After Four Years of Corporate Gifting, Here's What We Know People Actually Keep: The Thoughtful Corporate Gift Guide

We've been making corporate gifts for companies in Vancouver — and increasingly, companies in other cities — since 2021. In that time, we've sent boxes to Lululemon, WeBC, Arlo Technologies, four law firms, two architecture studios, a restaurant group, and a cannabis company that wanted something "natural but sophisticated."

Here's what we've learned about what actually lands.

The gifts people keep

Every corporate gift falls into one of two categories: the kind people keep, and the kind that ends up in a drawer or donated to a charity auction. The difference almost never comes down to price. It comes down to whether the gift is something the recipient would have chosen for themselves.

Branded merchandise — logo mugs, branded notebooks, company-coloured socks — almost always ends up in the second category. People appreciate the gesture but rarely use the object, because the object is advertising, not a gift.

Products that are genuinely excellent at what they do, presented well, tend to end up in the first category. A face oil that someone uses every morning. A candle that makes their office smell different. A shea butter that their partner starts using too. These are gifts that become part of someone's life.

What we recommend for corporate gifting

For teams of under 90, a curated box with 3-4 products tends to work well. We suggest: the Face Soothe oil (everyone can use it), a shea butter (the scent is a choice — we recommend lavender for mixed groups), and a candle (people always remember it). Optional: add a piece of brass jewellery for a senior gift or as a standalone executive gift.

For larger teams, a single signature product with a custom label or card tends to be more scalable. We can do custom packaging with company messaging, production lead time permitting.

One honest thing

The best corporate gift we've ever sent was a box of six products with a handwritten card from Jackee that said nothing about the company and everything about why she makes what she makes. The recipient — a VP at a tech company — emailed six months later to say she'd used every product and was ordering more for herself.

Another story is of a client who ordered 98 gift boxes for her event, our founder Jackee included one for her as a thank you with our face oil, she started using it and couldn't believe how well it worked for her, "I have tried everything and finally this works!" Her face was clearing up and dark spots fading and her face always moisturized, she's now a repeat customer loving the products.

Gifts that feel personal beat gifts that feel corporate. Even when they're being given corporately.