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How gifts are selected: Shoppers answer questions about the recipient, then narrow the results by price, gift category and sentiment (fun, practical, religious, etc.).
Best ideas:
- A. Craft of the Month Club ($25).
- B. Deluxe gadget-charging station ($48.95).
- C. Four-ply cashmere scarf ($39).
- D. Trunk It golf-gear organizer ($36.99).
- E. Chrome fruit bowl ($39.95).
Performance: good. Easy sort features help users narrow hundreds of choices into a manageable list. We encountered plenty of unusual offerings, such as an acre of land on the moon for our engaged couple. Most of the products come from mom-and-pop retailers. (It's all part of the site's goal, founder Bob Zakrewski says. "A lot of items are ones you won't see at the local mall, and we find shoppers like that.")
How gifts are selected: Users first browse categories based on age or a wide range of personality traits (politically incorrect, always cold, gadgeteer), then narrow selection by type of gift.
Best ideas:
- A. Singer Scrapbook sewing machine for decorating scrapbook pages ($25.79).
- B. Keyboard and mouse for online gamers ($34.95).
- C. In Style: Secrets of Style, a fashion-buying guide from InStyle magazine ($27.95).
- D. Tabletop golf-themed Zen garden ($22.49).
- E. Newlywed cooking kit ($34.95).
Performance: OK. There were just a handful of gifts for each category and often only one or two in our price range. There were lots of iffy gifts, too -- such as the slimming underwear it advised for our fashionista.
(Surprise.com's President Darrell Benatar says odd items sometimes show up through retailer feeds. "We clean these up manually," he says.)
This article was reported and written by Kelli B. Grant for SmartMoney.
Published Nov. 26, 2008
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