How to Find the Perfect (Unique) Gift When You’re Short on Time

Gift-shopping for adults is difficult. Kids are easy – they want the latest toys or video games. But adults are harder, for many reasons, the following among them:

• He already has everything
• The only things he doesn’t have are the things he can’t afford, and I can’t afford them either
• He won’t tell me what he wants
• He doesn’t know what he wants
• I don’t have time to shop
• etc.

Here’s the rub: finding gifts for your special someone means discovering things that they haven’t already found. And in order to do that, you have to spend more time searching for gifts than they spend shopping for themselves. It’s an arms race!

Lately there are a few interesting sources of unique products cropping up – first and foremost Etsy, a marketplace for handmade goods. Etsy is a phenomenal resource because since most of their artists sell only small quantities of products, everything on the site is unique.

The downside, however, is that there’s a lot of kitsch and crap to sift through. Anyone can sell on Etsy, and they do, so the gems are buried in mountains of crochet owls and more crochet owls. Disclaimer: I do think these crochet owls are kind of cute.

This is exactly why I created my site, Hex Goods; I wanted to create a retail experience where amazingly talented independent designers can really shine. And while I do think we’ve found a few gems, we’re still very early and our selection is limited. So while we get our merchandising engine up and running, let me offer a few pieces of advice for those who are searching for unique gifts.

Pinterest has been getting quite a bit of attention lately for making discovery quick and easy. People post pictures that they like on ‘pinboards’, and you can look at an endless supply of pictures of things that people like. Pinterest is great for getting ideas for gifts, because you can quickly absorb hundreds of pictures at once. The only downside is that most of the things you’ll find on Pinterest aren’t available for purchase (or at least aren’t linked to), so it’s better for generating ideas than it is for shopping. Once you’ve found something you like on Pinterest, you can see if it’s available on other sites like Amazon or Etsy.

2. Let someone else search for you

There are a number of folks out there who do their own curation of sites like Etsy, including Etsy Stalker and Etsy Dudes. They help find the diamonds in the rough, so you don’t have to spend all your time digging through Etsy. Design blogs like Design Milk and Design*Sponge are great as well, although many of the products they feature are not available for purchase.

3. Find almost-available products on Kickstarter and Quirky

Kickstarter, a crowd-funding site for new creative ideas, and Quirky, a “social product development” site, both feature many products that are not-quite-available, in slightly different forms. Kickstarter’s products are made by individuals who are looking to fund their projects (and for many of them if you fund, you get the product when it becomes available). Quirky lets groups of people come together to design new products, and you can put down your credit card to purchase them when they are manufactured (some products that they’ve already started manufacturing are available now). Both of these sites will help you be on the cutting-edge of gift-giving, but you may be leaving an IOU for a future gift under the tree.

Finally, be sure to check out what we’ve got to offer at Hex Goods! If you like our concept but don’t find a product you’re in love with, be sure to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Facebook to stay informed when we receive new products!

Happy shopping,
Zach