India being a country with a gifting tradition for every occasion — “be it happiness or grief”, Frenchman Mathieu Jouve-Villard and Jeremy Grasset found the country the ideal place to launch Dhoombox. The Indo-French venture offers the services of packing gift boxes with vouchers and catalogues. The user can redeem the vouchers at any of the 30-40 locations listed in each package after choosing the service.
“We initially started with categories like wellness, getaway, gastronomy and kids in the Delhi region and adventure for the whole of India,” says Grasset. He noticed the concept working well in Europe and thought of trying out in the Indian market.
“The uniqueness of Dhoombox is to give the choice to customers because I think choice is the major thing in gifts,” says Gasset, living in India for the last eight years. According to him, the two-year-old venture “is growing 60 per cent per year.”
Keeping Diwali in mind, it has brought out an exclusive gift box for customers. The box contains a concoction of special activities called the ‘Dhoombox Diwali Choice Festive Season Gift Offer’ that promises to please at least one person in the family.
“We have done different boxes for every occasion. Diwali is the current one and in the coming month we’ll have a ‘shaadi box’,” says Grasset.
The Diwali box has two vouchers for Rs.500 and Rs.1500, offering different services in restaurants, spas and children’s activities.
Talking about their target audience, Jeremy says, “Although Dhoombox is for everyone but if we talk selectively, we target from the Indian middle income group to high income group, from the age group of 20 to 60.” He says, “We don’t have much competition as it is a very new concept, but as it is getting known, people are trying to adapt it.”
The duo is planning to expand the services to other metros as well.
The Diwali boxes are available in ten retail markets in Delhi. You can also head to the Archie’s Store in Connaught Place, Defence Colony Market, Gift Palace in Khan Market or Westside in Central Market for it. A Dhoombox gift box can also be brought on the Internet and other gifting websites, through mobile phones, etc.
