With only a week left until Christmas, you may still be trying to buy gifts for a few people on your shopping list.  During the hectic holiday crunch though, most stores are super busy and even out of stock of the gifts you may want most.  Why battle the crowds, stand in long lines and deal with overworked employees when you can send a gift to anywhere in the country in seconds?  Let me introduce you to eGift Social!

eGift Social is a brand new way to send your friends and family an actual gift without having to pay for shipping and waiting for it to be delivered to the recipient.  As soon as you select and purchase the gift to be sent, the recipient will be instantly notified through either Facebook or email.  Their gift message will include a note stating what the gift is, who it's from and a unique gift code that should be taken to the store itself or redeemed online, if applicable.

I think this is a terrific idea for sending small gifts to acquaintances you may not be extremely familiar with.  For instance, I am Facebook friends with a lot of great people, some of whom I've not seen in years or who I've never met face to face.  How neat would it be to brighten that person's day with an ice cream cone for their birthday?

It's also a super easy way to send gift cards across the country for immediate use.  Since the recipient will receive the gift in real time, you could help your college student buy groceries at Kmart on the exact day they're needed!

eGift Social can also help you deliver a great gift right on time, in case you happened to forget an important date.  For instance, if you forget an anniversary or a birthday, eGift Social will deliver the goods on the exact day you remember, without having to wait for shipment with a mail carrier and the gift showing up several days after the fact.

Now, the minute you remember, can be the minute you deliver!  There aren't many stores yet affiliated with eGift Social, but I would expect this to change as the popularity of the program increases.   Currently, these are the stores you can use to send a gift from:

Living in Houston, there isn't a Kmart or Culver's around.  I am curious as to what would happen if someone sent me an actual gift from a store that I could not visit, for how would they know that Kmarts aren't located in Texas anymore?  eGift Social says that "All sales are final and no refunds are available", so before you buy, make sure that the person can actually redeem the gift you send at a store near them.  Otherwise, I'd stick to sending an online gift card so you know the gift recipient will be able to redeem it.

Disclosure:  I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of First Data and received an eGift gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.