Let The Celebrations Begin with Designed by Taradise

Celebrations are meant for rejoicing, they are meant for bringing your Heart out. And celebration gifts, they are meant for expressing the joy that you feel in your Heart. More often than not, the joy of gifting is lost when the eternal question, “what should we gift?” pops up. Rummaging through shops, to scanning online stores, to getting
tempted by customizable options but being unsure about how will they turn out…exhausting!

Just when we were getting tired of our inability to make up our minds, in comes ‘Designed by Taradise’, a Goa based venture that delves into the beautiful world of magic & the gifts that come with it. From premium gift boxes for newborns, babies, kids and birthdays to wedding gifts, Mom-to-be gift boxes, baby shower gift hampers, bridesmaid or groomsman proposal boxes – they customize them all. They even have a marriage proposal box from a to-be-bride to her groom. Goan Insider gets talking to Tara & Johan, the dreamers who dreamt ‘Designed by Taradise’ into existence.

Where did you get the idea to start Designed by Taradise?

In Plato’s words, Necessity is the Mother of Invention. After hunting high & low for unique gift options for our best friend who was having a baby, and being unable to find anything suitable or aesthetic – the prime thought that dawned on us
was that there would be more like us struggling to find something that really made sense – and there was an absence of gifts that ticked all the boxes right. And we could fill that void. Voila! Designed by Taradise was born.

Also, very often people are stumped about what to buy for what age group, and that’s where we come in! The idea is to gift the customer with convenience – a one stop solution. We have ready to go gift boxes for ages 0-2years in various themes. And we prefer to customize gift boxes for older kids, as they tend to have very specific likes
and interests.

We initially started out curating gift boxes only for kids, but we’ve since expanded into all age groups. So, whether you’re looking to gift a newborn, a 1 or a 60 year old, a wedding gift, a Mom-to-be gift box, a baby shower gift hamper, a bridesmaid or groomsman proposal box – we customize them all! We’ve even made a marriage proposal box from a to-be-bride to her groom!

Designed by Taradise is an intriguing name. Tell us more about it

The name Taradise is quite simply a play on Paradise. (It’s a combination of Tara + Paradise). Also, Taradise Clothing is the name of our registered company – so Designed by Taradise is the gifting solutions arm of this business. We hope to expand into other avenues eventually.

What makes Designed by Taradise unique from other similar businesses What’s your USP?

We feel that DBT is quite unique in its offering – as we curate gift boxes that span all ages and occasions. We cater to both types of customers – the one who wants a quick solution and also the other who wants to customize every aspect of a gift. Be it any category, the gifts are all well thought after and have a personalised touch to it.

And who is your target audience?

Our target audience is anyone who needs assistance with a gift, whether it’s for themselves or for a loved one. On one occasion, we even delivered a birthday cake and snacks for someone who couldn’t be with their loved ones in Goa. Also, we’re the perfect solution for all those people who remember gifts at the last minute. We’ve had people give us a few hours notice to rustle up a gift box and we’ve managed to deliver. Basically, we’ve got you!

It would be interesting to know more about the universe of your kids gifting
business?

The gifting business is a unique & dynamic one – it’s evolved so much in the last few years! People are no longer satisfied with just buying some mass produced item off the shelf anymore, they’re looking for customizable items, they want personalization! And especially since everyone has such different tastes and interests – our work becomes more interesting! We’re able to provide the perfect solution with our theme based gifts. We’ve customized gift boxes for kids who love Baby Shark, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Peppa Pig, etc.

Interesting! And what was the journey of moving from idea to actual business like?

With extreme uncertainty! We were in the middle of the pandemic when inspiration struck. So, we were very unsure how things would go and whether it made sense to invest our savings into a new business. But it seems like our gamble paid off. We’ve gone from being uncertain of selling 20 gift boxes, to selling over 200. And the rest, as they say is history!

Where are you based out from and why do you think this is the best place for you?

Right now we work out of our home in Porvorim. It works for us at present, but hopefully in the future we can have a more official setup. Fingers crossed!

We are very sure that will happen soon for you! Tell us about your gifting
options. Which ones would you recommend to our readers?

We have several readymade options across the age groups of 0-4yrs – some of our favourites include our Ocean theme sets, the bee theme and the space theme.

Lovely! And your best sellers are…

Our most popular age group seems to be the 0-3month range. It’s a tricky age group as the kids are growing rapidly at this age and people also tend to buy gifts for parents of this age. So yeah, we have extremely safe infant friendly gifts, and something for their parents too! They too deserve goodies for all the hard work they put in!

That’s very thoughtful! So tell us, how do you spread the word about what you do?

Word of mouth has actually been our biggest champion. Also, one very motivating action has been the fact that a lot of the people who have been gifted a DBT gift box, have come back and bought one for someone else! Our repeat sales have been our best feedback, our best marketing backbone and our motivation and navigation system all in one!

And, what’s been the biggest obstacle in business you’ve had to overcome?

Honestly, sourcing materials has been a huge struggle as a result of the pandemic and lockdown conditions. We struggled to get good quality gift boxes, but with great perseverance and endless faith in the magic that surrounds us – we finally have the perfect vendor!

Tell us, about the most satisfying moments in business?

Whenever we receive photos and reviews from our happy customers – it’s simply the best feeling! It’s so satisfying to see the babies in our gifted items! One photo that makes it to the top of our favourites is of a tiny munchkin sitting in our Purple gift box.

That indeed is adorable! Tell us, how can our readers stay connected with you and your brand?

We’re on Instagram and Facebook as @designedbytaradise – we’d love to connect with all you readers! And our catalog is available on Scanwich

Great! And what is the business working on now? Anything exciting
coming up?

We’ve recently launched our Mom-to-be gift boxes – we’ve tried tovinclude an array of items that serve as a pamper hamper for soon to be moms. They’re entirely customizable.

Wow! That is interesting! And what’s coming up for the business down the
road?

We would like to have more ready to go options available – here’s hoping we can convert more of our dreams into reality.

Do you have a story to share with the world? Send us an email at contact.goaninsider@gmail.com