Here’s How Amazon Is Transforming the Act of Holiday Gift Giving

It’s fair to say we’re all tentatively looking forward to the holiday season in 2021. After the madness of the last couple of years, we all need a good reason to relax with our loved ones and, while we’re not clear of the COVID-19 crisis yet, put the challenges of the pandemic out of our minds – at least for a few days.

Apart from the food and drink and warm cozy times spent with our families, one of the main things which springs to mind when we think of the holidays is the act of gift giving. Few things in this world are more satisfying than seeing a loved one’s face light up when they open that perfect present, and it warms one’s own heart to unwrap a thoughtful gift from someone you care about.

Many of us avoid the crowds by doing our holiday shopping online these days and Amazon has produced a way to make it even easier to purchase gifts for those loved ones you won’t be seeing in person over the season.

Amazon

With the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, travel restrictions may mean it’s not possible to spend time face-to-face with everyone you’d like to this holiday season. However, just because you can’t see them in person doesn’t mean you can’t show your love with a thoughtful gift.

With this in mind, Amazon has just announced a new feature which will be available through its smartphone app, which will allow members of its Prime subscription to purchase gifts for loved ones using only an email or phone number.

This means there’s no need to fish for their physical address – many people don’t have easy access to their friend’s addresses thanks to the digital-led death of the address book – or spend time with wrapping paper or struggling to find a mutually convenient time to meet up – anyone over the age of 30 who has tried to arrange a get-together knows how challenging this can be.

"We’ve all missed that opportunity to send a friend or loved one a gift because we didn’t have their address," said Amazon in a press release. "Or maybe we wanted to spare them the hassle of returning a gift if it wasn’t quite what they wanted. Amazon just launched a new feature that allows Prime members to instantly send gifts from their mobile devices, simply by providing the recipient’s email or mobile phone number."

The really clever part is the feature makes use of Amazon’s pre-existing infrastructure, making it a simple matter to implement. The gift-giver purchases the gift in the usual manner but selects the option to send it to another recipient. They then enter the recipient’s phone number or email address and follow the normal checkout process. On completion, the recipient receives a text or email saying they’ve been sent a gift and can enter their address themselves. The gift is then sent out in the usual expedient fashion expected by Prime members.

If the recipient doesn’t like the gift or it’s the wrong size, etc. they can choose to receive an Amazon gift certificate for the same amount instead. The important thing to note is that the gift-giver isn’t told whether the recipient has chosen this option, avoiding any potentially hurt feelings.

"Prime members can browse millions of products available to gift on the Amazon Shopping app, and once they find the right gift and add it to their cart, they select Add a gift receipt for easy returns and proceed to check out," continued Amazon. "When choosing the delivery address, Prime members will now see a new option to Let the recipient provide their address. And while it’s the thought behind a gift that counts, recipients also have the option of exchanging the item for an Amazon gift card – without having to notify the gift giver."

The new feature has been available since October and has been seeing good engagement from customers. Amazon is a consistent market leader when it comes to ecommerce innovation thanks to its unparalleled resources and development teams, so it seems likely we’ll see other ecommerce brands pick this feature up before long.

Final Thoughts

Amazon continues to trail blaze ecommerce innovation and this latest development only serves to add more convenience and simplicity to the act of holiday gift giving. Hopefully, this new feature will help even those friends and families who can’t be together in person have a happy holiday season this year.

Amazon is set to be a hot topic at eTail Europe 2022, taking place in April at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, UK.

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