Widely covered “crowdfunding for gift-giving” platform Givted has officially launched their platform today. The ‘luxury group gifting” service, which has been in the works since early 2013, wants to fix the problem of the giving of gifts which are not really wanted.
The New York City based GIVTED was co-founded by French siblings Francois and Stephanie de Bodinat. They raised $1 million in seed funding from private investors and launched in the United States in July 2013.
Research by GIVTED has found that people in the United States receive on average $1,125 in small gifts each year from friends and relatives. The research discovered that a large value of these is lost each year on small items and novelty gifts such as socks, spoof books, fancy clothing or so called “design objects”. In a lifetime the average American will have received over $67,500 spent on small gifts from Valentines Day, Mother’s Day and their birthdays, many of which end-up unused, exchanged, thrown away or piled in drawers (and frequently re-gifted!).
GIVTED group-gifting service will help consumers pool the gifts for special occasions, so they can save up for big items – from iPhones and 4K TVs, to luxury clothes and expensive home refits. GIVTED believes in smart giving, using the gifting power of your group of friends, to turn unmemorable small gifts into life changing luxury gifts you’ll never forget.
Givted have compared some typical small tag gifts that people often receive with popular premium gifts to show the possibilities when group gifting:
- 10 pairs of socks = $100 for new Nike trainers
- Bookshelf of unread books = $119 for a Kindle Paperwhite
- 100 DVD’s = $1,500 for Dolce and Gabbana dress
With Givted, the unaffordable becomes attainable; instead of receiving 10 ordinary presents worth $50 each, friends work together to offer a single awesome $500 gift.
Co-Founder of GIVTED Stephanie de Bodinat said:
“Every year we receive countless thoughtless presents, destined to stay in a box. So we thought ‘why not pool that money together to get people what they really want’.”
“It’s mind-blowing to think about what you spend on presents for friends and family over the course of ten years, let alone your life. We were inspired by other crowd sourcing sites like Kickstarter to think ‘actually together this is a huge pot of money’. When you put your friends kind thoughts towards a $2,000 trip, you’re creating amazing gift memories – so much better than the small items filling up our homes.”
Prosper’s Consumer Insights Director Pam Goodfellow added:
“Gift givers know that many of their loved ones may have been holding back on spending on themselves all year long, and would love nothing more than to receive a gift card that allows them to purchase whatever they want.”
In the course of your lifetime, pooling the amount you spend on gifts, could get you:
- 34 around the world trips at $2,000 a time
- 113 nights at the Plaza Hotel in New York at $595 a night
- 169 PS4s at $399 each
- 175 pairs of Red Manolo Blahniks at $384 a pair
- 347 tickets to see Britney Spears in Las Vegas at $194 each
GIVTED works in three simple steps: the gift planner creates a GIVTCARD campaign and invites others to contribute by sharing a link. Each friend writes their greeting and contributes towards the goal amount. Once the GIVTCARD is delivered, the recipient then transfers the collected amount in to their bank account for the purchase of their chosen gift.