

Whether you want the latest gadget for grandpa, or a personalized portrait of yourself riding your hamster, Gifter World will have it. “When it is time for me to buy a gift for someone, I use my own website for ideas”, explains Chanda. “If I’m looking for a gift for a man in his 50s, I pull up that gift guide and find several perfect ideas. Or if the recipient loves the beach, I look through that category. There is a gift guide for nearly everyone, so it makes shopping easy, even for me”.

Founder’s Motivation

Chanda Torrey worked as an executive in the nonprofit sector for nearly twenty years and used to panic when it came to shopping for others. “I used to hate shopping so much that I would end up crying on the floor of the mall”, says Chanda. “I was trying to think of what people needed or wanted, but most adults just buy what they want or need. Then I discovered that gifts should be unique, unexpected, and possibly something they’ve never seen before. That’s how you bring the fun back to gift giving”.

Once she realized that gift giving is actually fun when you figure out the secret to it, she wanted to start a website with unique gifts. But working long hours at a nonprofit didn’t leave room for her to explore her dreams so she put her dreams on the back burner for over ten years.

 In 2019, Chanda retired from the Red Cross as Chief Development Officer. She enjoyed retirement for two weeks as she was able to catch up with friends and relax without a care in the world.  But after a couple of weeks, she knew she needed to do something else, so she decided to take the leap and start Gifter World as a way to help those who are horrible at shopping. She remembers how much she used to despise it and now she loves it, so she enjoys helping others find unique gifts.

But starting an online company wasn’t in her realm of knowledge. “I had no idea how to start a website or how to go about it”, says Chanda. “But I was determined to learn so I spent twelve hours or more a day watching YouTube videos and reading articles in order to teach myself how to create an online business. At first, I had to google every other word I would hear in a video, but it got easier and easier as I learned more”.

Chanda understands how buying gifts can be terrifying and your mind can go blank when thinking of the perfect item. She spends her days searching the internet for you in order to make choosing a gift easier. “I get so excited when I find something new”, announces Chanda. “It’s like an adrenaline rush when I find something that I didn’t even know existed. I immediately start to think of who I want to buy it for. I used to avoid Christmas and now I look forward to it every year”.

“I’m also motivated to keep working on it because I can work anywhere”, explains Chanda. “I am obsessed with travel, and this is something I can do while travelling. Once my husband retires, we plan on traveling the world, and it will be great that I can keep working while abroad”.

What Makes Gifter World Different?

Gifter World only features 5-star unique products from trusted sources. Chanda searches the internet for the perfect product. Once she finds something she loves, she searches for the best price she can find and reads extensive reviews. Since businesses can put up fake reviews on their site, she spends hours making sure the reviews are real and the company who sells it is reputable. She has partnerships with over 300 companies that she has vetted, and she knows they are high quality, reputable companies and products.

Gifter World also offers a gift concierge service for free which is something no other website does. If you don’t find something you like on Gifter World, you can send them a message telling them about the gift recipient: their hobbies, interests, age, occupation, and any other pertinent information. Then they will send you some ideas from their website.  But if you don’t like those ideas, they will even search the internet for the gift on other websites.  “I love the challenge of finding a gift for the difficult recipient”, says Chanda, “Plus, if I can’t find something on my website that you love then it means I should find the perfect item and add it.”

If you find an item on Gifter World, you know it is a great product at a great price.  You don’t have to worry about reading through thousands of reviews, because Chanda has already done that for you.

Challenges

The online retail industry is saturated because anyone can sell items online and everyone is having to compete with large websites such as Amazon. And when it comes to being seen on Google, you are competing with the world. When potential customers type in a search word, most of the companies that pop up first are huge companies.  Not because they are necessarily better, but they can afford to hire a team to work on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or more content in order to get them to the top.

Smaller startups may struggle to compete against the retail giants, and it may be years before they become a known brand. “I have to constantly research the newest SEO techniques and write new content in order to get Gifter World to show up in Google searches”, says Chanda. “I’m sure it is much easier for someone who has SEO as their background, but I’ve had to teach myself”.

Since Gifter World is an online business, Chanda is able to work from home.  But as we all know, sometimes working from home can cause distractions or a lack of motivation, or a tendency to work around the clock. “I have to ensure that I set time on my calendar so I can work without life’s distractions”, says Chanda. “Since my husband and I both work from home, I have to just lock myself in my office, so we don’t distract each other and make sure I take breaks, so I don’t overwork”.

Opportunities

Gifter World continues to grow organically as they find the coolest products in the world. “I’m at the point where people send me ideas of products they find”, explains Chanda. “It makes my life even easier when strangers are helping with finding the perfect gifts too”.

Chanda has a large list of gift guide articles she wants to write, so she will have plenty of content. She’s been able to hire a writer so that they can increase the number of articles they produce. “I want to make sure they are truly unique items in the gift guides, so I will continue to find the items”, explains Chanda, “but it helps that I have someone who can help write the descriptions for me”.

The best part of having an online business is that you can work anywhere. Why not travel the world while writing about travel products or sit in the sand while writing about gifts for beach lovers.

Advice to Other People Wanting to Start a Business

When someone has an idea for a business, procrastination often prevents it from becoming a reality. You keep putting it off day after day until you realize years have gone by and you’ve done nothing. Chanda recommends, “Just set a date. Once you commit to the date you want to launch, then your brain registers that you need to take the steps to make it happen”.

Once you start the business, there will be times when business is slow, and you think you made the wrong decision but persistence is key. Every business has struggled at the beginning but if you stick with it, success will follow.

There will always be those seemingly overnight success stories like Facebook, but most businesses take two to three years to even make a profit and seven to ten or more years to become successful. Chanda insists, “just don’t give up”.

Elena Ognivtseva
Latest posts by Elena Ognivtseva (see all)

Nutritionist, Cornell University, MS

I believe that nutrition science is a wonderful helper both for the preventive improvement of health and adjunctive therapy in treatment. My goal is to help people improve their health and well-being without torturing themselves with unnecessary dietary restrictions. I am a supporter of a healthy lifestyle – I play sports, cycle, and swim in the lake all year round. With my work, I have been featured in Vice, Country Living, Harrods magazine, Daily Telegraph, Grazia, Women's Health, and other media outlets.

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