Golden Diwali for corporates

If you are lucky, your employer could gift you a gold coin, or a heavy Kanjeevaram silk saree for Diwali this year.
With the economy reviving, albeit marginally , corporates are going all out to please their employees with expensive gifts.
While the concept of gifting sweets for the festival season has been around for decades, gifts are now getting quirkier, bigger and more expensive.Companies are moving away from the clichéd diaries, stationery and home and kitchen utilities, and are coming out with more expensive, innovative gifts.
Companies are shelling out as much as '20,000 for gifts for important business associates this Diwali. Even at the second rung, the average gifting budget has also risen to a minimum of '1,000 as against '350 or '500 a year or two ago.
"Over the years, we see that budgets are getting bigger. Gifting is becoming a craze and is one of the major segments of purchase," says K Sivakumar, managing director of the 100-yearold sari retailer RmKV. This year, the company sold silk saris in bulk, each worth about '5,000. " A silk sari is a handy gift for smaller companies and, for those who want things easier, we also give gift vouchers. These are becoming popular and we have requests for gift vouchers worth '20,000 this festive season," he says.
The penetration of internet and popularity of online shopping has made gifting easier, companies say. That they all give discounts for bulk orders, and value-added services like gift wrapping, is an added incentive.
For gifting amongst family, people are spending as much as '75,000, ordering saris and gold and diamond jewellery. "The average value of a gift for a daughter from a father is about '50,000 and from a son to his mother is about '50,000. We have shipped about 350 items in the last month," says V Thiyagarajan, director of ZaAmor, an online jewellery retailer. The company has also shipped 300 gold coins for a corporate house, he says.
"We got an order last week for 5kg of silver, and we thought it was a mistake. Later, we found that it was a small-time professional who wanted to gift 10g silver coins to his employees. We are seeing such bulk orders for bullion this year," says Sachin Kothari, director of gold and silver bullion trader BullionIndia. The company received orders for fewer number of pieces, but of greater value, like a 20g gold coin, he says.
People are also spending on other things like personalised wrappers and ribbons. "In addition to ordering premium gifts like Belgian chocolates, watches or marzipan specially made by boutique shops, people are spending on customised and personalised gift wrapping and ribbons. We have experts on the site who help customise the gifts, adding oneliners etc," says Ashish Chandani, COO of giftease.com, a gifting portal.