The End of an Era: You Can No Longer Order Gift-Wrapped Products from Apple

For as long as many of us can remember, Apple has offered a “gift wrapping” option when purchasing Apple products from its online store. It was one of those classy touches that set Apple apart from many other retailers, but sadly, it appears the company is discontinuing this little perk.

Apple’s gift wrapping came in only one form, and it was elegant in its simplicity. Products would ship in a “signature” white box with a red ribbon and a greeting card that could include a personal message from the sender.

While you typically had to pay extra to have an Apple product gift-wrapped in this manner, the company occasionally offered gift wrapping during holiday seasons and other limited-time promotions. As a rule, gift wrapping was only available for Apple’s own products, although Apple also offered it for a few popular third-party items. Ordering a product online and having it gift-wrapped for in-store pickup was also possible.

Recently, Apple has quietly nixed its gift-wrapping options. Today, the folks at MacRumors that Apple has removed all references to the service from its Gifting page and the option is no longer available at checkout.

The change applies to all countries where the gift-wrapping option was previously available, including the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. It’s unclear exactly when Apple removed the gift-wrapping options, but they still appeared on Apple’s Gifting Page on June 16, the last time that page was indexed by the Internet Wayback Machine.

MacRumors adds that Apple also no longer provides an option to include a gift message on the packing slip for an order, although free personalized engraving remains available for a limited selection of products, including the Apple Pencil, AirTags, AirPods, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, and iPad.

Engraving can include a custom message or select emojis, although you may want to think twice about doing this with pricier products like the iPad, as it can potentially reduce the value of the product should you ever decide to resell it.

It’s unclear exactly why Apple made this change, but it may have been a cost-cutting measure, particularly if few customers availed themselves of this service. Gift boxes were custom-tailored to fit each of Apple’s products that could be gift-wrapped, which meant that Apple had to keep a supply of these boxes at its warehouses and even in its retail stores for in-store pickup orders.

There’s also a slight possibility that this could be an environmental move, although Apple would likely be more open about the change if that were the case. The gift boxes were made from recycled, biodegradable materials, so the environmental impact was likely minimal — and certainly more so than most self-gift-wrapping options.

While many Apple customers likely chose to have gift products delivered to themselves and handle their own gift wrapping, Apple’s gift-wrapping options were helpful in those situations where you wanted to ship a gift directly to a friend or relative that lived some distance away. This let Apple handle the shipping, and the extra cost of having it gift-wrap the package for you may have been well worth it.

This makes it disappointing that Apple has discontinued all aspects of its gifting service. While the actual gift boxes and ribbons were understandably complicated from a logistical perspective, including a gift message on the packing slip would be very helpful for sending gifts out directly. Sadly, even that’s no longer an option when buying directly from Apple, which could leave some folks doing more of their Christmas shopping at Amazon this year.