Customized and printed Corporate gifts for promotional Shop online in India

1. CORPORATE GIFTS As a Localised Corporate Gifting Company You’re Going to be Dead and Here’s Why. WWW.CONSORTIUMGIFTS.COM

2. As a localized gifting company you’re going to be dead and it’s just a matter of when. I remember when I started Consortium Gifts in 1999, corporate gifting in India was an industry that few understood and even fewer had any idea on how to go about it professionally. The bulk of the “stalwarts” were shopkeepers and traders from the local Delhi wholesale markets of Sadar Bazaar and KarolBagh, many who represented a brand or had manufacturing capability in a particular product. Companies in India had no idea how to even find good vendors and it was pretty easy going for anyone presentable with a decent set of products to reach out to a good corporate client and get started. The Tata Press Yellow pages were the go-to guide and the internet was not a sourcing solution. The benchmark was also so long that anything worked and just being able to make supplies in a timely manner, with a product that worked at a justifiable price was enough to grow and even prosper. It was easy money and the entire supplier base mushroomed, over the course of time, the industry had thousands of solopreneurs all claiming to be the next big thing in gifting. To the extent that even runners and office boys at some of the earlier companies went solo and started their own setups and began to chase the Indian dream.

3. Fast forward 20 years and everything has changed, the world has become a smaller place and information and resources are available to everyone at a click of a button. A simple search on Google for corporate gifting companies in India throws up 6 million results and that’s just a tip of the iceberg. If someone posts a query on a Facebook or LinkedIn group for gifts, the poster will be inundated with hundreds of recommendations in minutes. I always joke and tell everyone that when you meet someone socially, the fastest way to end a conversation is to tell them you’re in the corporate gifting business. I mean you have to see it believe it, the person on hearing this will choke on their drink, politely excuse themselves and run. You could have said you’re in the drug or gun running business and you’ll get a better reaction. If you don’t believe me try it some time. The landscape today is littered with the carcasses of companies that had mushroomed up over the years and many are just “surviving” — simply working to make basic ends meet in order to fulfill commitments to staff and lenders. The traditional stalwarts are all gone, and space is now dominated by the big and emerging global players and the game is only just starting to heat up. Amazon and Flipkart have only just begun to taste blood and haven’t really cracked the customization code — yet.

4. It is, however, just a matter of time. There is a host of venture capital funded players coming in, youngsters who understand Artificial Intelligence, social media, buying patterns and have teams of people analyzing big data and hoping to revolutionise the business. Companies themselves are getting smarter and a simple department like supply chain management with a team of “cost cutters” will further drive the nail in the coffin for many of the smaller players. One supply chain professional joked and told me that the role of a gifting company today is simply to fund the order which the company could have got from a manufacturer directly by giving 60 to 90 days of credit. Credit that they would have not been given by the brand directly! Great, so now the gifting company is also a finance company, working on ever-tightening margins and pressures to perform for investors or banks. Another cocktail for disaster. Visit any large buyer of gifts in the pharmaceutical or FMCG space and you’ll be amazed at the number of gifting companies that show up on special supplier days. It will make the KumbhMelalook small. Everyone is peering over their shoulders to see what the competitor is offering and groans when the door opens and yet another person from the industry walks in with their bag of tricks with an assistant or two in tow.

5. The game is changing and so are the rules, as a localized player who did things the way they were done in the past is a fast drive on a very slippery mountain road with no brakes. You’re going to crash and burn and it’s only a matter of when. So, what is the future? How are the best players adapting and what will it take to survive? Well watch this space for more insights, have a lot more coming your way in the weeks and months ahead … as Sherlock Holmes would say “The game is afoot”! The author is Gaurav Bhagat, founder of Consortium Gifts and the Gaurav Bhagat Academy. (Problem solver, trainer, public speaker, and sales coach) For More Information Visit to our Website: https://www.consortiumgifts.com/Corporategifts/corporate-gifts-Supplier Contact no.: +91- 9810044319 Address: E-78 , Sector-6 Noida , U.P. - 201301