Inviting someone for an occasion personally is an Indian tradition.
With onset
of mobile phones and increasing travel
distance between people, invitations were extended over phone calls. After
e-mail has arrived, people just started sending scanned invitation cards.
Attending the occasion, irrespective of the mode of invitation, is the norm in
many places of India. But what about the gifts? Guests always had the choice of
giving the gifts based on their perception of hosts interests and lifestyle.
What if the hosts make that choice as well ?
That concept of 'gift registry' has arrived in India as well. The
host can visit a gift registry portal, make a wish-list and share this list
with the guests. The guests are obliged to buy those gifts for the host. Some
such gift registry portals, which seem to be making an entry in India are
mentioned below:
In a way, it makes absolute sense. How many times have we not got
the gifts which we stash in a cup-board for long or worse, give it away to some
one else? Instead, if we decide and let the other person know what we want, the
gifts become completely usable and memories can be cherished. But being very
modest people, due to our culture, environment and up-bringing, would we be
able to make a bold wish-list? With metropolitan culture spreading around,
there should definitely be a segment, which would create and share such
wish-list.
From another perspective, it is just a small twist in the sale of
gift items - context of occasion and wish-list. The e-commerce store should be
able to sell more items when compared to plain selling of items. Wishberry site allows even creation of simple
cash gift, where the host picks an amount for which a gift is required and the
friends can pool money to provide that 'cash gift'. Shreurjoy site is designed with fantastic user
experience including navigation and look & feel. But these sites seem to be
not thoroughly tested or used much as there is some default test content seen
around.
Technology has brought unimaginable convenience and comfort to the
people, but bringing a change in culture or tradition is rare. Every change has
resistance until adopted in abundance. What do you think?