On curated site, gift givers offer recipients a hand-picked choice

Wantful is a new service that helps gift givers put together a hand-picked selection of items from which recipients can choose which they'd like best.

The challenges of gift giving may be felt most keenly at this time of year, but there’s no end in sight to the companies willing to help make it easier. Enter Wantful, a new service that helps gift givers put together a hand-picked selection of items from which recipients can choose which they’d like best. With offices in San Francisco and New York City, Wantful aims to offer a more personal solution for struggling gift givers than the ubiquitous and impersonal gift card. Toward that end, it helps customers put together a curated selection of 16 tasteful gifts. Users begin by answering a few basic questions about the recipient’s personality, style and taste. Next, they indicate how much they’d like to spend — from USD 30 to USD 500. Wantful then helps them assemble a collection of suited products from artisans, designers and hard-to-find brands. From that array Wantful creates a customized and stylishly printed gift book, wrapped in Japanese rice paper, that can be sent directly to the recipient by post, email or via Facebook. Finally, the recipient peruses the book and selects the item they’d like; when they indicate their choice online using a unique code from the book, Wantful delivers the item directly to their home. Wantful launched a preview version of its service in October. One to partner with early on or to emulate with localized versions in other parts of the world? Spotted by: Murtaza Patel