Walmart Unleashes Shopycat Social Holiday Gift Finder

Walmart today launched Shopycat, the first social shopping app from its recently-formed @WalmartLabs unit that gives Facebook's 800 million users the ability to quickly find gifts for friends and family based on their tastes and interests.

The app uses social data to recommend items from Walmart.com, Walmart stores and other sites including RedEnvelope, Barnes & Noble, and ThinkGeek.

"As human beings, we are inherently social and shopping is one of the most social activities we engage in,” said Venky Harinarayan, SVP of Walmart Global eCommerce and co-founder of @WalmartLabs. “Our vision is to delight consumers and Shopycat is a first step in that direction with social and shopping coming together on the scale of Walmart. At Walmart, we see social commerce fueling the next generation of e-commerce where online and retail stores bring a continuous shopping experience to millions of users. We plan to continue experimenting with products as we build new social apps over the coming year."

Shopycat is designed to trigger gift ideas for friends ranging from music, books and movies to games and electronics, making gifting more fun and saving on time and the pressures of discovering the perfect gift. A friend who might have shared interests in the movie "Super 8," yoga and parenting, will have Shopycat recommend an exclusive edition of the movie, a fashionable yoga mat tote bag and a book on scream-free parenting. For people who are not active on Facebook with their likes and interests, Shopycat will recommend gift cards from Walmart.com as well as iTunes, Starbucks and Zynga.

Shopycat is based on @WalmartLabs' Social Genome platform that captures the connections between people, places, topics, products and events as expressed through social media be it a post, like or profile update. It’s designed to help people find at least one gift for their friends, making gifting hassle-free and more enjoyable.

With Shopycat, users can:

• Find and buy gifts for friends: Users can see customized gift recommendations for any friend on Facebook, quickly get product information and purchase items from Walmart.com for home delivery or see availability at their local Walmart store and drive over to purchase the item.
• Get the gifts they really want: Under the "My Info" tab, you see what Shopycat is recommending to your friends as gifts to get for you. Update your profile and interests to receive the gifts you want.
• Shop for gifts based on general interests: For friends who have general interests such as "golf," get recommendations and purchase items that any golf enthusiast might like such as a book on "501 Answers to Golf's Most Intriguing Questions" or the "Golf Liar's Dice" game for post-golf relaxation.
• Invite friends: Invite friends into Shopycat to share interests and get gift recommendations.

Shopycat is available immediately at www.facebook.com/shopycat.

Wal-Mart Stores operates over 9,700 retail units under 69 different banners in 28 countries. Its @WalmartLabs business unit creates platforms, products and businesses around social and mobile commerce to support Walmart's global strategy of seamlessly integrating the shopping experience between brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce. For more information, visit www.walmartlabs.com.