The Gift Exchange

In the previous Corporate Gifts Q&A entries, we discussed complex billing and promotional gifts. This next question is from a sales manager at a busy car dealership and brings us to our next topic: shipping on demand.

Q: As part of our marketing strategy I am looking to send thank you gifts to customers who have purchased new cars. In the gift basket I would like to include information on our referral program and our service center.

I would also like to be able to ship the gift baskets each time a purchase has been made without having to store the gifts at the dealership. Can we set something up?

A: Yes. GiftTree’s talented design team is available to work with you to create a custom gift basket specific to your needs that can be branded with your dealership’s name and logo. We can also set up a custom billing structure with multiple accounts to meet your needs.

GiftTree also offers a ship-on-demand service for high volume customers. Our 60,000 square foot warehouse can definitely be used to warehouse the inventory for your custom gift baskets so we can ship to the end recipient on demand. You can either order each gift on an as needed basis or you can submit orders weekly, biweekly or monthly using our bulk order form, whichever works best for you.

Please call our corporate services team at 800.379.4064 or send an email to corporateservices[at]gifttree.com to discuss your gift needs further. We would be happy to deliver your thank you gifts.

Did you miss our other answers in the Corporate Gifts Q&A series? Read more about promotional gifts and complex billing by visiting our past Q&A posts.

As I watch and listen to mothers getting their kids ready for school I realized that they fall into three categories. There are the moms who are sending their kiddos off to school for the very first time. Those moms are a nervous bunch! Then there are the seasoned moms, the moms who have been sending their kids to school for years and they are counting down the days to sending them back-to-school so they can have some peace and quiet. These are the happy bunch! Lastly, we have the moms who are sending their children off to college. For those that will have kids attending school close to home, not much will change. But for the moms whose children will be leaving the house and attending college far away from home, the whole world is changing. These are the sad bunch.

Regardless of which you group you find yourself in, GiftTree has a gift that is just perfect for your back-to-school scenario.

The Sweet Nostalgia is a great gift for first time students. It is filled with all kinds of sugary goodness and presented in a bright cheery metal lunchbox keepsake container. A perfect gift for the end of their first week to let them know how proud you are of them or, if they got off to a rough start, it would be a nice way to put a smile on their face.

For the seasoned mom, I say buy yourself a gift as a reward for having made it through the summer with everyone running around all day. Might I suggest the Vineyard Select Wine Basket. It features a Washington wine from Avery Lane and you have the option to choose a chardonnay, a merlot or a bottle of both. After the kids are off to school, open a bottle of wine, indulge in the gourmet snacks and kick your feet up.

Lastly, for the sad moms. The Bag of Happiness is a wonderful gift to present your student with as they leave for college. The Chinese believe that happiness is five-fold: wealth, luck, prosperity, double happiness and longevity. Your college student will find five different charms in this gift that they can easily carry with them to remind them of how much you care about their happiness.

GiftTree wishes you all a safe return to school and a great year!

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,

but anyone can start today

and make a new ending. ~Maria Robinson

This Wednesday is Kiss & Make-Up Day. Yes I know, it is another one of those ‘Hallmark Holidays’, but it may be the perfect excuse to reach out and begin healing a strained relationship. Life is a delicate balance of interpersonal relationships and, whether we like it or not, those relationship sometimes become unbalanced. Many sleepless nights can ensue and a lot of time wasted when a relationship that we value becomes strained. Bottom line is that we have two choices. We can either dig our heels in, be stubborn, and refuse to take the first step to mend the relationship or we can put ourselves aside and reach out with a kind gesture that says, “I value you, you are important to me and I refuse to let this come between us.”

Perhaps there is an interpersonal relationship that you have that needs some mending. You know you can’t go back and start a new beginning with this person, but you value the relationship enough to make a new ending. I promise that you will benefit more by reaching out and mending the relationship than you will by letting it go unresolved.

A perfect way to let someone know that you would like to kiss and make-up is to send flowers. GiftTree offers a number of bright, cheery bouquets that would be perfect to send for Kiss & Make-up Day. My favorite three are:

• Red Gerbera Daisy Bunch – This arrangement features a generous cluster of bright red Gerbera daisies and artful foliage styling that is sure to liven up any home or office. This unique bouquet always sends a smile.
• Delightful Daisies – A flower that is associated with happiness, the Gerbera daisy is a wonderful way to send warm wishes. This arrangement features miniature and full size Gerbera daisies in bright, varied colors.
• Color Burst – This arrangement is bright, bold and expressive. It features a powerful punch of color that will brighten anybody’s day.

Here at GiftTree we have a variety of balloon bouquets to choose from for every occasion. You can send an arrangement to someone for an over-the-hill birthday, to celebrate the birth of a new baby, to say thank you or congratulations, or to tell someone that you love them. Whatever the reason you have to send ballons, GiftTree has you covered.

Balloons are a great, economical way to show someone that you are thinking of them. Regardless of the recipient’s age, balloons always bring a smile and they always make the recipient feel special. Sending a balloon bouquet to students while they are in school is a great way to say happy birthday to them! Most kids love to be the center of attention and a balloon bouquet will certainly get them noticed in the hallways and leave them feeling special.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when sending a balloon bouquet. If you are planning on sending balloons to a student you will need to make sure that they have alternate transportation home from school. Most school districts will not allow students to carry balloons on the bus. The other thing to note is that most hospitals will not accept latex balloons. If you are sending a balloon bouquet to a hospital it is recommended that you choose an ‘all mylar’ arrangement. If you take these two things into consideration when sending a balloon bouquet your delivery should go smoothly.

Here are some fun and interesting facts about balloons:

• When a latex balloon is released outside, as long as it has been well-tied and has no structural flaws, it will rise to an altitude of about five miles. At that elevation it will freeze and break into spaghetti-like pieces that scatter as they return to earth. Occasionally animals will eat these soft slivers of rubber, but evidence indicates that these pass through the animals system without causing any harm.
• The modern latex balloon—the kind you can blow up yourself—was invented in New England during the Great Depression.
• In the late 1970s, silver metalized balloons were developed for the New York City Ballet. These balloons are commonly called Mylar, but they are actually made from a metalized nylon and are more expensive than latex balloons.
• If the sound of a balloon popping startles you, you’re not alone. A bursting balloon actually creates a small sonic boom! Once a hole is made in an inflated balloon, the quick release of the balloon’s energy, or air, causes the hole to grow at almost the speed of sound in rubber. Since this speed is much higher than the speed of sound in air, the hole in the balloon actually breaks the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom.
• A 100-foot-diameter balloon can lift 33,000 pounds!

Promotional chip clips, erasers and lanyards have their place, but they aren’t always the right kind of promotional gifts to represent your brand. Many of our corporate customers choose GiftTree as their promotional gift provider because of our wide-selection of unique, high-quality gifts and gift baskets. The next question in our Corporate Gifts Q & A series is from one of our corporate customers who is interested in using GiftTree as their promotional gift provider for an upcoming event. Here’s the question:

Q: I am an event coordinator for a large software company. We have an annual conference coming up in a few months that will be attended by some of our largest clients and we would like to present gift baskets to those in attendance. Would it be possible to have these gift baskets decorated with our company logo?

A: Yes. Minimums may apply, but yes. With our onsite design team and state of the art facility, we are able to create distinguished gift baskets and gifts for every need – product launches, event gifts, thank you gifts and more. Our custom, personalized business gifts enhance your company’s image and visibility with gift baskets that suit your needs and highlight your company’s logo.

There are several ways we could brand the gift baskets with your logo for conference attendees. We could print your company logo and/or message on a satin ribbon attached to the chosen gift basket. We can also personalize some gift baskets and gifts with an engraved plaque or silver hang tag. GiftTree’s talented design team is also available to create a custom gift basket for your event. Customized gift baskets can be designed to include your company logo on items within the basket. For example, a customized wine basket could be designed to include an elegant wine opener engraved with your company logo. Careful placement of promotional items will allow your clients to focus on the quality of the gift and your generosity.

Our ability to create a custom gift basket is limited only by your imagination. Please call our corporate services team at 800.379.4064 or send an email to corporateservices[at]gifttree.com to discuss your gift needs further. We would be happy to partner with you to design the perfect promotional product for your event.

We can also establish a custom billing structure for your company to simplify the ordering process for all of your gift giving needs. Your account can be designed to have multiple users who can utilize one payment method. If you missed our last Corporate Gifts Q & A post, you can learn more about our complex billing and multiple account options by clicking here.

I can’t believe how quickly the summer is going. With back-to-school shopping in full swing it appears that fall is right around the corner. Since GiftTree has great gourmet baskets and fruit baskets, we have quite a few parents place orders for their son or daughter while they are away in college.

I remember when I went away for college, my mom was always worried about me having enough money for food. I would always say I was fine and tell her I know where I can get 10 packages of ramen noodles for a $1. She still worried.

Based on my experiences in college, I have compiled a list of the top 5 gifts parents can purchase for their college students (sans alcohol).

1. Sweet Nostalgia $29.95 – This gift contains candy like Pixy Stix, Pez, Sugar Daddy, Cracker Jacks and more in a really cool lunch pail. It isn’t very nutritious but I could see this being a fun gift that would be throughly enjoyed in the dorms.
2. Gourmet Extravagance Gift Basket $149.95 – The Gourmet Extravagance lives up to its name. It contains 1 ½ pounds of Pacific Gold Mixed Nuts, Rosemary & Roasted Garlic Crackers, Saraivanov Smoked Salmon, Busseto Dry Salami con Vino, Mt. Vikos Red Pepper & Feta Spread, Hot Pepper Cheese, Moravian Chocolate Cookies and more. You definetly can’t find any of these things in the school cafeteria.
3. The Orchard Fruit Basket $59.95 – This basket contains fruit such as apples, oranges, bananas, nectarines, grapes, tropical pineapple, kiwi, mangoes and pears as available. This might especially be a great gift right around finals or maybe mid-terms.
4. Royal Fruit and Gourmet Basket $89.95 – This basket has fruit and snacks. It is also hand-delivered which means we might be able to have it delivered the same day you order it for days when you are extremely worried your college student has only eaten pizza and hamburgers in the past month.
5. The City Block $39.95 – Back when I lived in the dorms, I would always have a movie night at least once every two weeks. This was of course after all homework was completed. I would invite others over and we would watch movies. This gift would be great for movie nights because it not only contains three different kinds of popcorn but it also has Candy Coated Jordan Almonds, Toffee Peanuts, Sour Fruit Candies, Cajun Peanuts, Salted Pretzels and Swedish Chocolate Mint Cookies.

Many of our corporate customers have questions concerning our gifts and gift baskets. The GiftTree blog seemed to be the perfect place to provide our corporate customers with answers to these questions. Over the next several weeks we will be publishing a series of blog posts designed to answer questions regarding corporate accounts with GiftTree. Here’s our first question in the series:

Q: I would like to set-up an account so my sales force can use one credit card to purchase thank you gifts for clients. Is that possible?

A: We can get very creative with billing. Our unique account management system is extremely flexible and allows us to set-up a custom billing structure for all of your corporate gift needs. So the answer to this question would be yes. We would be able to work with you to create a custom billing plan for your sales force.

With our advanced account management system, transactions can be managed on a permission-basis or by a variety of account preferences. Multiple account users can enter orders, track shipped gifts and gift baskets, receive order confirmation emails and more. Beyond standard invoice accounts, we are able to establish muti-layered billing accounts involving several departments, locations or with other unique criteria. Payment methods can easily be shared with multiple account users.

Our customer-centric website is extremely easy to use and has many tools available to save time. By logging into their individual accounts, each member of your sales force can access their previous orders, track packages, schedule occasion reminders, locate bulk order forms and import contacts to their address book. By importing a contact’s information into their address book, your sales force will no longer have to manually enter that contact’s information and can easily edit each contact as the need arises. The order process will be further streamlined by having a payment method saved to your corporate account. Utilizing this feature will eliminate the need for your sales force to manually enter payment information for each order.

If you are interested in setting up a custom account and billing structure for your company, simply call our corporate services team at 800.379.4064 or email us at corporateservices@gifttree.com. We would be happy to come up with a custom plan for your company, department or sales force.

Janet Cook from Vestal, NY is our July contest winner. She was running a little late, but relied on our same day delivery. I’ll let Janet tell you how it went:

“The occasion was the 60th wedding anniversary for my sister and brother-in-law. They had traveled from Florida to celebrate their special day with their daughter in Lee, Massachusetts. Early in the afternoon of their anniversary I decided to send flowers and searched the internet for a florist in Lee. It was easy to find the GiftTree website and I found a wide selection of arrangements at very affordable prices. I was even more impressed to learn that they could be delivered that same day, despite the lateness of my order. Placing the online order was easy, even for a novice like me! When I called later in the day to offer my congratulations to my sister and her husband I was thrilled to hear that a beautiful bouquet of flowers had arrived that afternoon. I must say that GiftTree delivers!” -Janet Cook

Congrats, Janet, and thanks for the nice review!

I like all types of art, from theater to dance to music to visual arts. I like to watch plays and independent films. I like sculptures, unusual paintings and well-written books. I’ve been to art museums across the country and have seen many works in person by some of the world’s most famous artists. As an art admirer, I also like GiftTree‘s new Copper Canyon Holder & Wine gift. This gift comes with your choice of wine. The wine options range from the extraordinary Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to Peter Michael Las Pavots Bordeaux Blend to the famous Penfolds Grange 2004.

In addition to your choice of wine, this gift also comes with an amazing Copper Canyon Wine Holder designed by Lisa Smith. This unique work of art was inspired by the magnificent canyons of the Southwest as interpreted by Smith during her many trips to the canyons located in Arizona and Utah. The ridges and curves present in this copper piece mirror the ripples in the canyons chiseled by the incessant wind, and sometimes rain, of the Southwest. Each wine chiller is unique and well-crafted. Smith’s work has been featured in many publications, including Time Out Magazine and on the cover of Food and Wine Magazine. She has had exhibits at numerous museums across the nation, including the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York. The Copper Canyon Wine Holder is a perfect example and representation of Smith’s talent. This gift is also the perfect choice for those, like me, who love art.

I swear, every time a friend of mine gets pregnant, 3 more get pregnant within a month! Seems like it comes in spurts. I love babies, so I’m always on the lookout for something fun to give to new moms and dads.

GiftTree recently began offering this adorable gift set which I absolutely love – as it comes with one of the books I read to my kids when they were babies. The “Guess How Much I love You” Gift set comes in a wicker basket with a bib and sock set, a plush bunny similar to the one in the story, natural bath products for the little one including body wash, lotion, oil and powder, and of course, a copy of “Guess How Much I Love You”. A perfect choice for a unique gift that the new parents (and baby!) will absolutely love!

I have found that even the new mom enjoys and appreciates some special pampering after bringing the new baby into the world. If you are at all familiar with Burt’s Bees Products then you are well aware of the quality of their products and the fact that they are all natural. This means that they make perfect gifts for the new baby and the new mom. GiftTree offers a wonderful Burt’s Bees gift basket especially designed with the new mom and new baby in mind. The Mommy and Baby–Cute as Can Bee gift basket will pamper both the new mom and the new baby. With a variety of all natural products that will soothe, cleanse and nourish the new baby, as well as pamper the new mom  you can’t go wrong with this product. Also included in the gift basket is an extra plush bee with floppy wings that the new baby will love to snuggle with, plus the keepsake wicker basket will provide the new mom with perfect storage place for nursery items.

Be sure and check out the entire line of new baby gifts available at GiftTree.