Her face turns scarlet upon receiving the gift. First you think it’s because you have made her day. But then her scowling expressions reveal the fact that it has turned scarlet with rage as you unintentionally ended up giving her the same flowers and chocolates you had given on her last birthday. What happens next is…. hmm…history!

An inappropriate gift can sometimes ruin the entire celebration mood. We often come across situations in life where a big, disappointing question mark appears in our minds whenever we try to think of a great gift! That’s where WishPicker comes in.

WishPicker helps people to decide WHAT to gift when a special occasion is around the corner – a social gift recommendation engine that provides the best gift ideas/products from across the web. Users can search for gifts based on their relationship with the recipient, age and occasion at hand. The company was founded in Jan’13 by Prateek Rathore and Apurv Bansal both IIT Delhi alumni. The private beta version of Wishpicker.com was launched in May, followed by a public launch in mid-June.

Prateek Rathore

 Be it a ‘romantic’ Birthday gift for a ‘geeky’ boyfriend, under Rs 1000, or a ‘creative’  anniversary gift for middle aged parents, all gifts are delivered within 3 days. Gift ideas are completely customized depending on the personality of the gift recipient and the  type of gift that the user wishes to give.

 The idea of creating a gift recommendation engine ignited when Apurv was in Mumbai  and wanted to send a gift to his girlfriend in Delhi but was facing a hard time deciding what to  gift. Prateek told him that he faced the same problem when looking to send an anniversary gift to his parents from Spain and they realized that figuring out what to  gift was a problem that everybody faced on a very frequent basis. They quit their high  paying corporate jobs and got together to start WishPicker.com. The passion to create an impact using technology is what brought them together to start this venture.

As of now, WishPicker has no direct competition and their indirect competitors are  online gifting and flower websites.

Apurv Bansal

However, given the fact that these websites are primarily e-retailers for gift products and do not focus on gift recommendations, WishPicker has tied up with a lot of these websites to source gift products.

It basically targets the following types of people:

• People looking for recommendations for gifting their dear ones on a special occasion – these people are unsure about what to gift and are looking for customized recommendations for the occasion at hand.

•People living outside their hometowns, looking to send gifts back home – these are young Indians from small towns who have jobs in Tier 1 cities and NRIs who wish to gift relatives back home.

The primary target market lies in the age group of 16-35 years. WishPicker is currently targeting the Indian market but they are planning to expand globally very soon.

Only about a couple of months old, the site is witnessing tremendous traction. Customers are going gaga over the fact that a site can tell them what their loved ones would like as a gift, based on Facebook as well. Currently, they have sufficient funds to run their operations. However they are planning to raise funds for two main reasons – expand their team and expand their operations to different geographies.

WishPicker follows an affiliate model. It provides gift recommendations and redirects users to their partner websites, where users can buy the gifts. All sales made on their partner websites through their site are tracked and they charge a commission per transaction.

Apurv and Prateek want Wishpicker to be the ideal destination for anyone looking for a gift, anywhere in the world. “We want it to be the Kayak of the gifting industry. We aim to be present in multiple geographies within some years from now. The suggestions/feedbacks have been very helpful. We believe we can do so much more to solve the problem of finding the right gift. We are very excited about the new features we’ll soon be rolling out.” added Prateek.

Are you looking for a gift and are still confused? Make sure you don’t disappoint your loved ones as nobody deserves a bad gift on their special day. Give WishPicker a try!

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