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Take a cue from some of the big retailers and offer your customers a choice of virtual gifts this year. E-gifting is becoming more popular to consumers who don’t have to wrap the gift, send it via regular mail, and they often provide the same enjoyment as a traditional gift. For businesses like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Netflix, e-gifts are a natural to complement their physical offerings and have continued to increase their bottom line.

Gifting Electronically

It is estimated that around 25 percent of gift-givers this year will opt to give a gift electronically. One popular way to send a gift online is via a gift card that offers a code that can be inputted on checkout. It can be sent to someone’s email, so you don’t even have to be near someone to give them a nice gift card anymore. Other types of electronic gifts include subscriptions or apps.

Subscriptions and Apps

Netflix offers ways to gift a subscription to anyone on your Christmas list. Other companies, like Spotify offer music subscriptions in Europe, but they are still not available in the U.S. Amazon highlights their gift-giving capabilities by having special “Give as a Gift” buttons on their website. If you have an Apple fanatic on your gift list, you can give them Apple apps. Anything from digital music to e-books that can be downloaded electronically makes a great Christmas gift. Apps provide the perfect opportunity to gift someone with a game. With virtual goods expected to amount to a whopping 2.9 billion in sales next year, retailers are taking notice and beginning to think up new and creative ways to give the gift of cheer in someone’s inbox this year. For last minute shopper’s, they may offer the ideal way to cross someone off their list without even getting up off their couch to make the purchase.