This inspiring story is of a rising startup called Gifter World started by Chanda Fuller Torrey in the e-commerce space to help others who are bad at shopping. Here is the story of Gifter World in Chanda’s own words.
I know what it is like to dread buying gifts for others. So much so that you avoid seeing people around the holidays. It doesn’t have to be that way. I have different categories and gift guides to fit most personalities and if I don’t, let me know and I can add some. Gifter World not only gives you great ideas, but we can also walk you through how to buy gifts so that you learn to love them also.
Introduce us to the idea of Gifter World
I search the internet for the most unique products with 4+ star reviews and then I read through the reviews to make sure they legitimate and then I find the company with the best price. So every item on my website is something I have bought or would want to buy because they are all high quality.
But if someone has trouble finding a gift on my website, they can email me with information about the recipient and I will search the internet for the perfect gift even if it isn’t on my website. I provide this free gift concierge service because I believe gift-giving should be fun and I want to help.
What’s your strategy story? What led you to start Gifter World?
I used to be terrified to shop for others. It was so bad, that I would end up sitting on the floor of the mall after shopping for 20 minutes. I would panic and not know what to get someone because I was looking at gift-giving all wrong.
I was trying to find gifts that people wanted or needed but most adults just buy what they want. Then I suddenly realized that gifts should be fun, unexpected, and possibly something they’ve never heard of before.
Once I discovered how to shop for gifts, I wanted to start a website with unique gift ideas for those who have everything, but work always got in the way and I had no idea how to go about starting a website. Then I retired in 2019 and found I had too much time on my hands and needed to keep doing something so I decided to attempt to make my dreams come true.
I read everything that I could about how to make a website and watched every video. I would read a sentence and then have to google 3 technical phrases because I had no idea what I was learning. Then I would read the next sentence and google more phrases. I was obviously over my head but I was determined to make it happen. As time went on, it got easier and I am so glad I created Gifter World.
What marketing, operation strategies are you adopting at Gifter World? How are you cost-conscious?
At first, I tried to do everything myself; writing, research, entering articles and items, web design. But now, I just don’t have time for that. I continue to do the research myself, but I hire writers so I can post more articles. It has allowed me to pump out more high-quality articles so I can focus on researching the perfect items.
In order to save money, I plan my marketing budget to be spent around holidays when people tend to buy gifts: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc… That way, I can concentrate all of the budgets into those short time periods instead of throughout the year.
Facebook has been really helpful as a startup. It takes google several months to start to show you in search results, so social media is a great way to get business until that happens. I post daily updates of unique gifts to Facebook and a couple of times a week to LinkedIn. Google has started showing me in searches now, but Facebook is still my favorite place to share new gift ideas.
Any strategy mistakes you have made and what were your learning?
Before I realized that it takes Google a while to discover you, I would write an article and post it and then immediately google it to see if it would show up. It wouldn’t, of course, so then I would rewrite the article and repost it and check it again. I did this over and over for a couple of weeks until I realized it doesn’t work that way. I had absolutely zero website development experience so I was clueless. But I laugh at myself now when I think back on that, but it taught me the valuable lesson of patience. Now I just write it and leave it and wait.
Finally what advice you have for your fellow entrepreneur readers?
If you want to accomplish something, just set a date. Once you put it on your calendar, it tells your brain it is going to happen and that helps you get it done. If you don’t set a date, people often procrastinate until weeks, months, or years go by and nothing has been done. It is ok if you have to move the date once you get started, but it’s important to set that goal.
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