Chuffed by the growth

From Covid life-raft to thriving business: how one start-up is disrupting NZ’s gift market.

A business that began as a life-raft for tourism operators during the height of Covid-19 has, within two short years, grown into a thriving start-up that’s uprooting New Zealand’s multibillion-dollar gift market.

Chuffed Gifts, created by Tauranga’s James Fitzgerald (co-founder of Rotorua Canopy Tours) is a unique concept that’s reinventing the way Kiwis give and receive tourism experiences in New Zealand.

With Chuffed, gift recipients still experience the pleasure of receiving a gift in the mail when they receive their Chuffed voucher and booklet, but the beauty is, they then get to choose the experience that suits them.

“Gifting someone a voucher is not a new concept, but Chuffed Gifts is so much more than that. We are providing people with pleasure of choice and that is a big part of what make this product so exciting,” says James.

Established in September 2020, James saw an opportunity to help struggling tourism operators by creating a new market through the Chuffed product, which hadn’t existing in New Zealand before then.

This new way of organising and presenting experiences in the gift market is opening new channels of revenue for some of the country’s hardest-hit tourism operators and has contributed to Chuffed Gifts’ 20 percent month-on-month growth.

James says rather than giving your grandmother, sibling, or workmate the same thing year after year, Chuffed Gifts has awakened the New Zealand market by allowing people to gift experiences and choice rather than material objects.

“We’ve eliminated the gift giving guesswork and ensured that, no matter who you are buying for, they’re guaranteed to find something within our offering that they’re going to love doing and benefit from.”

In an oversaturated market of new businesses that cropped up during the Covid period, Chuffed Gifts has stood above the pack.

Solid growth

Now in its third year of trading, the growth of the business is tracking at 500 per cent on last year, with its repeat customers making up 20 per cent of all transactions. The business has also established a strong reputation within the industry, growing its partnerships from 19 tourism operators in 2020 to the 247 it works with today.

The business model embraces sustainability, which is at the core of the business. “People are far more conscious of sustainability these days and the beauty of Chuffed Gifts is that you can still receive a beautifully wrapped present, but it’s all recyclable and created from sustainable stock, and the real present is the experience, from start to finish.

“Every year, consumers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on gift cards, and even more on physical gifts – that is money that could be going straight back to our regional economy,” James says.

Pre-emptive investment in the company’s IT infrastructure – which provides an automated system from purchase to redemption – has ensured the company was ready for growth and has been critical to the company’s success.

James says Chuffed Gifts’ successful entry into the market proves there is no limit to what they can achieve as the business continues to grow.

The company’s target is to have 200,000 people using the product by 2026 and for Chuffed Gifts to become the number one supplier of domestic visitors to its partners.

Visit: https://chuffedgifts.co.nz