There’s an easy way to find the perfect gift. Say hello to needi!

A group of people coming together to give someone the perfect gift is a special moment. Whether it’s a milestone birthday, a show of recognition and appreciation for a colleague moving on to pastures new or even one of life’s special moments like a new house or the birth of a new baby.

The hard part before you get to this magic moment? Actually finding that perfect gift. Let’s think about it…..

Your time is in short supply. Work shows no sign of slowing down. You can add this job to your list that grows every minute/hour/day. You’ve stepped up to organise this gift and now you’re met with radio silence in the WhatsApp group when you ask if anyone has ideas for a present.

Google isn’t your friend here either and endless pages of  ‘Top 10 Gifts for Colleagues/Teenagers/Someone who loves wine’ (delete as appropriate) aren’t getting you any closer to that mythical gift. The clock’s ticking.

Enter needi!

Who are needi?

needi are the people that are going to give you your time back, take the stress out of the gift-finding process and let you go back to herding your friends like cats to cough up the money they owe for the gift instead.

The gifting marketplace was founded in 2020 by Louise Doyle and Steph Scholes, they describe the mission of needi better than anyone….

‘Our passion for supporting amazing local businesses and finding extraordinary gifts lead us to create needi. A thoughtful, stress-free gift-matching service that’s great for people and our planet.’

So what makes needi different then?

A good place to start here is with the lightbulb moment for Lou and Steph that became the inspiration behind needi. They found out that 84% of people find gift-shopping stressful, 50% of Brits admit receiving gifts they dislike and 1 in 5 gifts go to landfill. Something had to change - the planet and giftees were suffering too much!

Rather than continue with the same tired process that wasn’t working for anyone, they found a smart way to make gifting simple using their gift-matching algorithm. Instead of feeling guilty about a last-minute, hastily put together present, you can be confident that needi’s  gift-finder will lead you to a unique gift which is sure to leave a lasting feel-good impression.

How does it work to help you find the perfect gift?

needi’s technical wizardry combined with their gifting know-how ensures you get the perfect gift every time through a three step process:

1. Discover - Complete some simple questions about your recipient
2. Match - They will match you to your perfect gift options instantly
3. Gift - Send the gift they’re sure to love with your personalised message

Best of all, if the unique gifts you’re matched with just aren’t quite right, needi have a team of gift-mad experts to help you find the perfect gift! The team are specially trained in the art of gift-giving, knowing how important those final, little touches are and they know the range of products from front-to-back.

This is a godsend for work colleague gifts. Birthdays, leavers, marriages, babies, retirements - there’s always something going on right?

And let’s face it, at one point we’ve all been nominated to organise something before you’ve even had a chance to put a hand up. ‘Oh, Joe, you know Adam, I think it’s best that you lead on this?’. Now the problem is, having one conversation with Adam at the coffee machine a year ago about the weather does NOT actually qualify me as knowing him! I need help. 

This is where the personal touch of needi’s gift experts really proves useful. You can chat to them over Whatsapp, Messenger, Email or even arrange a call at a time most suitable for you. Yes that’s right, your own personal shopper, for free!

Who are the merchants on needi?

All of the merchants are quality, independent UK businesses, carefully curated to make sure they meet the highest standards expected by needi and provide personalised gifts that will last long in the memory.

From health & beauty to hampers, alcohol to afternoon tea, needi’s marketplace truly has you covered with Lou & Steph’s stamp of approval.

How do you buy your gift through needi?

If you are already a Collctivite, you can head straight through to needi’s gift finder tool directly from your Collctiv Gift pot. Just make sure you’ve updated to the latest app version, head into your pot, select ‘Buy a Gift’ and ‘Choose a physical present’. 

From there, our friends over at needi will take care of everything for you. You can tick that job off your list, confident it’s taken care of and put your energy towards the other tasks that come part and parcel of something like this.

‘Has everyone signed the card? How are we going to present the gift to Adam? Do we have balloons, cake, drinks? What do you mean it’s been brought forward to tomorrow?!?’

Take a deep breath and let needi make sure your giftee feels valued and recognised. It’s the least they deserve!

Need to collect for a gift for a work colleague?

Gone are the days of the brown paper envelope. No longer can  you minesweep for the loose change in people’s pockets - not least because they don’t carry cash any more but also because very rarely, since Covid, is everyone in the office together, if at all!
So you face a dilemma - do you send your bank details out to everyone across the email network? I mean, you spend time shredding your mail to ensure less obtrusive details can be gathered, so ideally you really don’t want the details of your current account floating around the email inboxes of the majority of your organisation.
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Then there’s the issue of trying to reconcile payments against all of the other activity on your account. Direct debits, food shops, refunds from online outfits you sent back last week. I mean, you can guarantee people won’t follow instructions and put the simple reference you asked for on their payments can’t you? So you’ll then need to spend yet more time studiously scouring your statement, highlighter in hand, to identify who has paid what and when.
People often forget as well the added pressure on those organising these things: everyone else’s money - that they gave in goodwill for beloved Barbara - is now sitting in your personal account! Who’s to say the company won’t receive an email from you from a beach in Mexico, sipping on a Pina Colada with the subject line  ‘So long, suckers!’. Of course, you know that’s NEVER going to happen, but you can be fairly sure it’s crossing people’s minds to some extent…in some instances it’s actually against company policy, potentially breaching bribery policies, or simply on a moral level, it can make you feel compromised or exposed.

How can I easily arrange a money pool in my workplace?

So how about this - an app that makes it easy to collect money from people whilst also making it easy for people to pay in? Too good to be true? I think not.
Collctiv is a free app that allows you as the organiser to create a money pool that in turn generates you a payment link or QR code. People paying in simply click this link or scan the QR code and within 10 seconds have paid into the office whip-round…..from anywhere! They haven’t needed to download the app, create an account or activate an email. They just tap to pay and the funds are right there (anonymous to everyone but you) in your pot!  

Organisers bring people together. 

Since 2019 Collctiv has helped over 250,000 people from 83 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's gifts for colleagues, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - download our free app today and start bringing people together!

A group of people coming together to give someone the perfect gift is a special moment. Whether it’s a milestone birthday, a show of recognition and appreciation for a colleague moving on to pastures new or even one of life’s special moments like a new house or the birth of a new baby.