We live in a world were physical boarders are becoming less and less important, we are used to travel in our free time, and especially moving abroad for academic or work-related reasons has become a worldwide trend.

Whether we made this decision for ourselves or someone close to us made it, our way of living relationships has changed. We all have at least a friend or a relative far away, for which we celebrated birthdays, graduations or even San Valentine’s day via video-call!

But sometimes we still feel that this is not enough, so we spend hours looking on the web for local products or services that do home delivery, translating sites on Google Translate from Dutch, Finnish or who knows what language and often ending up with non-sense sentences and a check out page that requests a local credit card.

This was exactly my personal experience that made me think, is there no other way in 2020 to send a gift, either last minute or planned, to a friend that lives on the other side of Europe? Moreover, is there a gift that will be appreciated even if I don’t have a clue of what my friend could need for her/his-self?

Ok the second question was easy to answer, certainly gift cards were my answer as they have become the new cash that even grammas slip into their grandchildren's pockets. While for where to find cross boarder gift cards easy to buy and without a local credit card my only answer was: “If I don’t find one, we need to make it!” 

This is how the Giftiamo concept was born, an international gift card e-commerce with the goal of making people feel closer to each other. The entire user experience of the website is thought so that we don’t have to think twice, and we can let those spontaneous gestures take the lead by sending a gift card to our beloved ones.

From a coffee at Starbucks to a fashion accessory on Zalando, from a subscription to his favorite movies with Netflix to a nice plant at IKEA, there are gift cards that match all sorts of wish… can you believe that such nice gifts could really come by emails? 

Unfortunately, we cannot prevent ourselves from feeling melancholy or missing someone, but we can share our feelings and demonstrate our love with a small gift, a gift that can shorten distance.

- Article by Francesca Romana Raimo, International Merchant Service Director