Digital gift cards are familiar, flexible and easy for customers to value. For businesses, the important decision is not just which brands to offer, but how the full journey will work from eligibility to fulfilment and support.
Businesses that want to build the journey themselves should start with the gift card API guide. For a managed customer experience, see the white-label gift card platform, or compare the two routes in our delivery guide.
Gift cards can provide an incentive after an eligible action, an everyday saving when customers buy at a discount, or a choice of reward within a broader loyalty programme.
The role should be explicit. A purchased discounted gift card is a different customer proposition from a promotional voucher issued free of charge.
Decide how customers discover eligible brands, choose a value, pay or redeem, receive the voucher and find it later. Account history and clear order statuses reduce avoidable support contacts.
Mobile usability is particularly important because many customers will buy or retrieve the gift card close to the point of purchase.
A long brand list is not automatically a useful one. Start with categories that match audience spending, then review search, purchase and failed-demand data to refine the range.
Products, denominations and rates change. Set realistic expectations and ensure catalogue updates do not rely on manual work by the client.
Programmes may use a prepaid float, a payment gateway or another agreed funding arrangement. Merchant commission may fund a customer discount, a client share or a mixture of both.
Document the movement of funds and reconciliation process before launch. Finance teams need a clear record of orders, value, refunds and commission.
Most attention goes to successful orders, but the quality of the proposition is often decided by how exceptions are handled. Customers need clear help when an order is delayed, a code is not visible or a retailer raises a query.
Agree which party owns each support step and what evidence is needed for escalation. The customer should not be passed between suppliers.
White-label provides a ready-made branded marketplace and is usually the faster route. An API gives the business more control over how gift cards appear inside its own product.
The underlying operational needs remain: catalogue management, fulfilment, reconciliation, fraud controls and reporting.
| Area | Question to answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | What role does the gift card play? | Sets customer expectations |
| Access | Who is eligible? | Controls the audience |
| Funding | How are orders paid for? | Defines cash flow and reconciliation |
| Delivery | Where is the voucher shown? | Shapes the customer journey |
| Support | Who owns an exception? | Protects customer trust |
It is a voucher issued electronically for use with a participating retailer under the applicable product terms.
Yes, where the programme and available commercial rate support a customer discount.
Yes. An API integration can place catalogue and ordering journeys inside an existing product.
Common routes include a prepaid float and an agreed payment-gateway flow.
Tillo supplies and issues the gift cards as Spendstream’s specialist infrastructure partner; Spendstream manages the wider rewards proposition.
Connect your product to a managed digital gift card catalogue and fulfilment layer.
Launch a branded digital gift card marketplace without building it yourself.
Gift cards and cashback both turn everyday spending into customer value, but they do it at different points in the journey. Many programmes work better when the two are used together rather than treated as competing ideas.
We’ll show you both deployment options and talk through the commercial model.
