Starbucks, the coffee giant, has just launched an electronic gift card program called Starbucks Card eGifts. There’s two primary ways to top-up your (or your friends’) gift cards. The first is simplest, and that’s by going to the Starbucks Web site and telling it which e-mail address to send the funds to. Nothing too complicated there, and you can specify whether to send a predetermined amount ($5, $10, $15, or $20), or you can send however much you like. And what kind of retail program would be relevant in 2011 without Facebook integration?
Facebook users are able to connect their account to the eGifts program, and doing so will open up a few different opportunities. You can, of course, more easily add funds to your own account, but then you’re able to send eGifts to any of your Facebook friends without necessarily knowing their e-mail address.
The program starts today.
Starbucks says that people put some $1.5 billion on its gift cards last year, which just so happens to be a 21 percent increase over the previous year.
Just in time for all those Trenta ice coffees, right?