Ecommerce has changed the process of shopping; not only for ourselves but for close friends and family too. There remains a rather significant hurdle however for those shoppers wanting to buy products for others. Ecommerce is simply not optimized for purchasing in this manner, and if you've ever tried you know these challenges first hand.
Shoppers, of course, know their own preferences and even the personal preferences of those very close to them, but extend the buying circle - even just a little - and some serious ambiguity comes in when it comes to others' size, preferred color, not to mention their shipping address. These seemingly simple data points can create significant roadblocks when trying to buy for someone else, resulting in potentially significant loss of business for retailers.
Loop Commerce however is hoping to remove these obstacles with the launch of its new SaaS-based gifting solution. Integrating into a retailers' ecommerce store, the system essentially provides an alternative checkout path, which sends notifications to giftees, enabling them to select from a retailer's entire inventory (and under the merchants brand and within their site). It's one step up from impersonal gift cards and one giant leap from a cash gift.
"Loop Commerce significantly increases revenue for retailers by making their store a destination for gift giving," said Loop Commerce CEO and co-founder Roy Erez. "Loop Commerce takes the complexities out of gifting for consumers and the inefficiency out of gifting for retailers, while addressing major ecommerce challenges, such as new customer acquisition, cart abandonment, driving new sales, exchange and returns, and user and product data analysis."