People can now connect to their Facebook account on Amazon and create a personalized gift card that will be sent to the recipient’s Facebook Wall.

“We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that we’ve made gift-giving more social,” said Michal Geller, director of ACI Gift Cards, Inc., the exclusive issuer of Amazon.com Gift Cards.

“Sending gift cards has never been easier and we’re excited to offer the Facebook option just in time for the holidays.”

After connecting to their Facebook account on Amazon, the sender can choose a gift card design, select an amount up to $5,000 and provide an optional gift card message. The sender can also schedule the date for the gift card to appear on the recipient’s Facebook Wall up to a year in advance.

In addition, Amazon is now offering a “Give 5, Get $5” promotion for a limited time. Starting today, the first 10,000 customers who give an MP3-themed gift card to five different Facebook friends will get a $5 credit good for music downloads at Amazon MP3.
 

Facebook Credits gift cards will be available in increments of $15, $25 and $50. Facebook says its gift cards will be an “ideal gift” this holiday season for users who like playing games on the social network.

“One of Facebook’s goals is to create a great place for games – both for people who love to play and the developers that create fun and engaging social experiences,” said Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships and platform marketing at Facebook.

“Gift cards are easy to use and very popular. We’re looking forward to launching in Target stores and giving people the ability to purchase Facebook Credits for their own use or to give as gifts to their friends and family.”

More than 200 million people play social games on Facebook each month. According to Inside Network, Americans will spend more than $1.6 billion in 2010 on virtual goods and social gaming.

Facebook Credits are accepted by a number of popular games on the network, including Zynga’s FarmVille and Mafia Wars; CrowdStar’s Happy Aquarium; PopCap Games’ Bejeweled Blitz; Playdom’s City of Wonder; and EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars from Playfish.
 

Users can search for the book on Amazon they want to trade and view how much credit they will receive in the form of a gift card.  If the offer seems reasonable, users can print a pre-paid shipping label and put the book in the mail.

Amazon says once the book is received and verified by a third-party merchant an Amazon gift card will be deposited into the users Amazon account. The gift card can be used to purchase anything Amazon sells online.

 Amazon already offers a similar program for used DVDs and video games. One drawback is that some college students may want actual cash instead of being limited to making a purchase on Amazon.

The company says its textbook store offers savings of up to 30 percent off the list price of more than 100,000 new textbooks and up to 90 percent off used textbooks.

"Our student customers know they can rely on Amazon.com for a great selection of titles and low textbook prices, and we’re happy to be able to offer them another service to help them save money and time," said Julie Todaro, director of Books at Amazon.com

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"The post-holiday season, following Christmas and extending through January, is known for being an active gift card redemption period," wrote Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester in her October 2007 report, "Outlook For US Online Retail: Holiday 2007."

"Online retailers that are ready to capture those customers will likely be able to maintain relatively strong sales, in spite of the traditional 1Q seasonal dip."

Eric Feige, general manager of Usability Sciences, has gathered data showing that ecommerce technology problems at check-out will lead to people shopping somewhere else.

"Our history of conducting quantitative user research through our Attitudinal Analytics solution has shown that many retail eCommerce sites do not easily allow consumers to use gift cards for partial or full payment," Feige said.

"Online shopping analysis showed that deficient gift card redemption support during the check-out process resulted in abandonment and was the top source of customer experience failure."

Feige said online retailers need to review online gift-card redemption processes to make sure customers have a positive post-holiday experience. "Although changes to eCommerce sites are generally locked down through the purchasing rush, retailers have an opportunity now to improve the customer experience for gift-card redemption," he said.