Here’s a confession: Christmas shopping scares me. While I normally like buying presents for my friends and family any other time of the year, the pressure of finding the perfect gift™ is daunting and lowkey emotionally heavy. That’s why personal shoppers can be a godsend; they can walk you through your gifting insecurities and offer you support like a therapist—but retail.
If you’re stuck in this gifting limbo, too, heads up: Gift-Giving at SM, via The SM Store’s Call to Deliver, lets you have that extra help from your home. If you call #143SM (that’s #14376) or talk to them on Viber, you’ll be matched with a personal shopper. It’s like having your own personal assistant: On an audio or video call, tell them what kind of gifts you’re thinking of or what kind of person you’re buying a gift for, or a specific item on The SM Store’s catalog, and they’ll take care of the rest.
As the name suggests, Call to Deliver will bring the items to you—either to your home, straight to your giftee’s address, or to a designated curbside pickup point. This means you won’t have to brave through long Christmas shopping lines or risk your safety by leaving your home. It also means you can pass on the task of having to run around the store to find a present for each person on your naughty-nice list.
Honestly, it combines the best aspects of online shopping and visiting the store yourself: You check all the boxes on your shopping list, while still getting that on-the-ground store experience. If you’re worried about the dimensions of a side table for your HGTV-obsessed BFF, your personal shopper can whip up those measurements. If you’re thinking of gifting a set of beginner but stylish baking accessories for your friend dabbling in New Age banana bread (she blesses ingredients before baking), your personal shopper can wrangle a set for you based on price range, style, color or mood. This service is best for people with short attention spans, last-minute shoppers, people exhausted at the thought of schlepping to different floors and anyone who appreciates, um, convenience.
Paying for your gifts via the service is also fairly uncomplicated and painless. There are multiple options available: You can do cash on delivery, or you can go contactless by paying through GrabPay and GCash, online payment or making a bank transfer.
If you really have no inkling of what they would like at all, you can also consider gifting your friends an SM Gift Card or two. Coming in denominations of either P500, P1000, or P2,000, it’s the perfect gift to give if you’ve got friends with many interests and you have no idea which present is the best for them. It’s def a win-win situation. Stay on top of the latest from The SM Store by following their official Facebook and Instagram pages.
Art by Jan Cardasto
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