Considering &Open as your partner for gifting needs? Unsure about what they offer and what they lack? Well, if you’re looking for an in-depth review of &Open, then you’ve come to the right place! 

In this comprehensive analysis, we’ll examine &Open’s capabilities, best use cases, and disadvantages to help you determine if it’s the best gifting platform for you.

&Open Overview

&Open was founded in 2017 by Jonathan Legge, Mark Legge, and Ciara Flood in Ireland. Even from its early days, &Open has already positioned itself as a corporate gifting platform that is built around sustainability and ethical sourcing. 

&Open helps businesses foster stronger relationships with employees, customers, and partners through thoughtful gifting and curated campaigns.

Main Features

Curious about what makes &Open stand out? Here’s a closer look at their best features.

Ease of sending

&Open simplifies gift sending for its users by only requiring them to provide an email address. The rest of the gifting process is handled by the platform. This is great if you’re in a hurry or have a busy schedule and can’t take care of the gifts yourself.

Campaign curation

Another key feature of &Open is its curated campaigns. With this, you can make each gift within the campaign more personalized or tailored to your target recipient, allowing you to better connect with them. You can also work with your dedicated point of contact, who will help you design a campaign strategy that aligns with your company’s brand and goals.

Gift tracking

With &Open, you can easily see the status of your gifts. In their tracking page, you’ll see the request reference number, your recipient’s details, and your gift message. There is also a unique link directly associated with each of your individual gifts that you can use in a private email, DM, or text message to remind your recipients to redeem their gift.

Pricing

&Open offers two subscription tiers to its users. However, these tiers don’t have a price on their website as they are tailored depending on your company’s needs, so you would need to get in touch with their team. Nevertheless, we’ll dive into the features and benefits of each pricing tier they have.

Self-Serve

Under this tier, you have the ability to send your gifts globally (180+ countries) and store them in &Open’s warehouses. Gift options include custom physical and digital gifts. As for the customization, you can send your artwork to &Open’s team and they’ll provide you with a mockup of your design on the gift. CRM integrations are also included in this tier.

Super-Served

Super-Served builds on the features of Self-Serve. The most notable differences are the ability to create gifts and kit bundles and a dedicated account manager. In terms of customization and gifts, you can create a gift collection for specific recipients or have &Open’s team curate and source unique gifts for your campaigns. You may also ask for custom integrations under this tier.

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Sustainable approach to swag: If you and your company are conscious about your carbon footprint, then choosing &Open is a good choice due to their overall sustainable approach with gifts and vendors.

✅ Good security measures: The platform is SOC2 compliant and also works with SSO platforms, such as Okta and Auth0, to ensure strict data and access security for its users.

✅ Campaign reporting and statistics: Alongside curated campaigns, &Open also provides its users with important data that enables them to manage and track the success of their campaigns and other gift initiatives.

Cons

❌ Exclusion of shipping fee on gift prices: A gift’s price on &Open’s platform doesn’t include the shipping fee, which may cause confusion, especially when you’re adding budgets for your team or recipients.

❌ Lack of HRIS integration: &Open doesn't offer HRIS integrations, meaning you won't be able to connect your current workflow with the platform. While custom integrations can be request if you're a Super-Served user, HRIS integrations aren't automatically provided.

❌ No automation for milestones: &Open doesn’t offer automation for onboarding new hires and employee milestones like work anniversaries and birthdays.

&Open is best for…

… companies prioritizing sustainability and ethical sourcing 👍

As established early on, &Open is deeply committed to sustainable gifting. As such, if you or your clients put great value on eco-friendly gifts or a gifting approach, then &Open’s can be a great gifting partner for you. The platform chooses its suppliers based on their strict adherence to ethical sourcing and overall process. &Open also prioritizes locally sourced gifts to lessen carbon emissions from deliveries.

… enterprises with strict security or SSO requirements 👍

&Open supports SSO integration, allowing you and your organization to securely manage user authentication through applications like Okta, Auth0, SecureAuth, and Shibboleth. This way, you can ensure that your employees can access the platform using their company credentials without needing separate passwords, reducing security risks. &Open’s SOC 2 Certification also guarantees that it manages and protects customer data effectively.

… managers who want zero customs fees 👍

Customs and local tax compliance can be tricky. Luckily, if you were to partner with &Open, you don’t have to worry about such things. The platform ships using the DDP incoterm, where it bears all the costs, including import duties and taxes, when delivering gifts to your recipients. This ensures a hassle-free process for you and your giftee.

&Open may not be a good fit for…

… leaders needing automation for recurring gifting 👎

&Open has integrations and DIY features that allow for some degree of automation. However, this still requires manual setup, depending on your campaign and tier. So, if you need fully hands-off, recurring, or trigger-based gifting, you will find &Open less suitable than platforms with high-volume automated gifting.

… companies that prefer full pricing upfront 👎

If you value upfront budgeting, &Open’s platform pricing may be a drawback. This is because the platform’s pricing model doesn’t include the item’s shipping costs; rather, they’re billed separately depending on your contract terms. Such a separation for the costs can make it more difficult for you to accurately estimate total gift costs in advance, especially when planning budgets for large teams or global campaigns.

All in all, &Open is a compelling choice for corporate gifting. Its platform is generally easy to use, allowing users to send gifts quickly. Its strong commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing also sets it apart from its competitors. However, if you’re looking for transparent pricing, easy access to global shipping regardless of tier, a vast selection of lower-cost gifts, or gifting automation, you should go for other platforms that will better meet your needs.

Looking for gift and swag solutions? Explore the best &Open alternatives

If you’re searching for gift and swag solutions in one platform, it’s important to note that &Open is focused exclusively on sending curated gifts. If you need custom swag kits or branded swag, then there are many other platforms you may want to consider. Check out our list of &Open alternatives to know the right gift and swag partner for your company.