Sending rewards at scale with gift card distributors

By Zach Links|4 min read|Updated Dec 5, 2024

Illustration showing three gift cards in motion, conveying a gift card distributor

Rolling up to your nearest big box store to purchase gift cards works fine when you're sending a few rewards every year. But the more gift cards you send, the harder it becomes to stay efficient — and secure.

Most companies hit a breaking point with gift card management when their programs start to scale. Whether you’re sending thousands of dollars in rewards a year or managing rewards across multiple departments, purchasing, sending, and tracking gift cards can take a toll on your team.

Global programs add even more challenges to reward management. Each region needs locally-relevant gift card options. Currency conversion and translation can complicate delivery. And gift card tax rules vary from country to country.

A gift card distributor transforms manual work into automated processes. The right platform can handle everything from purchasing to delivery while providing the flexibility to support any use case.

Here's a look at what gift card distributors do, when your organization may need one, and how to choose the right platform for your business.

What is a gift card distributor?

A gift card distributor manages the end-to-end process of purchasing, sending, and tracking digital and physical gift cards at scale. These platforms handle everything from procurement to delivery, making it possible for businesses to send hundreds or thousands of gift cards efficiently.

Gift card distributors serve as the connection point between retailers that offer gift cards and businesses that need to send them. They maintain direct relationships with merchants, negotiate bulk pricing, and provide a technical infrastructure for automated distribution.

When do you need a gift card distributor?

Your business needs a gift card distributor when manual distribution starts to slow your team down. This typically happens when you're sending multiple batches of gift cards per month, managing rewards across multiple programs, or spending more than $100,000 a year on gift cards.

Gift card distributors can support many different kinds of rewards and incentive programs. For example, if your marketing team runs an incentive program that offers gift cards across multiple campaigns and regions, a centralized platform can help you reduce administrative work and stay compliant.

If your HR department wastes hours reconciling employee recognition rewards in scattered Excel files, and gift card platform can lighten the load. Consider Atlassian's Kudos employee recognition program. The global software leader needed a way to consistently deliver rewards to employees across global teams. The program is one of many perks that helped Atlassian secure a spot on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, with rewards as small as $25 driving meaningful impact.

“The Kudos program lets us thank each other for our hard work. It’s a huge part of our culture here.”
Madison Lohrum, Global Project Coordinator at Atlassian

Research teams also face unique challenges with sending participant incentives. They need to verify participants, prevent duplicate rewards, and maintain detailed records for compliance purposes. With the right gift card distributor, researchers have the last-mile solution they need to process everything efficiently and focus on what really matters — gathering actionable feedback for clients.

Manual processes posed challenges for The City University of New York (CUNY) Institute for Implementation Science. The university was sending millions in research incentives using Amazon gift codes with no way to track or prevent fraud. By moving to a gift card distributor with AI-powered fraud prevention built in, CUNY saved $40,000 in just a few months.

Benefits of using a gift card distribution platform

A gift card distribution platform transforms manual sending into automated workflows. The right platform saves time while adding security and control. Some of the benefits of using a gift card distributor include:

Scalability: Send rewards to 10 recipients or 10,000 without adding complexity. A robust platform handles bulk uploads through simple CSV files and automates sending through API connections.
Tax compliance: Avoid headaches and compliance risks with automated W-9 tracking. The right platform will track reward totals and send W-9 forms to recipients who need them.
Recipient choice: Give recipients options beyond standard retail gift cards. The best platforms can also offer prepaid cards, direct deposits, and even charitable donations to ensure that every recipient receives the perfect reward every time.
Fraud prevention: Protect your organization’s reward budget from increasingly sophisticated fraudster attacks. The right platform stops fraud before it happens with multi-layer security that blocks scammers based on country, IP address, and receiving threshold.
Global reach: Send rewards to recipients worldwide. Many gift card distributors handle currency conversions and provide locally-relevant options in multiple countries.
Tracking and reporting: Monitor reward status and recipient engagement from a single dashboard. Real-time tracking eliminates the need for manual spreadsheets and simplifies reconciliation.
Automated workflows: Automate reward sending by connecting a gift card platform to your existing business systems. APIs and direct integrations eliminate manual entry and reduce administrative work, saving your company time and resources.
Cost savings: Purchasing gift cards directly means you typically pay full price. A gift card distributor typically negotiates volume discounts that help your reward budget go further. One watch-out: Some platforms charge a fee for every card sent, so make sure to ask about service feeds and hidden costs up front.

Can you buy gift cards wholesale?

Many individual gift card merchants provide options for wholesale purchases. While buying in bulk can save your business money, a gift card distributor still provides more value overall.

The first challenge with DIYing wholesale gift card purchases is choice. Not all recipients want the same kind of rewards, so purchasing just a few types of gift cards from a couple of vendors may not incentivize the kinds of behaviors you’re looking to drive.

The second challenge is order minimums. Every merchant has a different definition of bulk purchases, and your organization may not qualify for all of them, which limits your options.

The third challenge is distribution and tracking. Merchants make it easy to purchase gift cards in bulk — but sending those gift cards, cancelling lost or stolen codes, tracking redemptions, and managing compliance paperwork isn’t something they provide.

The best option is to work with a distributor who can negotiate wholesale discounts across multiple merchants. This gives your recipients more choice while maintaining cost efficiency for your business.

Difference between gift card distributors and gift card resellers

Gift card distributors maintain direct relationships with merchants and handle the entire distribution process. They provide tools for automated sending, tracking, and reporting, ensuring reliable delivery and eliminating the risks of invalid or compromised codes.

Gift card resellers buy cards at a discount and resell them for profit. They source their inventory from third parties or consumers looking to sell unwanted gift cards. Resellers typically don't offer features like easy bulk sending, recipient tracking, or fraud protection.

In short: It’s all about reliability. A reputable gift card distributor can provide a seamless experience for your teams and your recipients. Resellers can’t.

Where Tremendous comes in

Tremendous offers a complete gift card distribution platform built for scale. Our system automates gift card sending for employee recognition to sales incentives to research honoraria and everything in between — all with no platform fees or minimums.

Our platform eliminates manual work across your workflow. We handle tax compliance documentation, maintain direct relationships with gift card merchants, and enable instant digital delivery to 200+ countries. And our AI-powered fraud prevention protects your recipient data and your rewards budget.

We also ensure great experience for your recipients who can choose from over 2,000 reward options in 200+ countries. Whether you're sending 100 or 100,000 gift cards every year, Tremendous makes distribution effortless.

Key takeaways

Gift card distributors become essential when manual distribution creates operational bottlenecks. They save time, reduce errors, and provide robust tracking and reporting capabilities to help your team keep tabs on what you’ve spent, sent, and redeemed.

A great gift card platform should offer: