Facebook finally rolls out its gift card product

Given the focus Facebook was putting on social gifting in the second half of 2012, its decision to launch a gift card product is hardly surprising.

The product, which is only available in the US at present, allows people to give their Facebook friends gift cards to a select number of retailers. Once you’ve bought the card, your friend will get a notification informing them that they’ve been a given a gift card.

A few days later, says Facebook, a physical card will arrive in their post box, after which they’ll be able to use at whichever retailer you’ve selected for them.

Facebook Cards are apparently reusable too. After you’ve received a physical card, the social network says, the next time you get a Facebook Card gift, it will instantly be added to your existing card. The card can hold multiple gift balances, and each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift.

That re-usability and the ability to carry multiple balances might just be what sets Facebook’s gift product apart. The use of a physical cards might seem a little odd for a company as high-tech as Facebook but, for the moment at least, it makes sense. While mobile gift card services like Gyft are making a mark on the market, the people most likely to use them are early adopters meaning that their impact will be limited for the moment.

Facebook’s gift cards are easy to understand. Anyone who’s ever used a gift card will get it and the idea that you can reuse the card isn’t all that difficult to get. Facebook has said nothing about any possible international expansion in the near future.