Consumer buying behavior has changed permanently. Today’s consumers expect the same seamlessness from a gift card as they do from any e-commerce purchase—it must be purchasable in seconds, delivered instantly, and usable without paper or plastic cards.
For this reason, more and more companies are switching to digital gift cards. It is not just an eco-friendly alternative, but an entirely new way to drive sales, streamline B2B sales, and provide customers with a modern service experience.
A digital gift card is purchased online or directly from a company’s own loyalty app. The gift card is delivered to the recipient via text message (SMS), from which it can be saved with a single click into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. This ensures the gift card is immediately ready for use and always stays with the customer.
The user experience is effortless for both the buyer and the recipient:
Because the gift card is always on the customer’s phone, it won't be left at home or lost like paper or plastic cards. At the same time, the company improves the customer experience, increases gift card redemption rates, and reduces the manual labor involved in managing physical gift cards.
In many companies, the gift card buying journey is completely disconnected from the rest of the customer experience. The customer is redirected to a third-party service where the design, user experience, and messaging do not match the company’s own brand.
With a modern solution, it doesn't have to be this way. The digital gift card store and the Wallet Pass saved on the customer’s phone are built entirely to match the company’s own brand identity. Colors, logos, images, and messaging support a unified brand experience from the moment of purchase all the way to redemption.
At the same time, the company gains access to a management portal that allows them to:
When everything happens within a single system, manual work, errors, and the need for third-party operators are significantly reduced.
Corporate sales offer a significant growth opportunity for many businesses. Digital gift cards are perfect for employee rewards, client gifts, marketing campaigns, and new customer acquisition, where order volumes can be large.
A digital gift card solution automates bulk order management and supports client-specific contract pricing. For example, a batch of 1,000 gift cards worth €20 each has a nominal value of €20,000, but the company can invoice the client for the agreed contract price within its own billing system. After this, the gift card codes can be distributed to recipients digitally without physical cards or manual handling.
A great example of this is telecom operators who offer gift cards to new customers as part of subscription campaigns. The customer redeems their code online, after which the gift card is delivered via text message and saved directly to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The gift card is instantly ready for use and always with the customer.
At its best, a digital gift card is not just a gift, but a powerful tool for marketing and customer relationship management. When the gift card sits in the customer’s Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the brand maintains its visibility on the customer’s phone long after the purchase.
This opens up opportunities for features like proximity reminders and boosting customer loyalty. Meanwhile, the brand gains better visibility into gift card usage rates and the business they generate.
For the company, digital gift cards mean more efficient sales, a better customer experience, and significantly less manual labor. For consumers, they offer a faster, safer, and easier way to buy, receive, and use gift cards.
Switching to digital gift cards is no longer a solution of the future—it is a competitive advantage that more and more industry leaders have already adopted.