Gift for someone you don't know well

We all know the feeling. You need to buy a gift for someone you don't know very well. The new colleague who has only been with the company for two weeks. The mother-in-law you've only seen three times. The client with whom you've had one single video call. And you don't want to show up with something that clearly wasn't thought about for a second, but you also have no idea what that person likes.

The result is usually one of three things: a bottle of wine (safe but not special), a gift card (easy but impersonal), or something you like yourself and hope the other person will be happy with too. That last strategy rarely works. Behavioral scientists call it the intention gap: the difference between what the giver thinks the recipient wants and what the recipient actually appreciates.

Why guessing is so difficult

The problem is not that you're not trying your best. The problem is structural. You simply don't have enough information to make a good choice. You don't know if someone likes wine, is allergic to nuts, already has three candles on the sideboard, or just received the same gift set from someone else six months ago.

And the less you know someone, the greater the chance that you'll get it wrong. Research shows that more than half of people sometimes receive a gift they don't want or use. That's not a pleasant statistic when you've just spent an hour picking out the right present.

The strategies that do work

There are a few approaches that consistently score well, even when you don't know someone well:

Choose something that everyone can use, but that doesn't feel generic. Think of quality products that are used daily: a good water bottle, nice tea, more generic care products such as a luxurious hand soap or shower foam. These are things that appeal to almost everyone, but because of the quality or the brand, they still feel like a thoughtful gift. Our always-good guide features gifts that you can never go wrong with.

Choose an experience instead of a physical thing. An outing, a workshop, a dinner voucher. Experiences are generally received more positively than physical gifts because they don't take up space and aren't a matter of taste. On Cadeo, you can find options like Toudou outings - from wellness to food and drinks. But Nature's Gift also offers all kinds of original experiences you can give as a gift.

Let the recipient choose. This might sound like the easy option, but it's actually the smartest. You give someone the freedom to decide what suits them best - and that actually feels more personal to the recipient than a well-intentioned but wrong gift. Research in Frontiers in Psychology (2023) confirms this: gifts that support autonomy trigger significantly more gratitude. And while this may feel like an impersonal option, with Cadeo you can personalize everything surrounding this gift. We'll tell you more about that later.

What you'd better not do

Avoid gifts that are too personal if you don't know someone well. Perfume, clothing, jewelry, books on specific topics - these are all things where taste and preference play a big role. The chance that you get it right is small, and the chance that the recipient feels uncomfortable is real.

Also avoid gifts with a message. A self-help book, a fitness product, something that implicitly says "I think you should do something about or with this." That is never how you mean it, but it is how it can come across.

And avoid the classic safety net of the generic gift card. Not because it is a bad gift, but because it communicates exactly what you are trying to avoid: I didn't know what to give.

The easiest solution

With a choice gift through Cadeo, you turn the problem around. Instead of guessing what someone wants, you let the recipient choose for themselves. You put the gift together - the budget, a personal message, optionally in your own corporate identity - and the recipient receives a link to a selection portal where they can choose something themselves.

The range contains more than 1,200 products: from physical gifts and local design brands to experiences, gift cards, and donations. Per price category, there are on average about 130 options, so the recipient has plenty of choice without getting overwhelmed. And because you set the framework - the budget, the look, the message - it doesn't feel like a generic voucher. It feels like a gift you've thought about, even if you didn't choose the product yourself.

The redemption rate of 95% actually says it all: almost everyone actually chooses something. Compare that with the 15 to 20% of generic gift cards that are never used.

Schedule an introduction and discover how it works.