Hampering Around

There was recently a news article that tried to identify and rate the best ever beauty products.  As you can imagine the well known and classic brands/products were the choices and there was no real surprises.  At Hampering Around we are looking to identify our own “best” range of beauty products in the organic and environmentally friendly category.  As part of our new range, currently being prepared, we have identified this as a key emerging category that really needs to have quality offerings.

We recently conducted a survey of over 800 of our clients, with a very good response rate,  and whilst a lot of the responses are what we’d hoped for (good that is) it was also very interesting to see some comments along the lines of;

1. More gourmet and baby hampers please
2. Can you provide confirmation that the gift has been delivered
3. Provide some lower priced gift options 
4. A broader product range
5. Have an opportunity to mix and match the hampers
6. The ability to build your own gift/hamper
7. Changing packaging more often and more packaging options

Overall we scored well on customer service, value and repeat business .  We are now looking at how we incorporate the above feedback into our business.  Some items are easily done, others such as a build your own gift online are more complex.   If you would like to add anything to the above please post a comment, we’d appreciate any additional feedback.

Also congratulations to Lauren who was the winner of our $100 gift hamper for completing the survey.

Expatriate individuals and families (Expats) are regular clients for Hampering Around and we are constantly reminded by them of the challenges they face in sourcing quality gifts that can be sent to their families and friends back home.   “Australian” themed gift that can be sent to a country outside Australia are also popular.

As part of the work we are doing to produce our new catalogue, we are focussing heavily on providing quality gifts that can be ordered on-line by those living outside Australia – easily.  This how we hope to contribute to making it easy for Expats to give great gifts to friends and family.

We have recently been approached by two different types of retail businesses with a view to them selling our gifts.   The first one is in the newsagency industry where we can see good potential based on seasons of the year, the second is a large retailer who again would focus on specific seasons.   We are enthusiastically progressing both and see enormous opportunity for us in the retail channel.  Whilst a lot of our business is done on-line, with some retail, the opportunity to work with retailers in the area of gift hampers for birthdays, Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Father Day  and other gift types is a natural extension of our business.

We have also just released a survey to all of our clients asking for feedback on a number of things.  We use this information about their  purchasing plans for Christmas, the service levels they receive from Hampering Around and area’s of interest for new gifts to drive our product development and on-going client services.  If anyone reading this has a view on new product types or areas we would welcome the feedback.

Every year we use the time leading up to the end of June to review our gift/stock situation and look at the coming year.  It is an important time of year for our planning and signals that it’s almost time to start working on Christmas.   We are about to start going through the gift items we have left and put them on our website for sale and market them to our client database.  Often as a gift company we order large quantities of stock and may end up holding 1,2,10 of something that doesn’t sell at the time of purchase.   Product development in our business is a critical part of ensuring gifts are regularly refreshed and we are always presenting new options.

In the coming financial year our focus will be on new categories such as organic and fair trade gifts, Australian themed gifts along with a greater focus on our Mother and Baby range.  Whilst companies in our industry have faced their challenges due to the economy, gift giving is always a priority for the right season, occasion or sentiment people want to convey.  Now more than ever a quality gift can really make a difference to someone.