Somewhere between a Diwali list, a wedding season and three birthdays in one month, most people end up buying several personalised things at the same time. There is a right way to place that, and it turns on one rule.
One order goes to one delivery address. Everything below follows from it.
The three shapes
| Everything to you | One order per person | A mix | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of orders | One | One each | Some of each |
| Delivery charged | Once | Once per order | Per order |
| Onward postage | Yours to pay | None | Partly yours |
| Arrives together | Yes | No | No |
| Best for | Handing them over yourself | People in other cities | The usual real answer |
Delivery is a flat ₹70 per order rather than per item, so two things going to the same address travel on one charge. Four things going to four addresses are four orders and four charges — which is the correct price for four separate journeys, and still less than posting them onward yourself from your own city. Why delivery is flat →
Everything to you
Right when you will be in the room. A family Diwali, a wedding where you are handing things over in person, gifts for people you will see anyway.
One delivery charge, one parcel to check, and you get to look through each object before it goes — which is worth more than it sounds, because it is the only chance to catch something that reads differently on paper than it did on a proof.
Wrong when the recipients are scattered. You will pay to post them onward, twice-handled parcels arrive in worse condition, and you become the courier.
One order per person
Right whenever people are in different cities, which is most of the time.
Each goes direct, each arrives protected, and each carries its own delivery date rather than waiting for the slowest item in a box. Put the recipient’s phone number on each one. What happens if nobody is home →
Wrong when you wanted to hand them over together, and expensive if the recipients all live within a few streets of each other.
The cost that is not money
Four different gifts are four different sets of photographs, four briefs and four proofs to read. That is the real budget on a multi-gift order, and it is the one that overruns.
A realistic sequence for four magazines is four separate rounds of gathering material, and gathering is already the stage that runs longest. What we need before design starts →
Two ways to cut it down:
Repeat the format, vary the content. Four 16-page magazines are one decision made once. Four different products are four decisions plus four different material lists.
Stagger them. Nothing requires all four to be ordered the same evening, and orders placed a week apart get your full attention at the proof stage rather than a tired glance.
They will not all finish together
Each order moves at the speed of its own material and its own approval, and dispatch is weekly on Mondays. One straggler — a proof approved on a Tuesday rather than a Friday — waits a full week behind the others.
If they genuinely must arrive together, send them all to yourself and distribute from there. That is the only version of “together” that a weekly dispatch can promise.
Frequently asked
Can I put several gifts on one order? Yes, if they all go to one address. Separate addresses are separate orders, because an order carries one delivery address.
Is it cheaper to combine them? Only when they share a destination. Then two or three items travel on a single ₹70 rather than one each.
Will they all arrive on the same day? Only if they are on one order. Separate orders finish separately and dispatch weekly.
Can I order everything now and have some sent later? It is cleaner to place those orders later. An order held for weeks ties up a delivery slot and the material goes stale in the meantime.
At what point is this a bulk order instead? When it stops being different gifts for different people and becomes the same item for many — roughly ten or more of one thing. Corporate and bulk gifting →
Which shape fits
| If this is true | Do this |
|---|---|
| Everyone will be in one room | One order, to you |
| They are in three cities | One order each |
| Two are local, two are not | A mix: one local order, two direct |
| The date is the same for all | One order to you, distribute by hand |
| The dates are spread | Separate orders, ordered separately |
| You want to check them first | Everything to you, whatever the geography |
Part of our guide to ordering a personalised gift. See also: ordering on behalf of someone else.
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