Walmart has launched its first-ever social gifting app entitled ‘Shopycat.’ The app suggests gifts for friends based on their Facebook use which can be bought on Walmart.com and at nearly two dozen other retailers, including Barnes & Noble, ThinkGeek, RedEnvelope, NBC Universal, Hot Topic and more.

Photo: a snapshot from Shopycat’s Facebook page

The app was built with technology Walmart acquired from social media startup Kosmix (now @WalmartLabs) earlier this year. The smart technology allows analyzing people’s interests based on their Facebook posts, profile updates and ‘likes’.

Venky Harinarayan, co-head of @Walmartlabs e-commerce and social commerce development unit said in an interview to Ad Age that “@WalmartLabs has already learned that when someone mentions a book on Facebook, they’ve probably already read it, so they use that to inform recommendations of similar books or glean interest in products. Likewise Shopycat has moved from recommending music people mention in their profiles to books, special editions or merchandise related to the musicians.”

Walmart has nearly 11 million Facebook fans and a significant part of them will surely use the app which will lead to the boost of traffic to Walmart’s e-commerce website. The system will also point users to another retailer who has what Walmart doesn’t have.

In the nearest future, Walmart is obviously intended to bring the Walmart.com online store to Facebook with Shopycat app functioning as a Facebook store where people can shop Walmart goods without leaving the social platform. Earlier this year it has launched more than 3,500 store-specific Facebook pages.