Digital Gift Card Platform: What It Is, Why It Matters, and Why Your Team Will Love Digital Gift Cards
In today’s fast-paced work environment, proper and timely employee recognition is more important than ever. (We’ve all seen the stats about how motivated employees are more engaged and perform better.)
However, traditional reward systems can be time-consuming, outdated, and disconnected from what employees actually want.
With teams becoming increasingly distributed and diverse, the need for a flexible, modern solution has grown.
Digital gift cards have emerged as a powerful alternative. They offer the convenience of instant delivery, a wide range of choices, and the ability to cater to individual preferences—no matter where your employees are located.
In fact, 52% of North American companies plan to increase their gift card budgets in 2024 due to the rising popularity of gift cards as a preferred reward option.
What we’ll cover:
What is a digital gift card platform?
A digital gift card platform is a modern solution designed to simplify the process of sending and managing gift cards as rewards.
Unlike traditional physical gift cards, which need to be ordered, printed, and delivered, digital gift cards are distributed instantly via email or text.
These platforms offer a wide variety of options, allowing recipients to choose the gift card that best suits their preferences—whether it’s for their favorite online retailer, a popular streaming service, or even a local coffee shop.
For businesses, digital gift card platforms provide a centralized way to manage employee rewards and recognition programs.
They make it easier to track, monitor spending, and offer a seamless experience for both the company and the employee.
With everything handled digitally, the process becomes faster, more convenient, and much more flexible, especially for teams spread across different locations.
Try sending yourself a Sample Toasty Choice Card to experience what it looks like firsthand.
Why invest in a digital gift card platform?
Investing in a digital gift card platform offers businesses a powerful and efficient way to modernize their employee rewards program.
Here are some key reasons why companies are making the switch:
- Increased Convenience: Digital gift cards eliminate the hassle of physical inventory, shipping, and delays. Rewards are sent instantly, which means employees can redeem their rewards immediately.
- Cost Savings: Digital platforms reduce administrative costs associated with shipping and handling physical cards. You can also avoid the overhead of bulk orders from individual merchants.
- Flexibility & Personalization: Recipients can choose the gift card that best suits their needs, ensuring that the reward feels personal and valued.
Platforms often provide a wide variety of brand options and allow for personalization, such as custom messages or designs.
| Feature | Physical Gift Cards | Merchant Sites (e.g., Amazon, Starbucks) | Gift Card Platform (Toasty) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery Method | Physical mail or in-person delivery | Online purchase, sent via email or app | Instant digital delivery via email |
| Variety of Options | Limited to specific store or brand | Only offers the merchant’s gift cards | Access to multiple brands and global options |
| Customization | Usually none or minimal (basic designs) | Limited customization (e.g., adding a message) | High customization options (design, messages, corporate branding) |
| Tracking & Reporting | Difficult to track once distributed | Limited to the individual store’s order tracking | Comprehensive tracking and reporting features for businesses |
| Fees & Costs | Shipping or physical production costs | No fees for digital, but fees for bulk corporate orders | No fees. Completely free to use. |
| Ease of Management | Manual handling, shipping, and tracking | Requires managing multiple merchant accounts | Centralized management for multiple merchants in one platform |
| Global Reach | Limited to local or national shipping | Often region-locked to specific countries or stores | Global distribution with automatic currency conversion |
| Employee/Recipient Flexibility | Recipient must use at a specific store | Recipient limited to that merchant’s products or services | Recipients can choose from a variety of brands and stores |
| Speed of Delivery | Several days to weeks, depending on shipping | Instant to a few days for processing | Instant delivery, even for large batches |
| Security | Risk of loss, theft, or damage | Secure online transaction | Secure digital delivery with fraud protection |
| Environmental Impact | Produces plastic, paper waste, and carbon emissions through shipping | Completely eco-friendly with zero physical waste | Completely eco-friendly with zero physical waste |
Who can benefit from a digital gift card platform?
Human Resources Teams
gift card automation
Running a birthday or work anniversary rewards program?
With Toasty, you can automate the entire process.
Simply set up a Smart Order to schedule gift card deliveries on important dates for each recipient.
HR professionals managing employee recognition programs can benefit from the ease and efficiency of digital gift card platforms.
Instead of dealing with the logistics of physical gifts, HR teams can streamline the reward process with instant, digital delivery.
Plus, having the ability to offer a variety of gift card options enhances employee satisfaction and engagement.
Invite your Team
For HR teams managing rewards—whether across multiple departments, locations, or involving multiple team members responsible for sending them—Toasty’s team invitation feature offers a seamless solution.
It allows managers and team members to collaborate on the program, ensuring smooth coordination and simplifying the process by making it easy to track and manage orders, regardless of who is involved.
Sales & Marketing Teams
Sales teams often use rewards as incentives for hitting goals, and marketing teams may need to engage clients and partners through gifting.
A digital gift card platform makes it easy to quickly recognize top performers or nurture key relationships by offering rewards that are instantly redeemable.
Small & Medium-Sized Businesses
For smaller businesses, managing rewards and recognition can be time-consuming and expensive.
A digital gift card platform simplifies this process, allowing smaller teams to offer professional, high-impact rewards without the overhead of managing a physical inventory.
Toasty is completely free to use. Premium features with out the fees.
Distributed & Remote Teams
As remote work becomes more common, digital gift card platforms provide a way to ensure every team member, no matter their location, can receive and enjoy rewards.
Digital delivery means no shipping delays, and the variety of available gift cards ensures employees across the globe can choose something they value.
Corporate Gift Programs
Companies that send gifts to clients, partners, or employees as part of corporate gifting programs will find digital gift card platforms incredibly efficient.
With options to send personalized messages and track delivery, corporate gift programs can be scaled effortlessly without compromising the personal touch.
Global Enterprises
For multinational companies, sending physical gifts to employees in different regions can be expensive and complicated.
A digital gift card platform allows companies to offer rewards globally, with automatic currency conversions and a selection of gift cards tailored to different regions.
How to save time, money, and hassle with Toasty
You can get your gift card rewards and incentive programs up and running in minutes.
Toasty is a gift card platform built for businesses. The best part?
It’s completely free to use. No contracts, hidden fees, or subscription costs. That means 100% of your budget goes directly to rewards, not to fees.
Here’s how easy it is to start sending digital gift card rewards with Toasty:
- Create an account.
- Fund your account.
- Customize an email template with your logo, colors, and branding.
- Pick a gift card design that fits the occasion.
- Decide on the amount, add your recipients, and place your order.
- Voilà! Sent! Recipients can pick and choose from hundreds of options!
- Track your gift card delivery status.
Create an account.
Creating an account takes seconds. All you need is a work email, company name, and your name to get started!
Fund your account.
Once your account is created, the first step is to add funds. You have two options: ACH/Wire transfer or Credit Card.
ACH / Wire Transfer.
For ACH or Wire transfer, you can generate an invoice. Once it’s created, you can either download it or send it directly to the person responsible for payment.
Credit Card.
If you prefer using a credit card, simply select it as your payment option.
Customize an email template with your logo, colors, and branding.
At Toasty, we believe that personalization makes rewards more meaningful.
That’s why we offer the flexibility to fully customize your email templates, ensuring that your employees know the recognition is coming directly from you.
As you can see in the example above, you have full flexibility to upload your company logo, adjust the sender name, craft a custom message, and even change the color of the redeem button to align with your branding.
These features ensure that your rewards reflect your company’s identity, giving your employees the best experience with your brand.
If you want to add some humor to your messages, check out our 60 Funny Happy Work Anniversary Quotes To Brighten Your Team’s Day.
Pick a gift card design that fits the occasion.
Choosing the right design adds a personal touch to your gift cards, making them even more memorable.
Whether you’re celebrating a work anniversary, holiday, or simply saying thank you, we offer a variety of premade designs for every occasion.
Decide on the amount, add your recipients, and place your order.
Once you’ve created a template, selected the gift card design, and prepared your messages, it’s time to send out the rewards.
For small, on-the-spot rewards, you can manually enter the names and emails of a few employees.
For larger groups, simply download our CSV template, fill in the details, and upload everything at once. Whether you’re rewarding tens or thousands of employees, it’s all done in just a few clicks!
You can send the rewards out instantly, or if you prefer to plan ahead, you have the option to schedule the order in advance.
If you’d like to automatically send out gift cards on key dates like birthdays and anniversaries for your entire team, you can easily set up a Smart Order!
And lastly, if you’d prefer to have gift card URLs (links) ready to distribute at your convenience, you have the option to download them as well.
That’s it! Your order is all set.
Voilà! Sent! Recipients can pick and choose from hundreds of options!
Once the gift card rewards are sent, your recipients can explore and choose from a wide range of options.
Whether they want to shop online, grab a coffee, or treat themselves to something special, the choice is entirely theirs.
With hundreds of brands to choose from, your team will always find something that fits their preferences perfectly.
They also have the option to split the gift card amount between different brands. For example, if they have $100, they can allocate $50 to an Amazon gift card and $50 to a Visa gift card.
The Toasty Choice Card is also an international gift card, so you don’t have to worry about where your recipients are located.
We take care of the currency conversion for you!
Track your gift card delivery status.
With Toasty, you can easily track whether your gift cards have been successfully delivered.
If a card isn’t delivered—due to a typo in the email address or a full inbox—you’ll be notified and able to check the status.
You’ll have the option to update the email or resend the gift card, all at no extra cost.
Cost-free & Flexible Employee Recognition Rewards: Too Good to Be True?
Sending personalized rewards to your employees shouldn’t be a hassle or costly.
With Toasty, you can easily manage and send gift card rewards that your team will love. Whether it’s for birthdays, work anniversaries, or simply saying thank you, Toasty gives you the flexibility to make every reward feel personal and meaningful.
By offering hundreds of gift card options and a simple, streamlined process, you can ensure your team feels appreciated—effortlessly.
Still not convinced that Toasty is completely free to use? What’s the catch?
Sign up and see for yourself, or book a short call with us and we’ll happily guide you through it.
