At one time or another we all, or a vast majority, have forgotten a gift for a birthday party, holiday party, or other celebration. In a mad dash we’ve rushed to the local pharmacy to pick out an appropriate card and forced to choose from the wall of gift cards near the register. And here lies the problem. All the gift cards are to large national chains. What do you do if you want to make it a little more personal?
Enter Giftly, a new social media website that allows you to use your mobile phone to send and receive eGift cards to “any local business, ANYWHERE.” The eGift is linked to the recipient’s smart phone.
According to Wireless Week’s Andrew Berg here is how the service works:
“Giftly allows users to make a gift card for any local business in Yelp’s database of over 2 million places. Once the gift card is delivered to a user’s smartphone, they can then redeem it by simply checking in – via Yelp! or Foursquare – at the business for which the gift card has been issued. At that time, Giftly automatically deposits the amount of the gift card on the recipient’s credit card or bank account, cutting out the hassle of having to show the merchant anything at all.”
The National Retail Foundation (NRF) estimates more than $100 billion worth of gift cards are purchased each year. Additionally, with more than 50 percent of U.S. customers buying or receiving a gift card, this type of service is sure to be a big hit with local shops that cannot offer gift cards of their own.
