Venmo Debuts Gift-Wrapping Feature

Venmo on Thursday (Jan. 13) unveiled its gift-wrapping feature, giving users a new way to send money to their friends and family members. Users can choose from eight animated gift-wrap designs that can be added to a payment note.

Almost 80% of Venmo users said they’ve sent money as a gift via Venmo or another peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service in the past year, and 86% of those surveyed cited the ease of sending as one of their top reasons for choosing to send a gift via Venmo, per the announcement.

“Gifting money through Venmo to say ‘thanks’ or ‘just because’ is something the majority of our community does year-round, not just during holidays and special occasions,” Darrell Esch, senior vice president and general manager, said in the company announcement.

“The present emoji was one of the top ten emojis that customers used in their payment notes in 2021,” Esch continued. “We’re excited to introduce our new gift-wrapping feature to enhance this experience, enabling customers to celebrate with loved ones, no matter how big or small the moment.”

Customers can send a gift-wrapped payment in a few steps at no additional cost by tapping the “Pay or Request” button on the home screen and adding the recipient, payment note and payment amount. Then, the user just has to tap the gift wrap icon and choose the gift wrap they’d like to send with their payments.

Recipients will receive a notification that they’ve received a gift in the Venmo app, where they’ll be able to unwrap the gift and view the custom animated designs. Both the senders and recipients can choose to rewatch the animation at any time from the payment details screen.

Related: Venmo Unveils Crypto Price Alert Tool

In November, Venmo debuted a feature that lets customers set price alerts for the four cryptocurrencies on its platform.

The feature lets users track the prices of bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash, all of which are available to buy, sell or hold. It gives customers alerts when the price of these currencies rises or falls by 5% or 10%.