Digital gifting

TL;DR

While on Amazon’s Berlin-based Gifting team, I led design for Digital Gifting, a new way to send gifts without knowing the recipient’s address. By letting senders use only an email or phone number, recipients could privately share delivery details and “unwrap” their gift digitally. The result improved delivery accuracy, reduced gifting errors, and made surprise gift-giving both seamless and joyful.

Customer Opportunity

Gift-givers often hesitate to send gifts because they don’t have the recipient’s address or want to keep the surprise intact. Research revealed that gift orders had a higher delivery failure rate (1.08%) than non-gifts (0.76%), most often due to missing or incorrect addresses. Customers also expressed a desire for a more delightful and surprise-preserving experience, one that made gift-giving easier and more meaningful.

Business Opportunity

Allowing customers to send gifts using just an email or phone number offered a dual benefit: reducing logistical errors while creating a more emotional, human-centered experience. This innovation strengthened Amazon’s position as a platform that not only delivers convenience but also helps people connect through thoughtful, surprise-friendly gifting.

Solution

We introduced a “Send without an address” flow, where the sender entered only the recipient’s contact information. The recipient received a private email or text, prompting them to accept the gift and enter their preferred address, keeping the sender’s intent hidden until delivery.

To heighten the emotional moment, we designed a digital unwrapping feature, allowing recipients to “unwrap” their gift virtually, bringing joy and anticipation into the digital space.

My Role

As Lead Designer on the Gifting team in Berlin, I partnered closely with the Fulfillment team in Seattle to bridge the emotional goals of gifting with the logistical realities of delivery.

• Defined the end-to-end sender and recipient experience for Digital Gifting.

• Led cross-team workshops balancing delight and operational accuracy.

• Designed and tested interactive prototypes across multiple device types.

• Collaborated globally to align localization, fulfillment, and privacy requirements.

Results & Impact

Digital Gifting launched as a widely adopted feature across Amazon’s marketplace, improving both delivery accuracy and customer satisfaction. The feature reduced failed deliveries, streamlined the gifting process, and introduced a new emotional dimension to Amazon’s shopping ecosystem.

Strategic Takeaways

• Solve for emotional jobs-to-be-done (surprise, delight) as well as functional outcomes.

• Cross-org collaboration (Berlin + Seattle) is essential for delivering global-scale innovation.

• Thoughtful details, like digital unwrapping, transform logistics into meaningful moments.