Facebook Dumps Physical Gifts, Will Focus on Digital Gift Codes Instead
It's been less than a year since Facebook implemented its online gift giving system, which allows Facebook users to purchase and send physical gifts to their friends and family on the social networking site. However brief it might have been, Facebook has already decided it makes more sense to push digital gift codes than physical codes, and so that's what the site is going to do.
According to TechCrunch, 10 percent of the U.S. Facebook population will see a redesigned version of the Gifts page immediately, while the other 90 percent will start to see it in the next few weeks. For those that see it now, gone are physical gifts like teddy bears and flowers, and in their place are a variety of digital gift codes. Facebook is also pushing its own brand gift card.
In the past year, digital gift codes and Facebook's own gift cards made up 80 percent gifting sales. Throw in the fact that they cost less to ship and don't require much to support, and it's an easy decision to ditch physical goods.
Also new to the gift giving experience is that gifts now get their own landing page on Facebook. On top of that, each brand that participates gets their own URL for their gift shop so that businesses can share direct links to where you can buy Facebook gifts from them.
According to TechCrunch, 10 percent of the U.S. Facebook population will see a redesigned version of the Gifts page immediately, while the other 90 percent will start to see it in the next few weeks. For those that see it now, gone are physical gifts like teddy bears and flowers, and in their place are a variety of digital gift codes. Facebook is also pushing its own brand gift card.
In the past year, digital gift codes and Facebook's own gift cards made up 80 percent gifting sales. Throw in the fact that they cost less to ship and don't require much to support, and it's an easy decision to ditch physical goods.
Also new to the gift giving experience is that gifts now get their own landing page on Facebook. On top of that, each brand that participates gets their own URL for their gift shop so that businesses can share direct links to where you can buy Facebook gifts from them.
