Admittedly I’m a notorious gift card giver. It’s not that I don’t want to give an actual physical, meaningful item, I just don’t know what to buy.
To combat generic giving, gift registry sites such as CheckedTwice and Thankful have popped up to help shoppers pinpoint what a person wants for their special occasion.
CEO and co-founder of BirdyTell Lisa Murrow is getting in the game and focusing her gift registry platform on meaningful exchanges between friends and family.
“I started Birdytell because it was challenging to buy meaningful gifts for friends and family. Also, we were getting a lot of duplicate gifts,” Murrow said.
Birdytell is in its soft launch phase and showcased at the Collision conference in Las Vegas.
The difference in Birdytell from other sites, Murrow said, is that they are not dictated by big brands or selling product-instead she is focused on relationships and thoughtful gift giving.
Once registered via email or Facebook, the user can begin populating their dashboard and personalize their profile-giving friends and family insight to their likes and preferences.
The Pinterest-style dashboard has five giving categories, details about the user, a clean tile format, and one can plug the “Capture” widget into their toolbar to curate their board.
A timeline helps gift givers view new items that have been added to the wish lists.
Birdytell also gives kids the option to build their own list with parental oversight.
Once an item is purchased, the user receives an email that a particular item needs to be removed from the list-the giver remains confidential.
Even in its early stage, Birdytell had traction going into the conference. Currently they have over 1,000 users with 38 percent of them men. They have over 10,000 gift ideas loaded with a 14 percent purchase of those items.
To date, they have raised $90,000 from friends and family.
Murrow said that the next iteration will include an iOS and Android mobile app released at the end of August. In addition, this summer they will add group giving to contribute towards experiences such as yoga classes or travel as well as help support local businesses by highlighting different local artisans. The platform will continue to be free to users and they plan to generate revenue through service fees from group giving.
“We are focused on what a persons wants,” Murrow said.
As for the name, Murrow said it came from the popular phrase “A little birdie told me,” and carries the bird theme throughout their content.
It’s time to step away from the grocery store gift card kiosk and let a Birdy tell me what to buy.
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