Is this solving any problem or filling any hole in the market? Of course it's filling facebook's data hole in that they can't currently track what I buy. I'll keep that between myself, the retailer, and my bank. Thanks anyway.
Float: while money is in the system, Facebook can use it for their own purposes or on Wall Street.
Unredeemed value: about 10-20% of gift cards are never redeemed. In the USA this amounts to $10-$20 billion that consumers just hand over to retailers for nothing.
Add that to FB's ravenous desire for your personal info, and even if a small fraction of FB's users adopt this, it's a big win for them.
P.S. Um, as for benefits to the consumer? Well, maybe centralizing in-store gift cards has some benefit. And sometimes I've wanted a way to buy someone a beer over the internet. There only really good thing about gift cards, for consumers, is that you can urge someone to consume an indulgence they wouldn't get for themselves, and show that you understand their tastes, while also allowing them some choice about when, where, and what to spend it on.
Are you going to spend the time to actually find a Jamba Juice and go there to buy a gift card? Or are you going to just click "buy as a gift for Friend" on Facebook?
Another option is to buy the gift card at another store, but then you're just filling Safeway's data hole or Target's data hole instead of Facebook's. Is that better?
More importantly - a gift card in a shop can be bought with cash if you choose, and even if I used a credit card, my bank doesn't show me ads because I shopped somewhere
> Seriously who buys gift cards for a shop that sells drinks?
http://www.statisticbrain.com/starbucks-company-statistics/
> Starbucks Company Statistics
> Year Value of Gift Card Activations
> 2011 $820,500,000I should have asked what sane person buys a gift card for a shop that sells drinks.