In business, there are plenty of times when you want to send a gift to a client, supplier, business acquaintance, or staff member. That gift might be a “thank you”, a “well done”, or just because you like to send gifts.
If you have the time and resources to send individual parcels with hand-written notes, then that’s always an excellent option for that personal touch. However, sourcing items, packaging them and having them delivered can take up a lot of time. So when you’re time-poor (and let’s be honest, when are we not as business owners!), having a special parcel sent to someone directly is a great option too.
We’ve selected these excellent gift websites where you can send direct from the gift company. All you’ll need to do is choose the gift, personalise a message, provide an address and pay.
Chocolate By Post
Hotel Chocolat
A well-loved premium chocolate brand in the UK, the huge range of high quality chocolate products and gift baskets from Hotel Chocolat* gives you plenty to choose from. There is pretty much every flavour of chocolate you can imagine, all available in a range of products. Selection packs, bars of chocolate, as well as chocolate-based alcoholic drinks and chocolate-based beauty products.
As you’d expect, you can find free-from, low sugar and vegan-friendly chocolate products in their range. The products can start from as little as £5 (plus delivery), with some products up to £180 such as the rather impressive Signature Cabinet chocolate gift box*. From our experience, to purchase a suitably impressive gift bundle, you’ll want to have a budget of around £30 to £40 (plus delivery) per gift.
Cadbury Gifts Direct
An iconic favourite Cadbury Gifts Direct* sell Cadbury-based chocolate boxes, but that also includes other brands sold by Mondelez, the parent company of Cadbury. You can find gift hampers that include Bournville chocolate, Green & Blacks, Maynards Wine Gums, Maynards Jelly Babies, Liquorice Allsorts*, and more.
I particularly like their Classic Cadbury Hamper* for just £20 plus delivery (delivery is typically £5.95). There are of course larger hampers available (around £40) and they would particularly suit a team.
We’ve personally used Cadbury Gifts Direct to send about a dozen parcels and they’re superb. Everyone we’ve sent a Cadbury chocolate hamper to has been delighted and excited to receive it.
Cakes By Post
Lola’s Cupcakes
In a nutshell: Delivery by post, Edible Gifts, UK delivery
Lola’s Cupcakes* offer a range of deliverable cakes that will be sent in the post or by courier direct to your client or staff member.
A huge range of cakes perfect as business gifts, they offer brownie cake boxes* from £16.99, cupcake boxes from around £27.99, large cakes from around £18.50, as well as afternoon tea kits from £13.99.
Lola’s Cupcakes are sensitive to allergies and intolerances. You’ll find that they have cakes suitable for Vegans, Gluten-free cakes*, nut-free cakes, as well as low sugar cakes too. All of these options make it ideal for you to send cake to a client or employee who has a sensitivity to certain ingredients.
Sponge.co.uk
In a nutshell: Delivery by post, Edible Gifts, UK delivery
Like Lola’s Cakes, Sponge.co.uk are another cake retailer who can post your cakes directly to your clients and staff.
Sponge offer ‘Standard’ Sharing Cakes (starting from £37.50 including delivery), Baby Sponge Cakes (from £12.50 including delivery), and Cake Cards (from £10.50 including delivery). If you’re sending to a client team (rather than an individual), the sharing cakes that you can buy from Sponge.co.uk are superb. Their sharing cakes range from 4 portions to 14 portions, which is ideal for small teams.
Our Tip: The Baby Sponge Cakes are individually boxed as a pack of 4 or 8. If you don’t know what flavours your intended recipient might like, you simply choose a range of flavours to cover all bases. If you want something low cost, then their Cake Cards are always received well and can have 1 or 2 pieces of cake.
For all of their products, there are additional products that you can add, including cards, birthday candles, beverages (including alcholic ones) and tea bags.
Personalised Gifts
Getting Personal
Getting Personal* are known for a wide range of personalised products, including stationery, notebooks*, aprons*, photo frames, wall art, calendars, chocolate gifts*, and so much more.
Your order can be wrapped up in a luxury gift box and delivered using their fast delivery option too (ideal if you’re ordering last minute!). Plenty of positive reviews on Feefo, and plenty of chocolate, alcohol, beauty and home gifts to choose from.
Etsy
Etsy is a website where you can find handmade and vintage products, with a huge range of personalised products on offer. You could spend hours looking for the perfect gift, as there are so many interesting and unusual products to choose from.
If you know your client or staff member very well, then you’ll be able to find some particularly special handmade products, such as this personalised name sign, personalised Neon sign or this Harry Potter Wall Clock. There are thousands of products, so you’re going to want to start off with an idea or two!
Unusual Gifts
Send A Pizza Kit by Pizza Pilgrims
This is a brilliantly different idea for a gift, where you send a kit with fresh ingredients to make a fresh pizza, including fresh ready-made dough. Currently you can choose from Margherita or Double Pepperoni & Spicy Honey and the price starts from £23 (including delivery). For an optional £6.50 you can add a Nutella Ring (a chocolate pizza pudding) as a dessert too.
Given that this has fresh ingredients, you can pick the day for delivery. When it arrives, the box contains an ice block that keeps the ingredients cool whilst it’s being delivered by courier. We’ve had one of these Pizza Kits ourselves, and they are lovely!