Eva bot wants to send gifts to your business clients

It’s the season for gift giving, and while we shop for family members or a significant other, Eva bot is helping businesses send gifts to their clients and top customers.

Since the Slack bot was made available earlier this year, employees from companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Silicon Valley Bank have used the service. Eva is actively marketing its bot to companies outside the United States.

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“India, China, Israel, and Canada are top targets because they do lots of business in the U.S. and have their clients here,” Eva cofounder Rabi Gupta told VentureBeat in a Twitter Direct Message.

Users of the bot on Slack and the web send gifts to build relationships, show appreciation, or close a deal, Gupta said.

Eva bot can send things like chocolates, wine, and Blue Bottle coffee, and is now able to send gifts to any business in the United States. Previously, Eva was only able to send gifts to businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cups of Philz Coffee are no longer available.

With changes announced last month, businesses can send customized gifts or sign up for a gift-giving subscription plan.

The company has also introduced a bulk gift-sending option.

“Just upload a csv file with email IDs and first names, add a common holiday message, choose gift type ($30 or $50), and you are done. Whether it’s 10 gifts or a 1000, all get sent in a matter of minutes, anywhere in the U.S.,” Gupta said.

The final day for orders ahead of Christmas Day is Friday.

Delivery takes a minimum two days in the San Francisco Bay Area and up to seven days in other parts of the United States.

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Custom gifts are available with a $500 subscription plan, and can be used to, for example, send a particular bottle of champagne instead of the sort of wine Eva typically sends. Don’t get carried away though. No tigers (though a VentureBeat writer once claimed you could order them through chat-based service Magic). Schwag boxes are also available so recipients can get a shirt, mug, stickers, etc.

Eva is one of several chat-based services available to send gifts or shop in a conversational style.

Like Eva, SwiftGift works on iMessage and can send basic gifts like chocolates, flowers, or even Beats headphones or a Stormtrooper candy bowl. Dozens of retailers and businesses as varied as BuzzFeed and Time Inc. have created gift bots this holiday season to help consumers find the ideal gift while luring them inside their sales funnel.