Ad costs are rising and customer loyalty is shrinking, with shoppers narrowing their allegiance to as few as one to five brands. In this Shero Live session, Beth Shero sits down with Liz Lorge, Marketing Lead at Zest, and Shero's Digital Marketing Strategist Ashley Gates to explore why gifting is one of the most underused growth channels in eCommerce.
From frictionless multi-ship checkout to turning gift recipients into opted-in customers, the conversation gets into what brands are missing and what the data shows is already working.
In this episode
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Why 20 to 30% of total website sales may already be gift purchases, and what to do with that number
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How Zest's multi-ship checkout removes the friction that kills gifting conversions, and what that means for average order value
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The email automation flows Shero recommends setting up the moment you go live with gifting
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How brands like Levain Bakery and Milk Bar doubled revenue and cut processing time from weeks to days
Watch the full episode on YouTube
Episode highlights
Gifting has always been a pain point for eCommerce brands, not because they haven't tried, but because the technology to do it well simply didn't exist. Liz Lorge explains how Zest built its corporate gifting product first, helping brands manage bulk orders without the weeks of manual back-and-forth, before launching a consumer gifting product baked directly into the Shopify checkout. The result is a shopper who can send gifts to multiple recipients in a single transaction without picking up the phone or filling out a contact form.
One of the most significant features Zest introduced is the ability for gift recipients to opt into a brand's marketing after receiving a package. Until now, brands could identify who their loyal gifters were, but had no way to connect with the people on the receiving end. Liz describes these recipients as the hottest leads a brand has ever had: people already experiencing the product, with no friction standing between them and becoming repeat customers or gifters themselves.
Ashley walked through the email flows Shero recommends building alongside any Zest integration: a welcome sequence for new gift recipients, a customized abandoned-cart reminder for gifting orders, a post-purchase thank-you with a prompt for feedback, and a B2B follow-up to maintain corporate relationships. The point Ashley made that lands hardest: gifting is not a Q4 play. Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, graduations, and weddings keep the channel active all year, and the brands that stay top of mind as the easiest place to buy a gift online will keep winning repeat visits long after the holiday season ends.