What is Happiness? No, we don’t want to drive you into a philosophical crisis. Let’s take simple examples; perhaps ice cream for a 5-year-old, first-job success for a 22-year-old, and listening to old music on a rainy day for an older person. If Happiness were an exo-planet, it has made the whole world plan a civilization on it. According to the World Happiness Report 2021, Finland and Iceland are the happiest countries, while Afghanistan and Zimbabwe are at the bottom. In the meantime, India is positioned 139th out of 149 countries. The study looked at the impact of Covid-19 and also how people have coped around the world.
On May 29, 2021, the Happiness Research Institute, a think tank on well-being, Happiness, and quality of life, created and introduced The Happiness Museum. A museum dedicated to the things that matter in life. At The Happiness Museum, you’ll learn why Denmark is commonly referred to as the happiest country on the planet, what hygge has to do with it, and how you can measure Happiness. The museum has seven sections: the geography of Happiness, the politics of Happiness, the Happiness lab, the anatomy of a smile, the history of Happiness, Nordic Happiness, and finally, the future of Happiness.
Happiness in eCommerce
The fundamental, most crucial part of creating business success is customer satisfaction and Happiness. This is particularly necessary for eCommerce enterprises, as developing trust is more difficult for them due to their online orientation. The most successful eCommerce businesses devote a large number of resources to keeping their clients and consumers happy. According to a recent study, Harvard Business Review, customer Happiness is correlated to happy employees. However, happier employees are only a driver of customer success, not the major cause, according to a study, but they are still a useful predictor.
There’s always space for growth in any eCommerce business, no matter how successful it is. The first step is to keep customers satisfied and provide them with a seamless buying experience. The second is to keep an eye out for complaints or measures to improve client happiness. The final step is to run an eCommerce firm successfully for the foreseeable future, but you can’t get there without listening and responding to comments. Allow your consumers to assist you since you both want the same thing at the end of the day: a pleasant shopping experience that brings return customers. Giving clients what they want is a key component of successful e-commerce.
What makes Amazon and Alibaba Successful?
Consider, for example, how Amazon and Alibaba, the two largest online merchants, have a nearly $2.2 trillion collective market capitalization. As of January 2021, Amazon’s current market value is $1.634 trillion, a 73.6 percent increase from the previous year. Next in impact, just within China, Alibaba’s market value is estimated at $648.32 billion.
What boosted sales for the eCommerce platforms when the world was on a financial slump due to the Covid-19 pandemic? When we spoke around, we heard how many resorted to retail marketing to offset a lot of stay-at-home anxiety matched with a seamless shopping experience, eventually resulting in Happiness about enjoying the wants and needs at the doorstep.
Gifting Startups Deliver Happiness
Talking about Happiness as a Service, in India, we came across two eCommerce startups delivering Happiness with their unique happiness solutions by notching up the standard of traditional gifting. After all, who doesn’t love to be gifted, and if you are not a stoic, you sure have a smile on your face unboxing a gift, right?
Oye Happy: Gift that Surprise
In 2014, Varun Todi and Harshvardhan Khemani co-founded Oye Happy to provide out-of-the-box gifting solutions. In 2016, they were awarded the Tissot Signature Innovators Club Award. Today, Oye Happy has an extensive product line that allows them to appeal to a broader audience with various hobbies and inclinations, ranging from selfie addicts to movie buffs to socially aware individuals.
Oye Happy was founded with Rs 30 lakh raised from family and friends and Harsh and Varun’s savings. It is active in 200 cities across the country. The majority of their clients are professionals between the ages of 24 and 35. Apart from offering surprises, experiences, and unique gifts, Oye Happy has also added two new sections that cater to social causes and the LGBTQ community.
Gifract: Get a Custom App
In 2015, Disha Selarka and Sahil Vora founded Giftract to scale Happiness in their unique way. Gift-Ract is a contraction of Gifts that Interact. The idea is you can order an app or a mini-game with your recipient in mind, and they will code it and have it delivered in 48 hours. So, you don’t have to be a coder to delight someone with their unique Happiness as a Service solution.
Along with Disha Selarka and Sahil Vora, there were other partners who later figured out their Happiness elsewhere. Now, the happiness startup is manned by Disha and Sahil, a designer, and several consultants. The founders of Giftract have no significant investors; they bootstrapped it so far. At an early revenue stage, their solution is priced in the range of INR 650 to INR 4000.
Gifting Startups Forsee Growth in Global Retail eCommerce
There are many dominant companies in the personalized gift market, and here is where time-based rivalry comes into play. In India, Tarun Joshi’s start-up IGP.com provides a curated collection of gifts and personalized products is dominating Google search with their PPC campaigns. Following IGP.com, we have the long-term player Ferns & Petals and Bigsmall the next in kin to popularity. We are hesitant to talk about the oldest surviving gifting provider in India, Archies, literally inundated with unfulfilled delivery.
With a 25 percent expansion and the development of new gift segments, the sector has grown exponentially in the last five years. According to Statista, “In 2020, retail eCommerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022.” The personalized gift industry is worth $31.63 billion, ranging from canvas prints to novelty items to eco-friendly gifts. While new gifting startups continue to join the bandwagon for happiness is all that matters, the fine balance between the old and new make it a happy startup ecosystem.
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