Gift Hampers in the 1800's

The tradition of giving gifts is not new but the process of doing so has changed considerably over the last two hundred years. Imagine giving a gift hamper back in the 1800’s. A lot of people lived in close communities but many had migrated to bigger cities and a lot of people emigrated overseas. The logistics of sending birthday presents to someone in Australia from London for example would involve a months-long journey by ship. After that arduous journey, the gift hamper would be delivered by either a policeman or convict on foot. By horse became a popular means of distributing gifts in the earlier part of the century with rail to follow quickly in the latter half. Using these methods the gift basket, if intended as a birthday gift, would be almost obsolete as the birthday would have been on a date many months prior!

Gift Hampers in the 1900's

Jump forward to the 1900’s and the introduction of aeroplane delivery created a much faster means of gift delivery to places like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, though rail still played an important part. Throughout this era gift hamper delivery became much quicker as routes became better serviced and the population grew to accommodate more postal centres.

Gift Hampers in the 2000's

Let’s now consider the year 2000 and beyond. With the introduction of the Internet, gift basket delivery means shoppers no longer have to leave home to shop for gifts. No more going to the local shopping mall to combine gift ideas, drive back home to package them up and back to the post office for sending. Now, shoppers have the luxury of shopping online and having their gift delivered overnight to major centres like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The Value of Gifts

The choice of gift ideas has grown immeasurably and shoppers are now concerned with gifts that are value for money and many want to buy Australian made, organic and handmade. Particularly when choosing gifts, shoppers want to ensure the gift they are giving is going to have a positive impact on the recipient.

Now that gifts have become so accessible and easy to deliver the number of people shopping online has increased dramatically. It is reported that more than 50% of Australian’s (source: www.abc.net.au) now shop online. And they do so because the choice is there, it’s fast and it’s easy.

For people living overseas, it’s the perfect way to shop at home then have a gift basket delivered for a number of occasions to a friend or relative. Take for example our earlier example of delivering a gift between Australia and London. Now, the gift itself doesn’t have to travel the distance, it can simply be ordered online and posted from within Australia.

Shoppers looking for corporate gift baskets can find a range of choices from ‘thank you gifts’ for hard work undertaken to ‘congratulations’ on an internal promotion and even baby shower gifts for Mother’s heading off on maternity leave. Similarly, Christmas gift ideas are now much easier to find online and have safely delivered for the special day.

Ultimately, shopping for gifts and occasions is easier and faster than ever before and we look forward to the next two hundred years of change!