South Australian startup KK Gifts looks to make office Kris Kringle less of a hassle

With a birthday on Christmas Eve, I usually start counting down the days to Christmas in March. This annoys friends, family, and colleagues to no end throughout the year, but when it gets to October and Christmas decorations are in stores, I feel justified.

While some might say October is still too early, when it comes to Christmas presents in particular, buying them early is key. Some of us leave Christmas shopping to the last minute due to laziness, while for others it’s often a lack of inspiration – particularly when it comes to those pesky Kris Kringle or Secret Santa gifts.

Even for someone who loves Christmas, there are several clear problems with Kris Kringle. Firstly, rather than buying a present for your work best friend, you’re often stuck buying something for that guy you’ve only spoken to a handful of times. Then there’s the price limit, which usually restricts the types of gifts you can buy to the kind of knick knacks you’ll never use or display once you get back to your desk after the Christmas break.

Despite these issues, Kris Kringle is a staple of the Christmas season so looking to make the process easier and more fun is aptly-named South Australian ecommerce platform KK Gifts.

Founded by Will Simpson, the platform goes beyond sites like Secret Santa Organizer to allow groups to easily set up and manage their Kris Kringle, helping to ensure everyone actually buys someone a gift, and buys it on time, all through the platform.

“After working in retail for the past five years, I saw the trend of people coming in looking for last minute Kris Kringle gifts inside a particular price category has increased exponentially. Everybody always seems to be in a rush and in most cases any present will do,” Simpson said.

With these thoughts in mind, in the creation of KK Gifts, Simpson’s aim was to help people find the gifts recipients will actually like and use. To streamline the whole KK process, Simpson began working with the team at agency Digital Noir to build the platform in time for Christmas.

With convenience being key, KK Gifts works by having an organiser to set up the group, invite their friends or colleagues, and set deadlines to ensure presents are bought and shipped by a particular date. The presents are individually wrapped and shipped to the one location, whether it be the office or the party host’s house. KK gives the gifter three options when it comes to gift cards- printing only the recipients name of the gift, printing both giver and recipient or leaving both spaces blank to allow the gifts to be given out randomly.

“We take care of all of the tedious aspects of Kris Kringle and leave the fun of choosing and receiving gifts to the consumer making the experience better and more convenient for all involved,” Simpson said.

Also key is the range of gifts available, with Simpson saying, “From past retail experience I know what people are looking for in a gift and I know what attracts, but we also had to choose such a wide range of gifts as many offices have such diverse cultures.”

“Stock choice was also incredibly important as we want to make sure each gift is never left behind. Another aim for the business is we don’t want people buying last minute rushed gifts and so want to avoid the Christmas novelty reindeer ears and so on that plague some Kris Kringles every year, because we don’t like waste and we want everyone to enjoy and use their gifts.”

Gifts ranging from serious and useful to games or jokey gifts are available in two price categories, $25 or $50, with the majority at $25, a price point Simpson believes is manageable for most offices.

“We have looked at the prices of our gifts on other sites and in bricks and mortar stores and have made sure we are competitive and in many cases a lot better than our competitors, purely to make people see the value and to better the consumer experience,” Simpson said.

Of course, the gift shop is also open all year round, though the current KK Gifts name might confuse people. At the moment, Simpson said the focus is on getting as many groups on board this Christmas before looking at other options.

Image via: GreatValueHolidays.