‘Minorstones’: The New Milestones
Trend forecasters WGSN have identified a shift in what consumers are celebrating. While traditional occasions like weddings and homeownership remain significant, there's a growing trend towards celebrating more personal, accessible moments, such as pet birthdays, paying off student loans, and professional achievements.
They call these micro-moments 'minorstones', and it’s a trend worth paying attention to as part of your gifting proposition.
A beloved pet's birthday is rapidly becoming one of the most popular minorstones to celebrate. Follow Jane @greyt_jane ready for 8th birthday content incoming shortly.
Why Supporting ‘Minorstones’ is Good for Your Brand
If you can tap into these ‘minorstones’, they can significantly boost your Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). Individually, they might not seem impactful, but collectively, they can greatly improve your repeat rates.
For instance, at online flower gifting company Bloom & Wild, ‘just because’ occasions consistently rank in the top five reasons for sending flowers.
Year-Round Occurrences: These moments can happen anytime, giving customers more reasons to shop during otherwise quiet periods for gifting.
Increased Frequency: They occur more frequently than milestone events, which is excellent for boosting repeat rates.
Stand Out and Connect: Supporting ‘minorstones’ offers a chance to differentiate your brand and create a personal connection with your customers, demonstrating your values and thoughtfulness. Plus, you're not competing with the noise of big milestone occasions like new home and wedding gifting.
How to Help Your Customers Celebrate Their ‘Minorstones’
The key, as with much of e-commerce, is to make it as easy as possible for your customer to discover, decide, and deliver:
Provide Inspiration: Everyone is busy. It's challenging enough to remember to buy a present for a wedding that’s been in the calendar for a year, let alone more spontaneous but non-traditional gifts. Help your customers be there for the loved ones in their lives by providing inspiration. Feature suggestions in your newsletters, organic socials, or on your website through product merchandising or blog posts.
Make it Irresistible: When we see the perfect gift for someone we love, we can't help ourselves. Think carefully about ways to introduce this irresistibility into your gifting range. Product naming, thoughtful touches to packaging, and combining products into gift sets in a unique but thoughtful way all contribute to making a gift that customer’s can’t help but buy.
Smooth & Seamless: Make sure you’re not standing in their way! A frictionless checkout and seamless delivery are crucial, especially for something that could be considered non-essential. Review your end-to-end experience to ensure there are no hiccups or blockers that might cause your customer to drop off, or frustrate them once the order has been placed.
Some of our favourite ‘minorstones’ to get you started:
A pet’s birthday (hopefully Jane has given you some inspo)
Completing a physical endurance challenge like a marathon, Iron Man or (if you’re like us, a very slow 5k)
A quitting your job party
A kitchen extension opening party (Joe Lycett set the bar high here)
PhD submission (no matter how many times it was pushed back)
