SocialGift: Social media makes collaborating on a group gift purchase less complicated than it used to be, but getting everyone to decide on what to buy typically involves exhaustive back-and-forth deliberation. SocialGift is an easy-to-use service that saves time by managing this oft-time touchy interaction. The SocialGift website, as well as its
Tumblr, offers unconventional ideas to help friends select a present that the recipient won’t want to send to the Returns Department—and, perhaps more importantly, implements a voting system so that everyone in the group has a say in what’s sent. Plus, a Karma Points loyalty program means that frequent gifters can earn stuff for themselves, too.
Let’s Gift It: Collecting payments for a group gift is often as dreaded as the task of divvying up the check at a large restaurant dinner party. No one wants to front the money or be responsible for collecting the cash. Let’s Gift It is a
convenient web service that makes
social gifting simple for both groups of friends and the digital retailers from whom they’re buying the gifts. Friends can use the site’s platform to share gifts (via Facebook and Twitter) and round up contributions, while e-commerce stores can use the LGI API to embed the ability to split the cost of any item directly into their sites.
Giftiki: The only thing worse than not knowing what to give someone is settling on something you know they don’t really want. Giftiki is a forthcoming social commerce platform that helps givers avoid such tribulations. The Giftiki
collaborative gifting engine allows users to send small amounts of money to contribute to a collective fund, empowering the recipient to buy the things that they actually covet. Operating under the mantra that when everyone gives a little, you can actually give a lot, Giftiki holds the promise that shoppers will never again be forced to choose between the overpriced sugar spoon and the useless ceramic figurine for that elusive wedding registry offering.
