Amy Read, Gifts Less Ordinary

When Amy first received a personalised baby blanket and pair of shoes embroidered with her newborn son’s name, she was overwhelmed by the personal touches. Now, she hopes to spread the same joy through her one-stop marketplace retailing bespoke gifting ideas.

Brand story

Founded in October 2015, Gifts Less Ordinary is an online luxury global gift marketplace that connects people with beautiful, unique and bespoke gifts for every occasion.

Operating model

We want to provide a platform for home-grown and international brands to reach a wider global customer audience. Each brand that we partner with is unique, either in product design, in its ability to personalise, or that it gives back to society in some way or another. By partnering with brands, it allows them to have the confidence to build and develop new, innovative products that we can then take and market to a global audience.

As a Small Business Owner…

It is important to find the right team members that will become pillars of the business for long-term growth.

Social responsibility is

About value creation for makers, businesses, and consumers to support sustainable development in the world — even through the smallest acts.

Mental wellbeing

The topic of mental wellbeing hits close to home for me — I lost a best friend to suicide when I was 12 while watching a close family member fight depression for many years.

My children are in senior school now and I see how tough it is for them growing up — how they feel the need to conform to media stereotypes without being happy about themselves. Together with the team, I hope that mental health is not a shameful topic and that we should always be brave to seek help when we need it.