Getting More From Holiday Gift Card Awards

The holiday season is here again, and for those looking to thank their employees, channel sales teams or clients, gift cards remain a favorite option.

What are the advantages of using gift cards as holiday awards? 

• Gift cards provide a real value and allow the recipient to get the merchandise item that they want, when they want it and from where they like to shop. 
• During the holiday season and beyond there are a myriad of items that will be on sale.  The value of the card you give is actually expanded, often by double, when used for discount bargains.
• From the buyer perspective, lead times on giving gift cards are far shorter than other merchandise items; you can get them quickly, often within 24 hours.he shipping cost of getting the cards to you is very small and doesn’t adversely affect your budget…almost 100% of the budget gets into the hands of those you want. 
• You can get gift cards in almost any denomination that fits your needs, large of small.
• You can get universal gift cards such as the Award of Choice that gives your award winner over 500 of the most popular brands to choose from.  You no longer have to agonize over what brand to use.  They will know what they want, let them have it. 
• You can use electronic gift card awards such as instant Award of Choice where all you have to do is order a certificate online, send it to the recipient and they can in turn order the electronic card they want.  All this can be done in minutes.

Many buyers we’ve spoken to over the years don’t like gift cards because they think they are too impersonal (or don’t want the recipient to know what they actually spend.)  Unless you plan to buy a specific different item for each recipient, at least 50% of what you give won’t hit the mark, and won’t be personal at all.  And with the ease of comparison shopping online, figuring out the cost/value of almost anything this side of a space ship is a breeze.

Research has shown that the recipients would much rather choose what they want rather than something they have no use for. Closets desk drawers and garage sales are full of items given that were never used.