Brand Hubb’s ‘Chip In’ Aims to Make Group Gift Buying Easy
If you’ve ever tried to organise a group gift you know just how frustrating it can be. Whether you’re bringing together your department at work to pitch in for a gift for a co-worker’s wedding or want to spoil a friend with a big-ticket item for their birthday, the very thought of fumbling around with cash and keeping track of who gave what is enough to drive you mad. But, could the days of analogue group gifting finally be coming to an end?
As far as e-commerce platform, Brand Hubb is concerned, it’s high time group gifting got a makeover. The e-commerce platform is making waves with its new group gifting concept, ‘Chip In’ which aims to make group gifting less awkward and easier to manage. With ‘Chip In’ Brand Hubb says it plans to redesign the age-old social practice of giving and receiving gifts.
Built to address the pain points that most consumers experience when giving and receiving gifts, Chip In makes the act of gifting easier for everyone involved. Forget spending countless hours trawling through physical stores until searching for the perfect gift or having to feign excitement at receiving an impractical or totally worthless gift that simply gathers dust in your home.
The simple online solution unites the gift-giver and gift-receiver around the common goal of the perfect gifting experience. It makes the gift-giver’s life simpler by removing the need to shop in the physical world. And it strips out the uncertainty of scanning thousands of pages of goods online by providing a list of gifts pre-approved by the receiver.
How does it work?
To use the service, the gift-receiver (or person organising a function or party on their behalf) registers on the Brand Hubb website. Using the ‘Create Chip In List’ feature you can set up a wishlist of suitable gifts from Brand Hubb’s Brandshop, with an end-date for that event or function. From here the list is shared with friends and family and each gift-giver is able to select and pay for an item on the wish list or make a cash contribution towards the item, effectively “chipping in” with other gift-givers to buy the gift receiver something they would really love.
The Chip In facility is particularly useful when someone has their heart set on a ‘big ticket’ item for their birthday and need family and friends to contribute to making it possible. Brand Hubb helps to make sure that the wishlist is actioned by the user-selected end-date. Once the ‘wishlist’ and purchases are finalised they are processed and delivered to the recipient’s door.
Featuring a wide range of products, Brand Hubb’s Brandshop offers something for everyone to get excited about. From fitness trackers to kitchen appliances and more, you’re bound to find something your lusting after.
Before you try it
While Brand Hubb’s Chip In offering is indeed innovative, there are caveats to the service. For example, in the event that items on the wishlist are not paid for in full by the contributions made, the owner of the wishlist will receive a message from Brand Hubb requesting they pay the outstanding amount before it is shipped directly to them. This could become tricky (and expensive) for the gift receiver or person arranging the gifts if you’ve set up a wish list with multiple items and there are a few items which are not paid for in full.
Similarly, if an item on your wishlist is out of stock when your wish list closes, but is paid for in full, Brand Hubb banks your money as “Me Buck” (a digital currency used in its rewards system) which can be used to purchase something else through the Brand Hubb website. Again, this can become tricky for the owner of the wishlist if they can’t find another item they would like on the Brand Hubb website.
In this event, there doesn’t appear to be an option for the user to cash out the contributions made to the wishlist, offering the user little flexibility to use the contributions as they see fit.
For more information about Chip In check out the Brand Hubb website here.
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