Traditionally, shoppers mark infamous epic sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the time to capitalize on savings for holiday gift shopping. Last year, shipping delays and supply chain issues impacted the holiday season and gave Americans a big headache, not to mention disappointed kiddos on Christmas morning. This year, it’s not quite as rough as that, but don’t take it to mean it can’t happen.
Of course, right now, there’s still plenty of time to order your online holiday gifts before the shipping deadlines kick in, but in the offhand chance life gets the best of you — there are options. Enter Amazon’s Instant Gift feature.
What Is Amazon’s Instant Mobile Gift Option?
In October 2021, Amazon unveiled a new way of gift giving with its mobile shopping feature that lets Prime members instantly choose from millions of merchandise to gift to friends and family using their mobile number or email address. Not only will the receiver be notified of the gift, but gift givers won’t have to track down addresses, worry about shipping extra early, or fuss over expedited shipping costs. Gift giving is done with just a click of a button through the Amazon Shopping app.
How Does Amazon’s Instant Mobile Gift Option Work?
An Amazon instant gift truly makes holiday shopping easier than ever. But, and this is a big but, it’s available only to Prime members shopping using the Amazon app. We’ve seen similar options in the past pop up, like Target’s experiment with GiftNow a few years back. But it’s the first time we’ve seen this type of gift-shopping option from Amazon. Yay!
The instant mobile gift feature is as simple as adding items to your cart and entering a phone number for your recipient.
Here’s how it works:
- If you’re an Amazon Prime member, browse millions of eligible items using the Amazon Shopping app. Once you’ve found the perfect gift, add it to your cart.
- Then, you’ll choose, “Add a gift receipt for easy returns,” at checkout.
- After selecting the items in your cart that are gifts, you’ll choose, “Let recipient add their address.”
- You’ll then be asked to provide the gift recipient’s mobile phone number or email address, and whether you want to leave a personalized message.
- Gift recipients will receive either an email or text (depending on which one you picked) letting them know about their gift. Your recipient chooses, “Accept and provide address,” for their Amazon delivery.
… and that’s it! Pretty simple, huh? Gift recipients also have the option to exchange the gift for an Amazon gift card, so no thoughtful purchase will go to waste.
Will Gift Recipients Know Their Amazon Instant Gift?
Yes. Unfortunately, there’s no way to disguise the item you’re gifting — however, this doesn’t discount the thought or effort put into giving the gift. While we all would like to have a gift neatly wrapped under the tree, Amazon’s instant gift feature still offers an element of surprise with the unexpected message that they’ve received something special. And a double bonus for taking care of any stress with tracking a delayed package or waiting until the last minute to shop.
Happy gift giving!
The post Amazon’s Instant Mobile Gifts Can Save the Hectic Holidays appeared first on The Real Deal by RetailMeNot.
