Social gifting is trending higher

'Social gifting makes it easier for customers to give their brand as a gift and is also a good way for retailers to get data on their offline customers that they couldn’t otherwise get'.

That's the way managing director David Van Reyk describes DropGifts, a social gifting firm with an app that lets gift-givers buy and deliver a gift card to a Facebook friend with just a few clicks.

Wrapp is an international social gifting company that has UK deals with House of Fraser, Shuh, eFlorist and other marketers. Wrapp operates in 8 countries and is planning to expand to 9 more nations within months.

One advantage of social gifting is flexibility: recipients can buy whatever they choose with a gift card--and marketers can learn more about buying patterns by monitoring such purchases. Another advantage is convenience for gift-giver and recipient, because the gift card is digital and can be redeemed by mobile or tablet in any participating merchant location (or online). Finally, a social gift is, well, social: Once a social gift appears in the recipient's Facebook Timeline, other friends can choose to contribute toward it as well.

How much interest will social gifting attract during this year's holiday shopping season? That's the question many marketers want to answer as they consider whether to participate and which company will gain the most shopper acceptance.