Are you ever surprised by how difficult it is to spend money, even when you want to give it away? In this “web 2.0” world that we’re in with friends and workers continents apart, I’m surprised how difficult it is to send someone something as simple as a gift card.
In my humble opinion, we (own) are copying the wrong company and we have a lot of companies many magnitudes larger than ours making the same mistake: too much bureocracy. We’re all copying the wrong people – remember the famed video where Microsoft Marketing team did a parody of iPod packaging and explained what it would look like if Microsoft designed it? Same concept. Glengerry quote: “People are waiting to give you their money! Are you going to take it? Are you man enough to take it?” – I wonder how many people we outright turn off from doing business with us just because there is no flashing buy now button.
So if you’re looking for a global gift, Amazon is your friend:
Thats all it takes, five fields to give a gift of a few DRM-free MP3’s to enjoy around the holidays… Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. You want to know what the Starbucks gift certificate purchasing process looks like:
That’s right, buy-a-gift-card in 852 simple click steps and more places to enter data than a home mortgage application. All you need is a minor in computer science with specialization area of UI design and an uncle that hunts next to you so you can hit the right options as they slide around at 500px/sec. Geeez. Worst giftcard site, ever! Check it out.
P.S. If you’re on my blogroll and have updated your blog twice over the last month look for an email from Gift Certificates Redeemable at Amazon.com [mailto:gc-orders@acigiftcards.amazon.com] in your Inbox or junk.
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