Just a warning that my Facebook status updates will now included phrases such as “if only I had an iPad2” and “1200 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets.”
Walmart Unleashes Facebook App to Find Gifts People Want
By: Jack Neff
Searching online wish lists, guessing or just directly asking people what they want as gifts is so 20th century, so Walmart is launching a new approach for the holidays — its Shopycat app that scours Facebook profiles, updates, comments and likes to come up with gifts for your friends.
The giant retailer’s @Walmartlabs unit has been testing the app since August, gaining about 6,000 users to date, but will launch it more widely this week among Walmart’s 10.6 million Facebook fans and via the retailer’s YouTube channel. The goal is to get users to buy gifts at Walmart.com, but Shopycat also shows availability at a user’s nearest Walmart store and in some cases even directs them to the websites of rival retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond or Hot Topic for items Walmart doesn’t carry.
“Gifting is fundamentally a social activity,” said Venky Harinarayan, co-head of @Walmartlabs e-commerce and social commerce development unit based in Mountain View, Calif. “It’s about people connecting with other people through products. It’s a huge overall business opportunity. It’s something that’s not done very well on the web today.”
Facebook is a rich trove of data for gift recommendations, he said, both because people’s friends and families tend to be there and because they’re constantly dropping hints, whether they know it or not.
Continues at: Walmart Unleashes Facebook App to Find Gifts People Want | Digital – Advertising Age.
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