Do you have a question not listed in this FAQ page? You can make a post on the Giftapart Admin page on Giftapart or email us a question at support@giftapart.com.
What is Giftapart?
Giftapart is an innovative social ecommerce supermall with hundreds of America's top retailers selling over 50,000,000 products. Giftapart does not allow third-party sellers to list products for sale. When you shop through Giftapart, you know that you're getting legitimate items from real stores.
Why do I need to create an account to add items to the shopping cart?
Giftapart is the world's first social ecommerce supermall. We are more than just shopping. At Giftapart, you can chat with people anywhere about products, share user experiences, and so much more. Without creating an account, you miss out on so much. And since we never share your email and personal information with anyone (except the stores you buy from to execute the order), your information is secure and private. Plus, Giftapart is available on your browser, Apple iPhone and Android device, so by creating an account you have a seamless experience across devices. If you're browsing for an item using your desktop, add it to the cart, and then move to your Giftapart mobile app, you can continue shopping, socializing, and purchasing without a blink. Giftapart values your privacy.
Why doesn't Giftapart allow third-party sellers to list their own products for sale?
Giftapart wants to provide the consumer a shopping experience that they can trust and not worry about getting counterfeit merchandise. In a 2018 study and investigation conducted from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, it was revealed that over 42% of the products purchased from third-party sellers on Amazon, eBay, Sears, Newegg and other marketplaces, were counterfeit. At Giftapart, our users and consumers don't have to worry about whom they are buying from -- it's always a legitimate, credible and established retailer that they already know and trust. (GAO: https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/689713.pdf)
Who's selling me the product?
Purchases made through the Giftapart social ecommerce supermall are initially processed by Giftapart and then executed through the retailer directly. In other words, you buy the item in the Giftapart marketplace, and then Giftapart executes your items directly from the retailers that you sellected when you paid for the items in your shopping cart. This means that ultimately, you are buying the item from the store that you already know and trust, and it's shipped directly to you from the store or stores that you purchased from.
Who's shipping me the product?
Transactions purchased from Giftapart are typically executed directly to the stores that sell products through Giftapart's supermall. The stores that you know and trust then ship the item directly to you. Ocassionally, but not usually, Giftapart may have the items shipped from Giftapart's fulfillment center. Either way, your items are considered purchases made from the hundreds of well-known credible brands and stores on Giftapart.
Are prices the same at Giftapart and the retailers' websites?
Generally, yes. However, Giftapart relies on merchandize data provided to us daily from our retailer partners. Although we udpate our data quickly, retailers sometimes don't provide us accurate data or their prices changed after they sent us their data. But here's the GOOD NEWS. If you make a purchase on Giftapart and the same item is cheaper on the store's website, we actually execute your purchase for the cheaper price and refund you the difference. If the item is actually reflecting a lower price on Giftapart than the retailer is actually selling it, we may either, at our discretion, refund you your full price or execute the order at our expense. There are other times when either Giftapart or the retailer is having its own exclusive promotion. Even with the same retailer price on their website, you're still getting a better deal on Giftapart because you're earning Cashback Rewards on Giftapart. And if you're a Giftapart+ member, you get free shipping too and 1.5x the Cashback Rewards!
How do I return an item?
If you need to return an item, you return it back to the retailer directly. Your receipt that comes in your package allows you to make returns to the store directly. Many retailers include a return-shipping label inside their packages. Other retailers may be conveniently located close to you for in-store returns. But be aware, the return policy is subject to each individual retailers' terms and conditions. Giftapart does not accept returns. You make your return back to the retailer who sold your product. This makes it easier for you and you can have confidence in shopping through Giftapart that returns are made in the same manner as already offered from the retailers.
Why shop from Giftapart instead of direct from the retailer?
Giftapart's social ecommerce supermall provides a way for you to search from hundreds of stores and over 50,000,000 products in one place. And when you shop from the Giftapart, you get Cashback Rewards. You can add up Cashback Rewards across multiple retailers, and then use the earned Cashback Rewards to shop from any of the stores on Giftapart. Giftapart's social ecommerce marketplace also provides a uniquely fun and interactive shopping experience unlike any other in the world. And with Giftapart+, you can get free shipping and awesome other benefits!
Order Tracking and Purchase History
Your purchase history is easily accessible on your Profile page: Select Settings, and Purchases. There, you can also get shipping information about your order. If the retailer provides tracking information, we share this with you right in your purchase oder information.
Cashback Rewards
Cashback Rewards are awesome. When you shop for the things you need, you earn free Cashback Rewards. The amount of Cashback Rewards depends on the retailer. Some retailers provide more, others less. Products typically identify the amount of Cashback Rewards you'll receive if you purchase the item. Retailer pages inside Giftapart also display the Cashback Rewards given back for purchases made from that store. So here's an example. If you buy a $100 product, and it identifes a 5% Cashback Reward, you'll get $5 back in Cashback Rewards to shop for anything else you want on Giftapart. Two months after your purchase, your Cashback Rewards are redeemable for anything you want (except gift cards).
If you're a Giftapart+ member, you get 1.5x the Cashback Reward advertised. That's means if the item costs $100, and the advertised Cashback Rewards for that product is 5%, as a Giftapart+ member you actually get 7.5%, or $7.50, back in Cashback Rewards. That's awesome! Obviously, if you return an item after earning your Cashback Reward, we deduct the original value of that Cashback Reward. With Cashback Rewards, your purchases at Giftapart result in significant savings. When you add free shipping with Giftapart+, there's no better deal than shopping on Giftapart. Full Cashback Rewards terms can be read here.
Does Giftapart share my email and personal information?
Giftapart never shares your personal information with anyone except with the specific retailer to execute your order. Giftapart never sells your email or any other information about you. When you place an order on Giftapart, we need to provide certain information about you with the store so that you get your item. But there are a couple of advantanges with shopping at Giftapart. Instead of providing your payment information to multiple stores, you buy through Giftapart so you only provide personal credit card information once and in one place. And Giftapart never stores your credit card info. Instead we rely on representative tokens that reference your account so that our merchant services partner can execute payment without you having to re-enter the same information over again. It's convenient - and secure! Check out our full privacy policy.
Giftapart gift lists vs. wish lists
Giftapart is a full featured platform. You can create both Gift-a-part gift lists and wish lists. So what's the difference? Wish lists are items you place on a list that perhaps you'd like to receive or save for later. You can make your wish list either private or public. If your wish list is public, you can share it with your family and friends so that they know what you want. You can use the wish list as a gift registry too, but wish lists don't let you control the order that you get your gifts. For that, you'll need to setup a gift list. Giftapart is the world's first company to let you control the order that you get you get your gifts. Using the Giftapart gift list system, you can organize your list so that your family and friends have to contribute to the first item first. Instead of having to worry about how much the gift costs, your gift contributors simply click on the number of parts that they want to buy. This way, the cost of the item isn't that important to the selection process. Your friends click on the number of parts that they can afford to pay or want to pay, and then simply pay. That's it. You just made gifting to you the fastest and easiest way on the planet. After your initial gift is fully funded, we execute the order on your behalf, and voilá, you got what you really wanted. The next item on your list moves up to be contributed by your family and friends, and one-by-one, you keep getting exactly what you want in the precise order that you picked! It's absolutely fabulous.
How are items in Giftapart gift lists funded?
In order to assure that you get exactly what you want, Giftapart has developed a pretty cool and ingenious system. You get the gift for the lowest possible price, and you provided to your friends and family the easiest and fastest gifting system in the world.
Let's say you want a widget, and today it costs $460 at the store you love, Loveit Mart. The widget has a MSRP of $500, but, like most items, the price fluctuates regularly. Shipping is $20 and taxes (let's keep it simple) is $40. So, today, this item, if you were to buy it straight out, would cost you $460 + $40 shipping + $20 tax = $520. Tomorrow, unknown to you, it's on sale for $450. So how does Giftapart calculate the overall price that's then divided into each individual PART for your family and friends to conribute to the overall total price?
Since there are daily price fluctuations, we use the full MSRP, plus shipping and tax, add the 4.9% service fee + 2.0% credit merchant fee, and get the full maximum price to fund. We then divide this by the number of parts, and that's how we get price per part. BUT, here's what's really COOL...
We check your item's price every day, and if the price is lower, and you have enough funds to make the purchase it, you get it an even lower price. So, how does that work? Let's say the widget cost $460 when you setup the gift. We used the MSRP to calculate the price to fully fund, but today, it's super sale day at Loveit Mart, and your widget is $400 and free shipping. Wow. Your friends and family have been contributing, and you have enough to execute the gift at $400, but not at the $460 price. Well, fantastic news, Giftapart executes your order at today's sale price, and any leftover funds rollover into your next gift automatically! If you had no other gift to rollover, the extra funds would go to your Giftapart account for you to spend however you want. Super cool!
What happens to money contributed to gifts that aren't fully funded?
Giftapart checks your items price every day. If there was enough money contributed towards your gift, irrespective of the parts not purchased yet, Giftapart will execute your order so that you get the item at the lowest possible price. So if the order executed at $220, but you had $250 contributed, there's a $30 difference. That $30 is first passed on to your next gift on your list, and, if there is no next gift on your list, the $30 goes to your Giftapart account as credit for you to use on whatever you want. With over 50,000,000 products from hundreds of retailers, odds are you'll find a nice gift for yourself to spend that extra money.
How do custom gift contributions work?
Gift givers can either select parts to purchase or they can select to enter a custom contribution. When gift contributors select the parts, the parts selected and purchased are linked to the specific giver and their comments. However, when a gift giver selects to provide a "custom contribution", the Giftapart system automatically funds as many parts as possible for the amount that they paid and assigns these parts to the gift giver as if they had selected the parts. So, for example, if Anne selects a custom contribution of $100 towards your gift, and each part would have cost $22, then Anne is actually purchasing ($100 divided by $22) four full parts. The four parts cost $88, there's still $12 remaining. Not enough to buy a full part, but it's still used towards funding your gift. If Joe then contributes $10, now collectively with Anne, that's $22 so another part is marked as paid. However, only users who paid for at least one full part can have their comment directly linked to the part(s) they bought. Giftapart actually uses the total funded, parts plus custom contributions, to determine whether there's enough money to fully fund the gift, so no matter how a gift giver decides to contribute, all that money is used to fund your gift. You can always see an itemized list of the contributions towards your gift
Learn more about the event planner
Giftapart has a great full-featured event planner for you to use. You can use the event planner to create a Happening and invite your guests, keep track of their RSVP status, chat about the event using its dedicated social feed, host and guests can share media about the event, and so much more. Go to your calendar and select the create a new Happening icon. Enter a title for the Happening, select date/time for start and end, provide information for the guests, the location, and customize your header picture. You can then invite guests. Inviting guests is easy. Simply click on the [+] symbol next to the name. Your Giftapart friends are all listed. And if you previously uploaded emails for a prior Happening, all those are there too. You can add more emails individually or a bunch from your stored contacts. Guests can even be invited by text message.
Happenings are also the best way for everyone at the event to share media with the host and each other. Media uploaded to the Happening's social feed are viewed by all the attendees. But best of all, after 24 hours, pictures uploaded to a Happening belong to the Happening's host. And all pictures are stored in full resolution. This way, you can safely ask your friends to upload pictures to Giftapart. In other social media platforms, the person who uploads the picture can delete it later, or if their account is deleted, the picture is gone. Not at Giftapart, no matter what your friends do after 24 hours, those pictures can only be deleted by you. This assures that important memories captured through pictures at important events, such as weddings, are safely stored and available to the host without risk of someone deleted it or leaving the platform.
Moments vs. Happenings, what's the difference?
Moments are everyday things, like lunch with a friend, work meeting, doctor appointment, or watch a cool show. Moments have limited guest invite features, but it's ok to use just to let someone know of the Moment event and see their RSVP.
Happenings are events where you need a full-featured event manager with various guest options. Think of things like weddings, birthday parties, fraternity parties, or any gathering of people. With Happenings, you get a custom page for the event, you can customize the header with a themed image, provide details such as date, times, RSVP deadlines, event specifics, and so much more. You can let guests bring guests, manage children, and even provide a secret code for more open, yet private, events.
Happenings also have their own dedicated social feed, so hosts and guests can all chat about the event (or whatever they want), and easily share media with everyone and the event host. With Happenings, you can also play live slideshow during the event while guests simultaneously upload media to the Happening page in real-time (see next FAQ).
And Happenings are an awesome way to manage and keep track of all your guests. You can invite friends on Giftapart, through email, text message, and even create a screenshot and a paper-ready print invitation. Guests can RSVP directly from their email without all the ads typically found on other event platforms, and both guests and hosts can change RSVPs as needed. You can even manage guests manually and keep track of everyone in one list, even if they don't have an email or cell phone.
Play slideshow
Have your friends share pictures taken at an event to your Happening page on Giftapart. You can then select to play a live slideshow at the event of pictures being uploaded in real-time. Simply go to the Media tab in the Happening, click to Zoom the picture, and select "Slideshow". Once the slideshow starts, you can control the order and the time between pictures by selecting "Options" on the bottom right of the picture. This a great feature to use at a public event or wedding. Broadcast the guests' pictures on a projector or large screen TV so your guests can enjoy everyone's pictures as they are shared. And this is also a great motivator to get others to take and share pictures too!
Contact us
If you have anything you wish to discuss with us, please use our contact form in Settings -> Contact to reach our customer service team expeditiously. You can also email us at support@giftapart.com. Questions regarding orders or account services need to be done through the Contact Form so that we can verify your identification and protect your privacy. If you're having a problem logging in and contact our Support Team, email us from the account associated with your account. And, email us just to say hi or share your feedback. We sincerely love hearing from our Giftapart family - you!
Get the apps.
Giftapart is available on any browser, tablet, and mobile. Beautiful apps are also available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Download the Giftapart iOS app at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/giftapart-chat-shop-gift-plan/id1542537444
Download the Giftapart Android app at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.giftapart1
