A lire sur: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/amazon-leverages-mobile-social-to-drive-digital-gift-card-sales
By Chantal Tode
By Chantal Tode
June 19, 2013
Amazon
is leveraging the convergence of mobile and social to make it easy for a
group of friends on Facebook to pitch in and send a gift to someone.
The new digital gift card offering, called
Amazon Birthday Gift, lets users create a digital gift card on Facebook
and then invite anyone in their social network to contribute. The gift
card shows up in the recipient’s Facebook timeline on his or her
birthday.
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” said Paula
Rosenblum, managing partner at Retail Systems and Research, Miami, FL.
“It takes the happy birthday statement to whole new levels – all of a
sudden everything can be a group gift.
“The beauty of mobile is you can do
something when you think of it during down time instead of at
pre-constructed times in pre-constructed places,” she said.
Ms. Rosenblum is not affiliated with Amazon and spoke based on her experience in mobile commerce.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline.
Social giving
As digital gift cards increasingly replace the plastic version, mobile is playing a bigger role in how consumers purchase, store and redeem them since consumers often have their smartphones within arm’s reach at all times.
As digital gift cards increasingly replace the plastic version, mobile is playing a bigger role in how consumers purchase, store and redeem them since consumers often have their smartphones within arm’s reach at all times.
For example, recipients of digital gift
cards want to be able to store them on their mobile devices so they will
have the cards when they are needed.
As the use of Facebook increasingly
migrates to mobile, Amazon is looking to not only make it easy for
mobile users to send a birthday gift while on the go, but to also make
the process more social, with multiple friends able to contribute no
matter where they are.
To create an Amazon Birthday Gift, users go to Amazon.com/birthdaygift from their desktop, mobile or tablet device, enter a message, select the gift card amount and checkout on Amazon.
At this point, users are able to send
invitations to anyone in their Facebook network to also contribute to
the gift card and include their own message. Friends can contribute $1,
$5, $10 or $25 to the birthday gift card.
On the day of the friend’s birthday, the gift card and any accompanying messages will post to his or her Facebook timeline.
Better customer experiences
To help promote the new offering, Amazon is offering users a $3 Amazon.com credit for a limited time.
To help promote the new offering, Amazon is offering users a $3 Amazon.com credit for a limited time.
To use the service, Amazon.com customers need to connect their account with the retailer to their Facebook account.
Doing so will also enable users to view
improved product recommendations, share items with friends, import
photos into Amazon Cloud Drive and share notes on Kindle books.
Merchants such as Amazon are looking for
ways to create more social shopping experiences, but are often
challenged from a technological standpoint.
“Social is not as much about pure commerce
as it is about the customer experience at any point in the path to
purchase,” Ms. Rosenblum said. “The problem is, the world is moving
faster than retailers’ IT departments can move.
“The integration buses required to support
the flexibility retailers need just haven’t been installed at enough
sites, and point-to-point integration gets really tiresome and
inefficient,” she said.
“We expect to see retailers to do some
serious platform upgrading over the coming two years. It’s the only way
they can provide more options going forward.”
Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York
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