This is that time of year when we begin to stress out about getting our holiday shopping done. Because our family, friends, coworkers, extended family, and bosses all have different preferences and tastes, and it always takes a while to find that perfect gift for each one.

Thankfully, the age of technology, when much of our private information is widely available for the world to see (thanks, Facebook), makes it easier for us to do holiday shopping.

Some companies made a huge push this year to make their customers’ shopping process easier and a lot less stressful.

Etsy decided to redesign their Gift Ideas for Your Friends service, connecting it with Facebook and allowing the visitors to see which gifts would better suit their family and friends based on their interests and likes on Facebook. And it does so without violating anyone’s privacy.

Once you log in, Etsy pulls up all of your Facebook friends and four gift suggestions for each, based on their interests and likes. Many are very accurate, and some I would actually consider buying. Etsy even wrote the behind the scenes post about how they made this service work. It would be interesting to see the results of this initiative and if it will increase the website’s traffic and revenue for this holiday season.

Another interesting gift shopping resource was launched by Walmart. They introduced a Facebook app called Shopycat (so, it’s like a shopping copycat? hm…), the main point of which is very similar to Etsy’s, but the gift recommendations come mainly from Walmart’s Books and Electronics departments.

Good luck with keeping your gift shopping activities in secret though, because (thanks again to Facebook privacy settings) a Shopycat-related notification to your friends will appear on the Ticker right away.

Are there any other apps that help you do your Christmas shopping?

Share on Facebook ]]> http://lockerpartner.com/2011/12/social-commerce-taking-holiday-shopping-to-another-level/feed/ 0 http://lockerpartner.com/2009/12/the-flaming-lips-x-mas-band-for-the-ages/ http://lockerpartner.com/2009/12/the-flaming-lips-x-mas-band-for-the-ages/#comments Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:33:43 +0000 Jason Harper http://lockerpartner.com/?p=736

This year, the band who brought you Christmas on Mars in 2007 found some ingenious ways of stuffing fans’ stockings outside the usual, gift-wrapped box.

With CD sales continuing to plummet and die death upon fiery death, bands must find ways of producing and selling content outside of the traditional one-album-every-few-years concept.

And few bands do that as well as the Flaming Lips.

In October, the Oklahoma band released its 12th studio album, Embryonic. A weird, experimental break from the recent, poppier releases of the late ’90s, early ’00s, this double-CD dynamo contained lots of improv-heavy space jams and instrumentals. Critics and fans of the group’s psychedelic early days loved it.

In addition to selling the album digitally with bonus tracks on the iTunes store (plus your typical retail version), the band offered an Embryonic deluxe edition box that was covered in fur. In addition to selling it through the band’s site, they peddled it at a pop-up store in L.A. the week of the album’s release, alongside a string of live performances.

Then there was the Dark Side of the Moon project. Purely to have additional content for iTunes, the Lips and their friends Stardeath & White Dwarfs (a band led by the nephew of Lips frontman Wayne Coyne) hit the studio to record a complete cover version of the original Pink Floyd album. It was released December 22 on iTunes, and we’re downloading it as we write this entry (iTunes store link).

And then, also in time for Christmas, there was the totally strange-o Silver Trembling Fetus Ornament. Wayne explains:

And finally, the band, or at least Stephen and Wayne, dropped by the studios of Static to knock out a few Christmas classics in their own special way. Enjoy. (More here)

Merry Christmas, ye fearless freaks!

If Santa brings the toys, what pagan imp drops by every American’s house a month before Christmas with armloads of catalogs from every department store, clothing company, chocolate maker, jellysmith, fruitcake manufacturer, teddy-bear farm, etc in the land?

That said, I have fond memories of paging through the mammoth Sears catalog, which, considering that I grew up in a fairly small Texas town, literally was bigger than the phonebook. In its awesome comprehensiveness, it had page after page of material goods both alluring (every toy you could want) and impressively dull (every towel you could want, and then some).

And it probably took out an entire grove of giant sequoia to print.

Indeed, those carefree days of bulldozing rainforests so that every household from Truth and Consequences, NM, to Chagrin Falls, OH, can peruse Monkey Ward’s holiday deals are over. And the earth is better for it.

However, American companies traditionally don’t like risking sales loss just to save the earth’s ecosystem from destruction.

But fortunately for our forests, many companies are stepping up.

They’re saving paper (or using recycled) and maintaining the bottom line while building customer goodwill through upholding green principles that people care about.

Some, however, are not.

ForestEthics’ 4th Annual Naughty/Nice List, “a scorecard on the direct mail industry,” shows who’s getting goodies this Christmas and who’s getting coal in their stocking.

Receiving holiday-themed scores of Naughty, Nice, or Checking Twice, 21 companies, including companies in the financial sector, were evaluated according to four criteria: whether or not Endangered Forests are cut to produce the company’s catalogs; whether the company uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper; the amount of post-consumer recycled content in the company’s direct mailings; and the company’s efforts to reduce overall paper consumption.

The scorecard, which you can view at the link above or by downloading the PDF, shows some encouraging news.

Timberland tops the list — it’s ceased printing catalogs together. Patagonia is up there too, using the highest percentage of post-consumer goods. REI, L.L. Bean and Crate & Barrel all made a good showing.

At the bottom of Santa’s list … sigh. Sears, which has been found guilty of greenwashing. Nieman Marcus and Eddie Bauer didn’t even respond to the survey. Coal and coal for you guys.

Distributing massive amounts of direct mail isn’t even an option for small companies and mom-and-pop stores, but going green definitely is. Here’s a helpful page of info from Uncle Sam about how to take advantage of green marketing.

Hey, Santa, what kinda mileage does that sleigh of yours get?