“All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come,” said Victor Hugo. And there’s no exaggeration in this sentence. Ideas are a powerful thing. One idea turned into reality can change the destiny of millions. For example, Internet was just an idea once. But turned into reality, it is ruling over the world now.
I, being a novelist, fully realize the value of a good idea. Good ideas are precious, because they are so hard to come by. If you chase ideas, they often elude you like a playful butterfly, sometimes seeming almost within the reach of your fingertips, and then suddenly flitting away and getting lost with the wind. But sometimes, when you have your eyes turned the other way, the elusive butterfly comes by itself and settles down gently in your hand, and fills you up with marvel.
But why am I philosophizing about ideas on a tech blog, my readers might wonder. Well, because through the past one hour I was browsing through the result of one such good idea. No, not a world changing, earth shattering, all conquering kind of idea, but still a good and useful idea that is sure going to prove helpful to many. You see, it’s a website where you can shop.
‘What’s new in that?’ you would now be thinking. And rightly so because online shopping websites are already available in thousands on the World Wide Web. Well, what would you say if I tell you that this website has been designed to suggest most suitable gifts for any person of any age and for any occasion?
Yes, that’s what it does. It suggests you suitable gifts to give by showcasing interesting products being sold on various different online retailers. It helps you pick the gifts that your loved ones would love.
The website is aptly called Wishpicker. And it helps you select a suitable gift depending upon the person’s relationship to you, personality type, occasion for the gifting and even the type of gift.
- http://www.wishpicker.com/
There are three ways that you can select gifts on this website.
1. Search by setting up the available filters. The three basic filters to begin your search are relationship, age group and the occasion. In the relationship filter you can set whether the gift is to be for father, mother, niece, nephew, friend, etc. Age group categories include kid, teenager, youth (unmarried / married), senior etc. And Occasion includes categories like Birthday, anniversary or Just Like That etc. Once you hit Search after setting up these filters, several more options become available to allow you to narrow down your search by price range, personality type, type of gifts, payment mode, city, and even the expected delivery time.
2. If you don’t want to set up the filters, just scroll a little down and select from the available categories or types of gifts displayed in boxes below. Here you can select categories like Cakes, Flowers, Experiences, Gift Vouchers, Personalized Gifts, utility gifts etc. If you scroll even lower, you can also find suitable gifts from the relevant relationship and occasion boxes.
3. You can select gifts even by using your Facebook account. Just log in using Facebook and select the friend you want to give gift to. Wishpicker.com would read the Likes of that person and recommend gifts based on these Likes.
I tried using this option, but unfortunately, it did not work for me. When I clicked on ‘Find Gifts using Facebook’ button, it did nothing at all.
Wishpicker.com already has about 20 e-commerce partners. These include online retailers like Flipkart, Ferns and Petals, Fab Furnish etc. Wishpicker people do not hold inventory on their own. The website just hosts links to products being sold by other websites. The advantage of this for the users is that selected products from various retailers can be found at one place. And of course, if you feel like looking more of the products of that particular retailer, you can just follow the available link at the product page and visit the website of that retailer.
Wishpicker is as yet quite a new website. It was launched (in Beta) in Jun 2013. But considering the idea behind it, and considering the type of products that are already available on it, I think it has a great scope of flourishing. I’m definitely going to use it, not just to find gifts for others but also for myself. Oh yes, as I was browsing through it, I found several things on it that I definitely want to gift to myself.
What I also liked about the website is its neat and clean interface. Most e-commerce websites end up appearing too cluttered. But till now, wishpicker appears clean, well-organized and uncluttered. The user interface is also simple and quick.
There was one thing, however, that I found myself wishing for on the website. While setting up the filters for gift search, we can choose only one category. This is fine when it comes to setting up age or relationship. But I would have liked it better if I could select several options in parameters like personality type or gift type. Or maybe, the option to un-select the type you did not want, while browsing through the products of all other categories or types, such as cool, funky, personalized etc.
Over all, the website is a really good idea. It showcases various kinds of items like personalized product, gift vouchers, utility items, cool and funky stuff, gadgets, and popular books. And as it grows and develops and offers a greater variety of products, it is sure going to prove a useful tool to solve the old problem of selecting suitable gifts for our loved ones. I loved using it, and actually found some great products to gift to my niece and nephew, and to myself as well.
So, next time you face the problem of finding a suitable gift, here’s one address that might be able to help: http://www.wishpicker.com/
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Dream’s Sake
A Novel by Jyoti Arora
How far can a person go to fulfill the dreams of someone else?