Flipboard expands into personal shopping catalogs

Personal magazine creator Flipboard is expanding into shopping catalogs just in time for the holiday shopping season.

A tool released Monday will allow Flipboard users to display their gift wish lists and highlight their favorite products in a catalog-like format. The digital catalogs include links so the products can be purchased by anyone browsing through the selections on Flipboard's application for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad, as well as mobile devices running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

Several merchants and websites, including Gap Inc.'s Banana Republic and eBay Inc., are distributing Flipboard catalogs.

Flipboard's expansion into electronic commerce comes seven months after the Palo Alto, Calif., startup began to allow people to put together digital magazines on their favorite topics.

Many of those magazines include digital ads.