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Tags: Buyology, boomerang, facebook gifts, giftly, gifts, gyft, holiday shopping, plumfare, social gifting, wrapp, Technology
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By Christina Chaey | 11-16-2012 | 3:07 PM
6 Most Innovative Ways To Gift
The Social Butterfly
The Shopaholic
The Small-Business Lover
The Picky One
The Foodie
The Regifter
Many of us use some kind of social channel to send our best wishes to friends and family during special occasions: birthdays, engagements, anniversaries, graduations, and, of course, the holidays. 'Tis the season to be social, and whether you're shopping for a food lover, a notorious regifter, or someone who's just plain picky, the explosion of players in the social gifting space means there's a service that's right for each person on your gift list.
The behemoth of all things social has formally launched Facebook Gifts, which former Karma CEO Lee Linden unveiled at FAO Schwarz in New York City last night alongside retail partners including gourmet grocer Dean & Deluca, L'Occitane, and Magnolia Bakery. Choose a gift and a friend, and Facebook will let them swap out a size, flavor, or color before it's delivered to their doorstep. Some of the coolest options aren't physical: You can use Facebook Gifts to give subscriptions to Rdo, Hulu Plus, and Pandora.
The Sweden-based company Wrapp lets you send free and paid gift cards to Facebook friends. Merchants who partner with Wrapp usually offer a small amount of money, say, $5 or $10, and you can add on as much more as you’d like. Gift-giving on Wrapp is “social” because others can go in on the same gift card with their own contributions, both before you send your gift card and up to a week after it’s delivered.
Read More: Wrapp Mogul: Why LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman Is Investing In The Social Gifting Site
Gifts on Boomerang come from local businesses, meaning you can give a friend a digital voucher to their favorite neighborhood spots, even if you don't live in the same city. “We still really believe that local makes for a unique gift that no one else is offering,” says CEO Zach Smith. The company supports gift packages from local businesses in Chicago, Indianapolis, Austin, and New York, but for people outside those cities, Boomerang has also just started testing out some national retail partners including Banana Republic, Wine.com, and Seamless.
Read More: Boomerang Brings Your Friends To Social Gifting Game With A Million Dollars Of Lightbank Cash
Gift cards can be hit-or-miss: If you choose the wrong retailer or brand, your recipient can’t trade it in for the same amount of money to spend at different business they actually like. But Giftly treats gift cards like blank checks by letting you designate a cash amount good for virtually any business or service. That’s because giving a friend a Giftly is essentially like giving them cash, since Giftly doesn’t work directly with merchants. So your Giftly can be as open-ended or specific as you’d like, from $50 to “any restaurant” to a custom-tailored shopping spree at a specific store.
Read More: The Future Of The Present
If you've ever ordered a meal at a restaurant and thought, "I know exactly who would love this dish," use Plumfare to turn that thought into a gift. When you’re out, snap a photo of the food or drink you think a friend would like for up to $100, then use Plumfare to notify them via text, email, or Facebook. Your friend has 30 days to redeem the gift, and you’ll only be charged when your friend physically redeems it, so you can rest easy knowing your dollars didn’t go to waste away in a forgotten desk drawer.
Gyft’s mobile app uses your phone to store, send, and redeem gift cards. You can purchase gift cards right in the app from several hundred retailers including Amazon, Sephora, and Nike, but you can also upload any existing plastic gift cards you already own, as well as send gift cards to friends via Facebook, email, or text. And that’s where Gyft’s handiest feature comes in for the gift-card fatigued: You can regift any card you have on the platform to a friend.
Image: Flickr user Smileitsshan
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