How a Gift Basket Business is Expanding their Impact with Help from AI

When my husband, Mike, and I moved from New York City to Connecticut back in the nineties, we were running an environmental testing company focused on all the scary stuff like lead paint in homes, mold, and underground oil tanks. Everything changed when we had kids. I wasn't just worried about the environment out there; I was hyper-focused on the environment here in our home. As a concerned mother, I started searching for non-toxic alternatives for everything from cleaners to candles to paint. Back then, it wasn't easy to find truly natural products; the awareness just wasn't there yet.

I was so excited about it that one day, Mike just looked at me and said, ‘Why don't you start selling these things you keep talking about?’ I started jotting down ideas in a notebook, literally cutting out magazine clippings of things I liked, and thoughts on what my company would look like. Not long after, we opened Our Greenhouse, a teeny 600-square-foot store in town selling non-toxic, eco-friendly items, and eventually launched a website, too.

As the years went by and the market became saturated, we pivoted in 2019 to focus on gift baskets featuring all these wonderful, ethically sourced items we loved, from Fair Trade goods to organic stuffed animals. We also built in a give-back component, donating five percent of sales to various charities.

Over the last year alone, we’ve had a 23% revenue increase thanks to Google Ads. While we dabble in social media, Google is the best way for people to find us. The more revenue we generate, the more we can give back to all the communities we support. It’s hard to comprehend the impact that buying just one item makes on the lives of people like the knitters and alpaca farmers—supporting people all the way down the chain.

I've also been using Gemini to help with designs. Honestly, at 60, I feel this incredible urgency to bring all my ideas to life, and Gemini is making that happen so quickly. For example, I can describe a fabric, a color scheme, and my product idea—like an organic, natural pet toy or a strawberry print for babies—and ask Gemini to instantly generate a picture of exactly what I envisioned.

Looking ahead, my ideal is to move towards more private label products within our basket, which allows us greater control over how and where things are made, the fabrics used, and ultimately, the quality. This technology is simply accelerating that vision. We’ll continue to scale up with AI-powered tools in Google Ads, reaching more people and allowing us to further our mission of conscious commerce and global support. It’s all about creating a positive impact wherever we can.