Amazon introduces personalized, animated gift cards

In time for the holiday season, Amazon.com Inc. today announced a partnership with HDgreetings that allows customers to e-mail customizable, animated gift cards.

Consumers can go to hdgreetings.com/amazon and select from about 100 short videos, ranging from sentimental to humorous, to be delivered along with the gift card. One called Birthday Toast features five dancing pieces of toasted bread with British accents wishing the recipient a happy birthday verbally and with placards. The sender uploads a picture of the recipient, and the birthday celebrant’s head pops up out of the toaster at the end of the video greeting. The virtual gift cards can be personalized with greetings and can include a song of the sender’s choosing.

“We liked the personalized experience and gift card in one package,” says Michal Geller, director of gift cards at Amazon.com. “This makes gift cards more personal. There is a perception that it is not personal.”

HDgreetings, part of Light Factory Inc., develops card content with a community of about 100 artists to create high-definition animated cards. “A lot are like mini-Pixar movies,” says HDgreetings CEO and co-founder Jennifer Sharp. “You couldn’t offer better customer experience for the largest selection of gifts.”

Despite the overall depressed retail outlook, Geller is confident that gift cards offer a good value to customers. “The nice thing about a gift card is it gives the opportunity to shop,” says Geller.

Amazon.com is No. 1 in the .
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