This Holiday, Will Giving Get Social?

It’s beginning to look a lot like a social Christmas, everywhere we go. The big news, of course, continues to be Facebook, which said last week that it is rolling Facebook Gifts out across the U.S., offering everything from cupcakes to gift cards. (It’s the expansion of gifting app Karma, which it acquired last spring and, investors hope, an important revenue stream. Facebook will get an undisclosed percentage of everything it sells.) 

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/184428/this-holiday-will-giving-get-social.html

Create personalized Christmas cards on your smartphone

Tis’ the season to start sending your family, friends, old bosses, and coworkers holiday greeting cards. The process just got a lot simpler with an new app called Sincerely Ink, which lets you create cards on your smartphone and then sends physical cards via snail mail.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/11/30/create-personalized-christmas-cards-on-your-smartphone-sent-in-mail/

iTunes 11 surprise: Apple sneaks in a gift card scanner

The new feature lets Mac users scan gift cards and other promotional codes into iTunes using a built-in camera instead of typing them in.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57556241-37/itunes-11-surprise-apple-sneaks-in-a-gift-card-scanner/

Watch Out Ecommerce, Facebook Turns Karma Acquisition Into ‘Gifts’

Facebook today launches Facebook Gifts to make ecommerce more convenient. It turns user data into suggestions for gifts to buy right from where you spend your time — and without a friend’s address. Facebook earns a percentage of sales when you use it to buy friends physical products or digital gift cards for their birthdays, weddings, or other special occasions.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/facebook-gifts/

Happy Holidays from First Round Capital

http://gifts.firstround.com/

Giftly Looks to Disrupt Traditional Gift Card Market

When CEO Tim Bentley founded Giftly, a site that allows users to give gift certificates through recipients’ credit cards, he realized business would be heavily seasonal. The three big holidays for gift cards are Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, and almost 50 percent of the market is sold in the fourth quarter of the year.

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2012/11/26/giftly-looks-to-disrupt-traditional-gift-card-market/

Fab’s Newest Distribution Channel: LivingSocial

Designer e-commerce company Fab today is beginning to sell “gifts” through LivingSocial’s website and marketing channels.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/11/21/fabs-newest-distribution-channel-livingsocial/

Gyft Brings Mobile, Social Elements To Gift Card Industry

Odds are you’ll receive a few gift cards this holiday season. Why not store them on your iPhone?

Introducing Gyft: a startup from TechCrunch Disrupt that’s bringing mobile and social elements to the gift card industry. PYMNTS.com spoke with CJ MacDonald, Gyft’s co-founder, to talk about Gyft’s new regifting feature, the company’s rapid growth and what the holiday season has in store for the booming gift card industry.

http://pymnts.com/briefing-room/prepaid/gift-cards/gyft-brings-mobile-social-elements-to-gift-card-industry

Bulk Gift Card Sales

Amazon.com Gift Cards for Businesses
http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Gift-Certificates/b?ie=UTF8&node=165034011

Key Possibilities MasterCard Gift Card
https://www.key.com/business/gift-cards/business-gift-cards.jsp

Walgreens - Corporate Gift Card Sales
http://www.walgreens.com/marketing/about/community/giftcards/default.jsp

Chase Gift Card
https://www.chase.com/online/Checking/gift-card.htm

Does Macy's offer discounts for bulk Gift Card orders?
https://customerservice.macys.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/70/~/does-macy's-offer-discounts-for-bulk-gift-card-orders%3F

Simon Giftcard® Volume Sales
https://www.simon.com/volume/default.aspx

Associated Bank - Bulk Gift Cards 
https://www.associatedbank.com/commercial/treasury-management/payables/cards/bulk-gift-cards

Commerce Bank - Commerce Visa® Gift Cards Corporate & Bulk Orders
http://www.commercebank.com/personal/cards/gift/gift-card-large-order-form/

Wells Fargo Bulk Ordering Information 
https://www.wellsfargo.com/giftcard/bulkorders

iCard Gift Card -Place a Corporate Gift Card Order
http://www.icardgiftcard.com/corporate/

Gift Card Mal - Bulk Gift Cards 
https://www.giftcardmall.com/gifts/bulk-gift-cards.aspx

Punchbowl - Gift cards re-imagined

Send gift cards online in 3 easy steps

http://campaign.punchbowl.com/q/?e=182/v/727261

giftplum Makes Presents More Personal, Debuting as Your Online Gift Shopping Concierge

The holidays are stressful enough. You’re already worrying about how not to get trampled during the Black Friday rush or punched in the face by that deceivingly strong grandma on the other side of your half-off, coveted cashmere sweater. There’s no time to scour the stores, stumbling around, wondering what to buy your significant other.

http://bostinno.com/all-series/giftplum-personalized-online-shopping/

Get a $25 Gift Card for 30 Minutes of Your Time

Reach and Influence the Right People... Everywhere  Complete the form to see a FREE no-obligation demo of Vocus. To say thanks, we'll send you a $25 Barnes & Noble Gift Card!**

http://www.vocus.com/Email/12/Nov/new_reach_25bn/index.asp?cid=70180000000ow4n

Wrapp hires new COO, goes big in America

Undeterred by Facebook’s post-IPO acquisition of Karma and the subsequent launch of Facebook Gifts, Stockholm-based social gifting startup Wrapp is escalating its US presence, starting with a major new hire.

http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/15/wrapp-hires-new-coo-goes-big-in-america/

Over 1,200,000 members have joined Sincerely – and we’re launching a new gift app!

Today we are excited to announce that over 1.2 million members have now joined the Sincerely network.  Our members usually join by using their first Sincerely app or receiving a card from a friend – maybe they received an Ink card for the holidays, or maybe they sent a card from Frametastic – one of our over 60 partner apps, or maybe they had their picture taken at ComicCon with Postagram Engage and received a Postagram in the mail from Hyundai.  Either way, now over 1.2M members have joined the Sincerely network and are sending cards to friends, family & other Sincerely members.  In fact, our members have now sent cards to over 800k unique addresses.  And they have plans to send to even to even more – our users have added over 1.6M addresses to their collective address books.

http://blog.sincerely.com/over-1200000-members-have-joined-sincerely-and-were-launching-a-new-gift-app/

Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Starts Holiday Push With New Re-gifting Option, Weekly Giveaways

Gyft, the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2012 finalist which lets you buy, store and share plastic gift cards on your iPhone, is starting its big holidays push with the introduction of a new feature which will allow users to re-gift their own cards by sending them to others via email, text or Facebook. The addition (“Gyft It”) is one of many forthcoming new features, as the startup prepares for its busiest time of year.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/13/mobile-gift-card-app-gyft-starts-holiday-push-with-new-re-gifting-option-weekly-giveaways/

A Virtual Reality: New Trends in Mobile Gift Card Delivery

Mobile gift cards were hotter than ever in 2012 and the trend shows no sign of slowing down in the new year. The technology behind mobile gift cards is becoming ever more advanced: instant delivery, advanced tracking capabilities for program administrators, and endlessly customizable cards are just some of the distinct advantages that mobile gift cards offer. 

Mobile gift cards are also far more secure than traditional plastic cards, since there's no risk of a mobile card being lost by the recipient, or stolen. Still not convinced? Redemption rates tend to be higher with mobile delivery of gift cards when compared to traditional plastic cards.

http://www.incentivemag.com/Gift-Card-Programs/Retail/Articles/A-Virtual-Reality--New-Trends-in-Mobile-Gift-Card-Delivery/

Given.to Wants To Take The Guesswork Out Of Pitching In Money For Group Gifts

The gifting space has been very hot lately in the web world — Facebook is even seeing gift-giving as having major potential for boosting its revenue — and now another brand new startup is throwing its hat into the ring. Given.to made its official debut last week at NewMe Accelerator’s Fall 2012 Demo Day with the aim of making pitching in money with a group of people to buy a gift for someone “stress-free, and guess-free.”

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/06/given-to-gifting-app/

Regifted! Facebook resets Gifts event for post-Sandy NYC

Facebook has rescheduled its Gifts events for November 15, making its second attempt to hold the presser in New York following problems from Hurricane Sandy.  The event, originally scheduled for November 1, will now be held next week. It will still take place at the FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57545883-93/regifted-facebook-resets-gifts-event-for-post-sandy-nyc/

First Data 2011 Year-End Prepaid Gift Card Analysis

http://pymntsreportstore.com/collections/featured/products/first-data-2011-year-end-prepaid-gift-card-analysis

Facebook Gifts Get Charitable: You Can Now Give The Gift Of Donations To Your Friends

Facebook Gifts launched with the ability for you to buy something meaningful for a friend or family member on the social network. I’ve tinkered with it a bit and have bought a few gifts, including a bonsai tree and Starbucks gift cards. My mind immediately jumped to “wouldn’t it be cool if I could donate money to a charity on behalf of my friend for their birthday?”, and well, that happened today in a test capacity.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/01/facebook-gifts-get-charitable-you-can-now-give-the-gift-of-donations-to-your-friends/

Facebook Gifts Now Supports Charitable Donations

Facebook today launched a new feature that allows you to make charitable contributions through Facebook Gifts.  

The test feature is launching with about a dozen partners, including the American Red Cross, Blue Star Families, Boys & Girls Club of America, DonorsChoose.org, Girls Inc., Kiva, Livestrong, Oxfam America, RAINN, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and Water.org.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411650,00.asp