Facebook Phasing Out Actual Gift Items In Favor of Gift Cards
By Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If you wanted to send a Facebook friend an actual birthday gift, you'd better do it soon. The social network is changing its focus to gift cards.
Facebook is still keeping "Gifts," but it's just switching over to gift cards and digital codes instead of items such as flowers, stuffed animals, and cupcakes.
The social networking giant says It will add more merchants to its Facebook Card -- a reusable gift card where you can keep monetary balances from different retailers.
The move is apparently designed to cut down on delivery and management costs. A Facebook representative tells the tech web site Cnet that about 80 percent of purchased gifts made through Facebook have been gift cards.
The Facebook digital store will also be getting a new look, which has already been rolled out to 10 percent of members.
