Marketing automation for gift shops and brands
People shop for gifts in a hurry, a few weeks before a date they can't move. Maggie, your AI CMO, writes your gift guides and posts well ahead of every occasion for your website, Google Business and social channels, and you approve every one.
Free to start · No credit card · 30 free posts
Used by 600+ users and trusted by teams at
aeglesriphal.com
moonlakespa.com
shop.theteagroup.com
clo100.com
logtrics.io
mymorez.com
nextidal.com
otisapp.com
storaitelling.com
theheatpumps.co.uk
web-translations.com
exposeai.tech
orielipo.com
whitelabelcrowd.fund
elliptic.co
med.moonlakespa.com
netdex.co.il
orawellness.uk
reenest.com
syngage.ai
thepenthouseliving.com
zengolf.studio
imaintain.uk
rebuildingsociety.com
aurasocial.world
goaimex.com
moneyparents.com
newgenrenewables.uk
osmosisai.co
saunders.ac
teeza.app
thursdayclub.com
Why gift shops and brands struggle to keep their marketing going
Your year is a string of deadlines set by other people's calendars. Each one arrives sooner than you expected, and the posts come last.
Every occasion needs its own guide
Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, end-of-term teacher gifts, birthdays, weddings, new babies. Each needs posts before people start shopping, and you can't write them all in the week you're packing orders.
Last order dates sneak up
Personalised gifts need making time and parcels need posting time. If people don't see your last order dates early, they find a shop that said so clearly, or they leave it too late and you get the email.
“Gift for her” goes to the big sites
People search for “gifts for a new mum” or “gifts for someone who has everything”. Without helpful guides on your own website, the large marketplaces and gift retailers take those searches.
Beautiful products, sporadic posts
You photograph a new candle, a hamper or a print and share it once. Then December arrives and the feed goes quiet until January, just when people were looking for ideas.
It's October, and your Christmas gift guides are already written.
It's Monday in mid-October. The Christmas stock has arrived, you're photographing the new hampers between serving customers, and last year's gift guide is still the newest post on your blog.
You paste your shop's website into cmo.so. Maggie reads it and writes your brand profile: an independent gift shop with an online store, personalised keepsakes, local makers' candles and prints, hampers for corporate clients, the friendly, slightly playful way you write and the town you deliver to by hand. You correct one thing: personalised orders now need five working days, not three.
By Tuesday the drafts are waiting, each with a picture in your shop's look: a blog gift guide for people who are hard to buy for, a Google Business post with your Christmas last order dates and a button to the shop, an Instagram post introducing the local candle maker, and a LinkedIn post for businesses ordering client hampers. You change one price band in the guide and approve all four from your phone.
The posts go out at the times you set for each channel and each comes back with its link. While you're wrapping the first hamper order, Maggie is already planning posts for Secret Santa and stocking fillers, and Search Console in cmo.so shows which gift guides people are finding.
A marketing assistant who knows the gifting calendar
Each of those problems has an answer, and you still decide what goes out under your shop's name.
Gift guides on your own website
Guides by person, budget and occasion, from teacher gifts to wedding presents, written for Google and for AI answers and linked to your product pages. Published to your Shopify, WordPress or WooCommerce, Wix or Webflow site, or any site through the cmo.so API.
Blog on autopilotReady before every occasion
Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation and end of term. Posts are written and queued weeks ahead, so they're out before people start searching.
Seasonal scheduleLast order dates people actually see
Google Business posts with your cut-off dates, offers and events such as a late-night Christmas shopping evening, plus buttons that take people straight to your shop.
Google BusinessOne product, every channel
One idea becomes a post for each channel in its own style: Instagram and Facebook for gift buyers (in beta), TikTok for unboxing videos (in beta), LinkedIn for businesses buying corporate gifts.
Every channelYour shop's personality
Enter your website and Maggie builds your brand profile: what you sell, who buys it, the makers you stock, what sets you apart, competitors and voice. Every post and picture starts from it.
Brand profileApprove between customers
By default nothing goes out until you approve it. Swipe through drafts in the iPhone app or at app.cmo.so, edit a line, skip a post, or pause a channel when something sells out.
ApprovalsYour marketing team, in your pocket
Real screens from the cmo.so app on iPhone.
From your shop's website to a year of gift guides in four steps
Enter your website
Maggie reads it and drafts your shop's brand profile in minutes.
Check your profile
Correct your range, add your order cut-offs and the occasions you sell for, and choose your channels.
Review the drafts
Your first week of posts arrives with pictures. Approve, edit or skip each one.
Let them go out
Approved posts go out at each channel's times and every one comes back with its link.
Why not just…
The usual ways gift shops and brands try to get found, and where each one runs out.
…sell through the big marketplaces?
They bring buyers, but they take a share, set the rules and put your gift next to thousands of others. Gift guides on your own website bring people who buy from you directly.
…post on Instagram when there's time?
There isn't time in November and December, and that's when gift buyers are looking hardest. Maggie writes ahead and keeps your schedule full while you're packing orders.
…pay a marketing agency?
SEO and content agencies often cost around £1,000 a month, which is a lot of candles for a small shop. Maggie writes and publishes every week from £15 a month.
…write it with ChatGPT?
You still brief it, check it, make the picture and post it yourself, and it doesn't know your stock or your last order dates. Maggie remembers your shop and puts posts out on schedule.
Cut the £5,900/mo marketing bill to £15/mo
Everything a marketing team does, done by Maggie.
| What needs doing | Without cmo.so | With cmo.so |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time marketing hire | £3,000/mo | Included |
| SEO and AI search (GEO) agency | £1,000/mo | Included |
| Content writer, AI-assisted | £500/mo | Included |
| Social media manager, freelance | £800/mo | Included |
| Designed pictures for every post | £300/mo | Included |
| SEO and GEO softwareRank tracking, site audits, AI visibility | £250/mo | Included |
| AI writing and image tools | £50/mo | Included |
| Working hours | Office hours | 24/7 |
| Total per month | £5,900+ | From £15/mo |
Typical UK costs for a small business in 2026, with AI already cutting freelance rates. Estimates only; your own quotes will vary.
- 5 social posts, 30 once verified
- 15 Maggie messages a day
- Upgrade any time
- 12 posts a day
- 150 Maggie messages a day
- All channels
- 96 posts a day
- 1,000 Maggie messages a day
- All channels
Per website, billed monthly. Blog and social posts share one allowance; your best plan sets how much you can talk to Maggie across all your websites.
Marketing automation for gift shops and brands: your questions
Still unsure?
What is marketing automation for gift shops and brands?
It's software that does the repeating work of marketing a gift shop or gift brand: planning posts around the gifting calendar, writing gift guides and social posts, making pictures and publishing on schedule.
With cmo.so, Maggie does all of it from your shop's website, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
How do gift shops and brands get more customers online?
Gift shops and brands get more customers online by being there when people search for ideas: gift guides on their own website, an active Google Business profile with clear last order dates, and regular posts before every occasion.
Maggie writes those posts every week, queues them ahead of Christmas, Mother's Day and the other busy dates, and Search Console in cmo.so shows which ones bring people to your shop.
How much does marketing automation cost for a gift shop?
There's a free plan with no card needed. Paid plans are per website and billed monthly: Air at £15 a month covers two posts a day, which suits most single shops, and Pro at £45 a month suits a growing gift brand posting on several channels.
Founding members get lower prices for good on every plan until 1 January 2027. You can cancel any time.
Which channels should gift shops and brands start with?
Most gift shops start with gift guides on their own blog and Google Business, because that's where people searching for a present nearby or online decide where to buy.
Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are in beta and suit gift buyers browsing for ideas, and LinkedIn reaches businesses buying client and staff gifts. Each channel has its own posting times and queue.
Will my Christmas posts be ready in time?
They will be ready weeks before the rush. Maggie plans topics around the dates that matter to your shop and writes the posts ahead, so you can approve them in October rather than December.
They then go out on schedule while you're busy, and you can pause a channel at any time if something sells out.
Can cmo.so help with corporate gifting?
It can help businesses find you. Maggie writes LinkedIn posts and blog guides for office managers and business owners choosing client hampers, staff gifts or Christmas thank-yous.
Enquiries still come to you through your website, phone or email; cmo.so doesn't answer them or take orders.
Can it write gift guides that link to my products?
Every guide can link to your products. Maggie writes guides by person, occasion and budget and links them to the product and collection pages on your website, so a reader can go straight to something they can buy.
You review each guide before it goes out, so you can swap a product that has sold out.
Will cmo.so change my prices or stock?
No, cmo.so never changes products, prices or stock in your online shop. Maggie writes and publishes posts only.
Run your offers as you do now and tell her about them; she can write posts and Google Business offers that send people to them.
Is it safe to let AI post for my shop?
It is safe because nothing goes out until you approve it. Approvals are on by default, and you can keep them on for every channel or let a channel you trust run on autopilot.
Social channels connect through each platform's official sign-in, so cmo.so never sees your passwords, and cmo.so never sells or rents your data.
We have a shop and a separate online brand. Can cmo.so handle both?
It can. If each has its own website, add both to one account and each gets its own brand profile, channels, schedule and approvals.
So the shop's posts can talk about late-night shopping in town while the brand's posts talk about delivery across the country.
Which websites does it work with?
cmo.so publishes to WordPress (including WooCommerce), Shopify, Wix and Webflow, and to any other website through the cmo.so API.
Each post is reported back with its link once it is live.
Have every gift guide ready before the rush
Enter your website. Your brand profile and first week of posts are ready in minutes, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
- Free plan, no card needed
- You approve every post
- Cancel any time