Arigato Gift
Arigato is a Toronto-based gift box service that offers gift subscription plans to corporations and individuals. Arigato’s goal is to support neighbourhood businesses that have struggled during the pandemic and assist our community's creators and designers, take care of the environment and ensure that gifts are ethically-sourced
Thoughtfully curated moments of care & a community that cares
My role
As a passion project and side venture, I co-founded a gift box subscription service called Arigato. I worked with other founders and acted as the product designer to expand the product vision of a corporate gifting app to direct to consumer product. I managed the product as it passed through the various stages of vision, user interviews, branding, strategy, design, MVP and public launch.
Product
Arigato aims to provide beautiful, customized packages full of cozy, memorable gifts, to bring teams, friends and family together across distances during hard times like pandemic.
Every Arigato Box is unique and we have more than a dozen of themed boxes such as Nest, Excite, Indulge, etc with varied gifts all ethically and locally sourced.
EVOLUTION
When we first discussed the product, the focus was on a corporate gifting subscription service. Efficient market segmentation helped us to allocate our resources towards the niche market that was most supportive of our product. The initial concept and MVP had positive feedback during user interviews and surveys, which helped us push the evolution of the product. Data also showed a handful of other B2C solutions with similar features that fully got off the ground prior to launch. These solutions also helped facilitate the marketing strategies.
Social Impact
The social impact was crucial in the product vision, and we made our goal to source gifts from small and local businesses in Toronto to support them during the pandemic.
Right at the toughest hit during the pandemic in Canada and all around the world, the team decided to provide gifts to frontline health care workers sourced from local businesses in Toronto and the GTA as a token of appreciation for their support and hard work during the pandemic. The initiative is called #giftthefrontline and during this non-profit campaign, we collected donations and sent over 200 gift boxes to healthcare workers in Toronto.
The care packages contained a selection of primarily locally-sourced items designed to promote self-care. Within only a few weeks of launching the initiative, we’ve managed to put a smile on the faces of a few dozen frontline workers with our care packages at SickKids hospital and Community Living Toronto. And this is only the beginning.
Key takeaways
Socially-driven startups can be equipped with the tools, mentorship and community needed to generate company growth while accelerating their ability to create meaningful change and contribute to their core mission.
As an entrepreneur, you have to communicate your social impact clearly with your team early and often before you can make the case for doing it externally. It has to be ingrained in everything you do. And it must naturally connect to your business’ mission and vision.