Screenshots from the Hugsi app, designed to help people better understand what types of gifts they should be giving and receiving. (Hugsi Images)
If you're headed out to start your holiday gift shopping on Black Friday, or you're excited about what gifts might be coming your way this season, a new company called Hugsi could help the experience, for givers and getters.
Husband and wife co-founders Alex and Natalie Fairhart are behind the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup, in partnership with Dr. Julian Givi, an assistant professor at West Virginia University who is a leading expert on consumer behavior and the psychology of gift giving.
Hugsi wants to solve, with the creation of an app (iOS, Google Play), a problem that the Fairharts were experiencing in their own lives — understanding what a gift receiver really wants and helping relay that info to the gift giver. But it's not just another online wishlist.
"The core proposal of our business is that everyone has their own gift language," Alex Fairhart told GeekWire. "It's kind of like the love languages. If you want to show love to someone, you have to understand their love language or something could be lost in translation. And, it turns out, it's kind of the same thing with gift giving."
Bellevue, Wash.-based Hugsi co-founders Natalie and Alex Fairhart. (Hugsi Photo)
The couple's first step was to work with Givi to develop a quiz called The Gift Language Quiz. The 12-question quiz gets to the root of which types of gifts make people feel the most loved and appreciated. Assorted "languages" for these types of gifts, determined by how users answer the questions, include:
- Time together: The gift of spending time with the giver.
- Experiences: Tickets to events, vouchers for services, etc.
- Autonomy: For people who want to buy for themselves with gift cards or cash.
- Tangible goods: For people who like receiving physical products.
- Sentimentality: Gifts for people who like deeply personal items such as letters or photos.
- Give forward: For people who like giving to a cause or volunteering.
Beyond just generating a simple wishlist website, Hugsi aims to better understand the psychology of gift giving and receiving, and learn about the people who use its tools.
Hugsi does collect a list of items that people may want to receive, but it then studies those items and what it learned about the user from the quiz and, with some artificial intelligence and algorithmic wizardry thrown in, generates an unlimited list of gift items that a giver could pick out for that person.
"It still gives the gift giver a chance to be creative and inspired and do things in a way that feels like it's right for the relationship," Fairhart said.
Dr. Julian Givi, assistant professor at West Virginia University. (Photo courtesy of Givi)
Givi has given gift giving a lot of thought with a number of published papers over the past decade, exploring why people give like they do and what we expect when we're about to open something.
He's excited that Hugsi combines science and psychology to hone in on a process that many people struggle with or don't bother examining more closely.
But what about the whole notion of it's the thought that counts when it comes to receiving gifts? Givi still believes that.
"A nice thing about Hugsi is that if someone goes to the effort of looking through your profile, choosing a gift, that's showing care, right?" Givi said. "Not only should [Hugsi] direct people in the right direction, but it's also showing that they're putting thought toward you."
Fairhart admits it's a sensitive topic and Hugsi aims to be thoughtful in the way that it presents its solution. The goal is to "make sure that we're building tools that are respectful and appreciative of the efforts that people are already making and just meant to augment that," he said.
Fairhart still works for another side business called Personal Water Systems that pays the bills, as Hugsi has not raised any money yet.
The team is exploring ways to monetize the app in the future, but Fairhart said they're not interested in promoting a specific product or service, because that defeats the point.
"If we learn that someone just loves having a hug from their friend, and that's what they want more than anything else, we never want to be incentivized against them getting what they want," he said.
Conveniently, plenty of people want more than a hug for the holidays, and people's lists on Hugsi can feature desired goods and services, too.
"There are opportunities to make some money when people choose to buy those kinds of gifts," Fairhart added.
Other tech-focused startups aiming to improve the gift-giving experience include Seattle-area companies Knack, GiveInKind, and Tokki, as well as services such as Goody and Givingli.
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