If life is crazy for you on a regular day, then I’ll bet it’s doubly crazy with holiday madness, when schedules are pushed to the limit. Make no mistake: when you’re in a rush, online holiday shopping is efficient, safe and secure shopping, and with an eCODE from Plastic Jungle, you’ll also save money.

Did you know that gift cards are available in an electronic format? An eCODE is an electronic gift card, aka e-gift cards, e-gift codes, or e-certificate: this is the code you enter at a merchant’s online checkout page as a method of payment. It’s not a “promo” or promotion code that gives you a percentage off, or free shipping: an eCODE is actual tender.

So, when you combine the discounted eCODE with a store’s coupon code or promo code, or even a free shipping offer, you can really stack up the holiday savings.

You can buy a discounted electronic gift card, or eCODE, on Plastic Jungle and have the eCODE ready for payment at the specified merchant in a matter of minutes. When you purchase an eCODE, with the Plastic Jungle discount, the eCODE is sent to the email address you registered with. To gift the eCODE, just forward the Plastic Jungle eCODE to your recipient.

Right now on Plastic Jungle, you’ll find iTunes gift cards available as an eCODE*, so you can buy the gift card for less than face value, and use the full face value for online iTunes purchases right away. Barnes & Noble gift cards are available as an eCODE right now too – for online purchases only.

Inside Scoop:  There will be quite a few Zappos gift cards on PlasticJungle.com starting this weekend!

So instead of running from store to store, checking stock and searching for the best deal, smart holiday shoppers are easily finding their holiday deals online. Plastic Jungle definitely wants you to know that with eCODEs, we’re happy to help you with that.

*Remember, gift card and eCODE offerings on Plastic Jungle change all the time. Check back frequently, or sign up for email notifications, for offers from the store of your choice.

Although we are in the business of buying and selling gift cards, Plastic Jungle is not immune to the bad press gift cards as gifts are sometimes given in the media. The gist of this negative press is that gift cards are too impersonal, and that they have taken away the ‘specialness’ of giving. Obviously, consumers disagree. Below is information from Internet Retailer from a study by Javelin Strategy and Research:

“Online gift card sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29% over the next several years, hitting $5.86 billion in 2014.”

The fact is, gift cards can be a win-win for both giver and receiver. We are all leading more hectic lives than we ever have and buying gift cards as gifts allows us to easily check off our Holiday shopping list in no time. The person who receives the gift card as a gift is happy, for they can buy whatever they want, instead of receiving the typical ugly tie or blouse that doesn’t fit that they have received in the past.

If you are giving gift cards as gifts this Holiday season, there are ways to spruce them up and make them special. With each passing year, retailers get more creative with their gift card designs and packaging, plus there are ways you can personally create a gift of a gift card that will be remembered long after the balance on the gift card has been spent.

Here is a list of suggestions for making the gift of a gift card something special:

• Place the gift card inside another gift. Gift wrapping can be almost as beautiful as the actual gift, if you are creative or pay to have a gift professionally wrapped. Let your imagination run wild and dress up the gift cards you give as gifts with ribbons, special papers, trinkets, whatever your mind can conceive.
• Buy gift cards for special trips or entertainment. Treating someone to an experience he or she might not buy for himself / herself can truly be a holiday highlight.  Consider purchasing a gift card for a vacation, special event, or other great forms of entertainment.
• For teenagers, gift cards can be a great way to teach them how to budget. Buy a wallet or pocketbook and fill it with gift cards to their favorite stores, but also to gas stations, convenience stores, and other practical places they shop to teach them the value of money.
• Give inexpensive gift cards to service people. Your mailman, teachers, and others who have served you well throughout the year will be thrilled at the gesture and unexpected surprise of a gift card.
• Buy gift cards specialized for the receiver’s interest. If you have a fitness fanatic in the family, buy them a gift card for a free membership to a gym. For the chef in your life, buy a gift card to a kitchen supply store or cookbook retailer. You get the idea!

See how easy it is the make a gift card something special?

What are you doing this holiday season to make the gift cards you give as gifts memorable?

For serious, bargain-hunting shoppers, this is the most exciting time of year! Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 25th, and the day after that is BLACK FRIDAY.

Curious as to how the day after Thanksgiving came to be called Black Friday, I did a little research and discovered some interesting facts. First of all, there are several usages for the term Black Friday. It was originally coined in 1869 to describe a financial crisis, a stock market catastrophe set off by gold spectators who tried and failed to corner the gold market, causing the market to collapse and stocks to plummet. (This information was found on a site that is actually called Black Friday.com, great place to find your sales information for retailers early.)

However, the definition of Black Friday we are most familiar with began with retailers and became a regular term of use in the 1960s. Believe it or not, many retailers operate in the ‘red,’ (their profits in the loss column) for the whole year until the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest Christmas shopping day of the year. When their sales skyrocket on that one shopping day, retailers finally operate in the ‘black,’ (in profit) thus the term BLACK FRIDAY. What this means for consumers is that retailers bend over backwards to get your business on this awesome of shopping days, and items can be found for rock-bottom prices.

Many consumers love the hustle, bustle and chaos of being in the midst of other like-minded shoppers on Black Friday. It is part of the enjoyment for them. There are just as many consumers who dread the crowds and only go shopping the day after Thanksgiving to find the bargains. This is where the internet can be your best friend. More and more often, bigger retailers offer early bird specials and sneak peeks at their Black Friday sales on their websites, so now is the time to start preparing for Black Friday, whether you are planning to brave the crowds or you will be shopping online.

Now is also the perfect time to buy discounted gift cards to your favorite retailers. First you save money by buying discounted gift cards for your favorite retailers at Plastic Jungle for up to 30% less than you’d pay for them elsewhere, then you save on the specials, discounts, coupons and promotions retailers are running for Black Friday, and you have banked like a bandit!

Check out the large selection of gift cards available at Plastic Jungle now in order to get your gift card in the mail (there is free shipping!) in a few days and be ready to save like crazy on Black Friday deals.  (There will be a post later this week about how and where to find Black Friday deals, so be sure to check back!)