Facebook users from across the world can now send their Christmas cards out directly from the social network, thanks to a partnership between advertising firm Dentsu and the Japanese Postal Service.
The duo have come together to create a service (here) which allows Facebook users to prepare and send cards for Christmas, birthdays, New Year and a host of other occasions.
We fully expected this to be a Japan-only affair but, in fact, it turns out that the service supports a range of different countries, while the app itself is available in English and Japanese.
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The service is not free but it is reasonably priced. The cards themselves — which include designs from Hallmark — cost upwards of around $1.3 (100 Japanese Yen) for the most basic ones, while handling and postage fees will set you back $1.03 (80 Yen) at the most, with delivery to Japanese addresses the least expensive, as you’d expect.
Given that this process saves the trouble of finding a suitable card, buying it, filling it out and even finding the address, we think this is money well spent…and that’s without even considering the cool factor.
Plus, as with most online card services, they are infinitely customisable. So if the standard designs, which are varied and pretty cool, don’t appeal, you can go right ahead and develop your own – perhaps using the tonne of photos you have on Facebook already.
We particularly like the fact that the service can scour Facebook or Twitter to pick out pals that have joined the service. In those cases, if they have signed up to the service, you can get a card out to them without needing to know their address, Postman will sort that out for you.
To get started, you’ll need to register an account and authorise your payment details, but, once that is done, the following four steps will get your card out and in the mail:
- Pick a card
- Design the card with a message and/or images
- Select the recipient
- Confirm the order, and get the card sent
The full list of delivery prices, which vary based on the recipient’s address and country, can be found here.
The only drawback of the service is the uncertain delivery time for those sending cards outside of Japan. International postal services can be unpredictable, particularly during the busy festive period, but with more than two weeks to go before Christmas day, there’s probably enough time to make an order and expect the card to arrive in time for the big day.
Now, you just need to work out what to do with the masses of painful card shopping time you’ve saved…or, perhaps you’d prefer to be old-fashioned and buy a bunch of cards yourself and make the trip to the local postal box.
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