Rewarding your employees should be relatively easy. You go to a digital store like Amazon, pick a card, enter your recipient’s email address, and that’s it.
But it’s only easy if you’re doing it for maybe ten to twenty people. A hundred though? That’s where things get tricky, because now you have to check if every email address is correct and if your employee in India can actually redeem the gift card you just sent.
That part, the sending, is the part where you can rely on platforms like PerkUp. With such vendors, you can simply set a budget, pick who gets what, and send digital gift cards that work in your recipient’s country. You can even see who redeemed and who didn’t.
If you’re curious about how all of these work, here’s a quick guide on the meaning and importance of gift cards and the ways you can leverage platforms like PerkUp to make sending these digital rewards much easier.
What are corporate gift cards, and why do teams send them?
A gift card is a prepaid balance for a specific brand or retailer. A digital gift card is the same thing, delivered by email or link instead of a plastic card. Your recipient gets a code, redeems it, and spends it. That’s it!
Now, corporate gift cards are just gift cards that a company sends at scale. They’re typically sent to employees, clients, survey respondents, event attendees, or anyone that a company deems deserving of a digital gift.
Here are a couple of reasons why companies choose digital gift cards:
Gift cards are fast to send: Since you don’t need sizes and inventory for gift cards, they’re quick to send, especially for last-minute gifting. You simply need to pick a card, set the amount, and send. Your recipient will receive the gift in a matter of minutes.
Your recipients choose what they actually want: You set the budget, they pick the brand. It’s as easy as that! This also means that nothing gets thrown out or ends up being unused due to discrepancies in preferences.
Gift cards fit almost any occasion: Add a budget and a note, and the same gift card works for a birthday, a work anniversary, an employee recognition, or last-minute holiday gifting.
Gift cards, in essence, are fast options for gifts and easy to personalize with a budget. It’s also suitable if you’re prioritizing recipient choice.
The problem that companies usually encounter, however, is scale and reach. Sending one or ten cards is easy. A few hundred across different countries isn’t. Sending them one at a time doesn't hold up past a handful of people (that's the scale problem), and a gift card that only works in one country is useless to a team spread across several (that's reach). Those are the exact issues that a corporate gifting platform like PerkUp resolves.
What are the benefits of sending gift cards through PerkUp?
PerkUp carries over 5,000 digital gift cards from global brands like Amazon, Uber Eats, Netflix, Flipkart, and Grab, and the catalog is localized by country. Essentially, this means that your recipient in the US will see US brands, while someone in India will see vendors from their own country.
Gift cards sit inside PerkUp's larger catalog, next to On Demand swag, bulk swag, swag kits, event swag, and swag store. You can send a gift card on its own, or offer it as one option in a reward, and let your recipient decide what they actually want.
5,000+ gift card options
PerkUp carries over 5,000 gift cards from top global brands like Amazon, Uber Eats, and Netflix. The catalog runs across retail, food, entertainment, and more, so whatever someone is into, there's a card they'll actually use. That range is the point: set a budget, and the recipient picks from thousands of real options instead of a short list.
Gift cards localized by country with automatic currency conversion
Every gift card is localized to your recipient's country. PerkUp shows each recipient the brands that work where they live, and the currency switches automatically to match. That means someone in the UK sees the cards’ value in pounds, someone in Japan sees yen, with no manual conversion on your or their end. Delivery is instant, too.
Food and lunch gift cards
For remote teams, food is an easy win. PerkUp offers gift cards from DoorDash, Uber Eats, Starbucks, and other food brands, which is what most team lunch programs run on. Send everyone lunch on the same day, wherever they are!
How do you send gift cards using PerkUp?
Here's the flow, start to finish:
Pick your recipients: Add people manually, upload a list, or sync them from your HRIS so the data stays current
Set a budget: Choose the amount per person. That's the cap for each gift card, so there's no going over budget
Curate the options for your recipients: Send a specific gift card, or curate a collection based on their location, and let your recipient pick their own reward from the catalog
Add a note: Attach a message, a template, GIFs, or images so your recipients can still feel the intention behind the gesture
Send or schedule: Send right away, or set it to go out on a date, like a work anniversary or a birthday
Once you’re set up with PerkUp, sending becomes easy. What makes this setup work especially well for busy teams and leaders is the combination of two things: recipient choice and automation.
Let your recipients choose the brand
You don't have to guess what someone wants. Set the budget and let them browse the catalog and redeem what they actually like. Such a strategy focused on recipient choice boosts redemption rates and reduces wasted spend.
Automate gift cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and new hires
Most gift card sending is a recurring task for many companies and teams. As such, PerkUp simplified sending gift cards. Simply connect your HRIS, and the platform handles the important dates for you: birthdays, work anniversaries, and new hire start dates. Set the rule once, and the gift card goes out on the right day with the right note.
Send Gift Cards in Bulk with PerkUp
Sending bulk gift cards saves you a lot of time. Instead of pasting codes into individual emails, you upload one list (or pull recipients from your HRIS) and send bulk gift cards in a single run. Everyone gets their card, each localized to their country, all at once.
The buy-and-redeem step itself is simple on the recipient's end: they pick their country, choose the card, select the amount (based on the budget you allocated), confirm, and get redemption instructions with a link or code.
Why choose PerkUp for digital gift cards?
The difference is that gift cards aren't a standalone product in PerkUp. They live on the same platform as your swag (bulk, On Demand, and event swag), swag store, and swag kit, and can run automatically as needed. What this means is that the reward you send for a work anniversary this quarter and the holiday gift you send in December run through one system, not four vendors.
You also get global reach that most gift card tools don't offer: localized cards by country for 200+ countries. If you're weighing options, our breakdown of gift card rewards platforms for global teams lays out what to look for in a vendor, and our take on alternatives to gift cards for employees covers when a card isn't the right call.
Conclusion
Gift cards are great for sending gifts to anyone in the world. The hard part is sending, tracking, and making them work everywhere your recipients live. PerkUp handles that part so you can send a card that works, to the right person, on the right day.
Want to see it run? Book a demo, and we'll walk you through sending your first gift card.
Frequently Asked Questions about Gift Cards
Are gift cards taxable to employees?
In the US, the IRS generally treats gift cards given to employees as taxable income, no matter how small the amount, because a gift card counts as a cash equivalent. That's different from some small non-cash gifts. So most employee gift cards need to be reported as wages. Check with your finance or tax team on the specifics for your company. PerkUp's reporting makes the tracking part easier: you can pull a report of what you sent and when.
How are gift cards purchased and distributed on PerkUp?
With PerkUp, you fund your company balance, set a per-person budget, and send. Your recipient gets a digital card by email or link, picks their country if needed, and redeems it with a code or link. You can send one at a time or in bulk from a single list, and track redemptions from your dashboard.
What gift card options does PerkUp offer globally?
PerkUp offers over 5,000 digital gift cards from global brands like Amazon, Uber Eats, and Netflix, all localized by country so your recipients see cards they can actually use.
How do you give gift cards to employees in different countries?
With PerkUp, you can send from one dashboard, and your recipients will see options that work in their location.
How does PerkUp automate gift card sending for events and reminders?
Connect your HRIS, and PerkUp sends gift cards on its own for birthdays, work anniversaries, and new hire start dates. Set the rule once, and each card goes out on the right day with the right note. You can also schedule one-off sends ahead of time.
Can you send digital gift cards and physical gifts from one platform like PerkUp?
Yes! With PerkUp, gift cards sit in the same catalog as swag, swag kits, and swag store. Send a gift card on its own, or set a budget and let the recipient choose what they actually want.
How do you choose gift cards for remote teams?
You don’t! Let people pick their own. Set a budget, and then your recipient can choose the brand they want, and it arrives instantly by email or link. You can easily do this with PerkUp’s 5,000 gift card options.
