The Perfect Gift, Every Time: Online Shopping Destination Gifting Grace Launches

CHICAGO and NEW YORK - Just in time for the holidays, Gifting Grace, an online shopping destination offering a curated assortment of unique and memorable gifts, editorial authority and convenient shopping tools for the thoughtful, year-round gift-giver has launched at www.GiftingGrace.com. Through an exclusive partnership with Hearst Magazines, editors from O, The Oprah Magazine and Good Housekeeping bring their gifting expertise to the site with top picks, and each magazine features its Gifting Grace favorites in gift guides running in the December 2011 and January 2012 issues. Selections are also featured on the brands’ websites and additional Hearst titles will participate as the program rolls out in 2012.

Gifting Grace targets women ages 30 to 54 with a mix of national brands and unique, hard-to-find gift ideas, all hand-selected for any occasion, recipient, trend or theme. With a focus on helping users to find truly personal gifts for everyone on their list, Gifting Grace delivers the perfect gift—every time.

Editors from participating Hearst magazines have selected their favorite items, which are called out on the site, to help shoppers make choices. Gifting Grace also allows shoppers to enter detailed information about the recipient beyond the search choices offered by other sites: in addition to occasion and gender, shoppers can specify a recipient’s age, their relationship to the recipient and the recipient’s personality type, from adventurous to artsy to fashionable.

“Gifting Grace was designed for the woman who loves to give,” said Mary Drolet, president of Gifting Grace. “We put a tremendous amount of thought into selecting each of our products because we want to create a great experience for the giver as well as for the receiver, who will open it and say ‘I love it! It’s the perfect gift for me!’”

At launch, Gifting Grace product categories include jewelry and watches; handbags, wallets and luggage; women’s, men’s, and children’s apparel; fashion accessories; consumer electronics; and gifts for home and office. The site features an ever-changing mix from top brands including Anne Klein Watches, Betsey Johnson, Cargo Cosmetics, Casio G-Shock, Juicy Couture, Natori, Philosophy, Puma, Quicksilver, Ray-Ban, Roxy, Steve Madden and many more. Every order is shipped in a Gifting Grace signature gift box with an oversized bow, free of charge. Gifting Grace also features free shipping on all orders of $75 or more that are shipped to the same location, as well as free shipping on all returns.

Michael Clinton, president, marketing and publishing director of Hearst Magazines, added, “Our collaboration with Gifting Grace represents the future: a way for content and retail to work hand-in-hand. The editorial authority of our brands, combined with the retail expertise of Gifting Grace, gives consumers an engaging new way to shop.”

Drolet continued, “Gifting Grace is the ideal intersection of e-commerce, editorial content and gifting expertise. Our goal is to inspire consumers who know how rewarding it is to give that perfect gift and our partnership with Hearst Magazines helps us accomplish that through great curation. We take the guesswork out of choosing a gift, so users can make a well-informed choice every time.”

About Gifting Grace
Gifting Grace is the online destination for finding and purchasing the perfect gift—every time. Gifting Grace was created to provide the ultimate gift giver with everything she needs to celebrate the ones she loves: a curated assortment of top brands and unique, hard to find gifts; great gift ideas from our trusted editorial partners; an online community for sharing her favorite gift giving moments; and our beautiful signature gift wrap to make that perfect gift feel extra special.

About Hearst Magazines
Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies. Once it completes its acquisition of Lagardère SCA’s 100 titles in 14 countries outside of France, Hearst Magazines will publish more than 300 editions around the world, including 20 U.S. titles. Hearst Magazines is the largest publisher of monthly magazines in the U.S. (ABC 2011) and reaches 87 million adults (Spring 2011 MRI). Hearst Magazines Digital Media, dedicated to creating and implementing Hearst Magazines’ digital strategy, has more than 28 websites and 14 mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Popular Mechanics, ELLE, ELLE DECOR, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as digital-only sites such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; MisQuinceMag.com; and RealBeauty.com. Hearst Magazines has published nearly 100 applications and digital editions for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Droid platform. In addition, the company includes iCrossing, a global digital marketing agency.