Key Takeaways
Business digital gift cards are e-gift cards sent by email, SMS, link or API and redeemed online, in store or from a mobile wallet.
Email gift cards are the most common format: low cost, branded, trackable and ideal for remote and international recipients.
Reward links, instant API delivery and Apple and Google Wallet support now let you match delivery to each audience.
Protect programs with recipient binding, one-time codes, approvals and clear expiry dates.
Choose a digital gifting platform for global coverage, catalog breadth, integrations, security and reporting.
Business digital gift cards have changed how companies reward and engage employees, customers and partners. They arrive in seconds, are easy to redeem and remove the logistics of buying, packing and shipping plastic cards, while still giving recipients the freedom to choose what they value.
Whether you use them for workplace recognition, sales incentives or customer promotions, digital gift cards make gifting fast, trackable and easy to scale. This guide explains how business digital gift cards work, how email gift cards fit in, the delivery options available today and how to choose a digital gifting platform.
What are business digital gift cards?
Business digital gift cards are electronic gift cards that a company buys and sends to recipients by email, SMS, link or app instead of as a physical card. Each one holds a set value and a unique code or card number that the recipient redeems online or in store.
They are also called e-gift cards, eGift cards or virtual gift cards. Some are tied to one brand, some open a catalog of brands, and network-branded virtual Visa and Mastercard cards work like prepaid debit cards wherever the network is accepted. For how those differ, read gift cards vs prepaid cards.
How digital gift cards work
A digital gift card moves through three stages: the business issues it, a delivery channel carries it to the recipient, and the recipient redeems it with the brand. On a rewards platform, all three can happen in seconds.
- Issue: Choose the brand or catalog, the value and the recipients, either in a dashboard, from a CSV file or through an API call.
- Deliver: The platform sends the gift card by email, SMS, WhatsApp, link or into the recipient's own app or portal.
- Open: The recipient opens the message and sees the card value, code or card number, PIN if needed, expiry date and instructions.
- Redeem: The recipient enters the code at checkout online, shows the barcode or QR code in store, or adds the card to a mobile wallet.
- Track: The business sees delivery and redemption status and can resend or remind recipients who have not redeemed.
Email gift cards: the most common delivery format
Email gift cards are digital gift cards delivered to the recipient's inbox. They work exactly like any other e-gift card, with a unique code or barcode the recipient uses at checkout or in store, but email remains the most common delivery format for business gifting.
Email suits most programs because nearly every employee, customer and partner has an address on file. Compared with mailing plastic cards, email gift cards offer clear advantages:
- Lower cost and effort: You select gifts and send them, with no envelopes, wrapping, postage or address checks.
- Fewer errors: Recipient data is imported electronically, so one card or thousands go out without manual handling.
- Branded delivery: Send from your company's name with your logo, a custom message and even the recipient's photo or a team note.
- Easy tracking: See when each gift card is opened and redeemed, and send a reminder to people who have not claimed it yet.
- Better for remote teams: Remote and hybrid employees get the same recognition as people in the office, on the same day.
- Simpler international gifting: No need to check postal formats abroad; a global platform shows each recipient brands available in their country.
- Less waste: No plastic, no packaging and no courier trips.
The one thing to watch is the inbox itself. Use a recognizable sender name, a clear subject line and a short note so the email is not mistaken for spam or phishing.
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Delivery options for digital gift cards
Email is only one way to deliver digital gift cards. Since 2024, reward links, mobile wallets and API delivery have become standard options, and the right one depends on how you reach your recipients.
| Delivery option | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Branded email with the code or a redemption link | Employees, B2B clients, survey respondents | |
| SMS and WhatsApp | Message with a short redemption link | Field teams, frontline staff, mobile-first customers |
| Reward link | Link to a page where the recipient picks a brand and checks out as a guest | Diverse or global groups who need choice |
| API delivery | Your app or CRM requests and delivers the reward instantly | Referral, loyalty and in-app rewards triggered by events |
| Mobile wallet | The recipient saves the card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet | Retail brands that support wallet passes |
Reward links and choice
A reward link replaces a single-brand card with choice. The recipient clicks, picks a reward from a catalog in their own currency and redeems through guest checkout, with no account or app. Plum reward links can be bound to an email, phone number or company domain and given a custom expiry.
Instant API delivery
With a rewards API, your own systems issue a gift card the moment something happens, such as a referral converting or a customer completing onboarding. The Plum rewards API covers catalog browsing, single and bulk orders and webhooks for delivery and redemption events. Our explainer on what a rewards API is covers the basics.
Apple Wallet and Google Wallet
Mobile wallets make e-gift cards easier to use in store. Google Wallet lets users add a supported merchant's gift card by scanning it or entering the details, or by tapping an Add to Google Wallet button on the issuer's site. Apple Wallet supports passes from issuers that offer them. Wallet support depends on the brand, so treat it as a convenience rather than the main delivery channel.
Digital gift card benefits over plastic cards
The main digital gift card benefits are speed, scale and visibility. In Fiserv's 2024 Prepaid Consumer Insights Survey, consumers who prefer digital gift cards cited immediate delivery (63%), ease of sending compared with mailing physical cards (53%) and ease of purchase (50%).
For a business, those benefits translate into:
- Instant gratification: Recognition arrives while the achievement is still fresh.
- Scale: Send one card or ten thousand from the same CSV file or API.
- Global reach: Recipients in different countries get local brands without shipping or customs.
- Lower cost: No printing, packaging, postage or lost cards.
- Data: Every delivery and redemption is logged, so you can measure what works.
Plastic still has a role at award ceremonies and events. Our guide to physical gift cards explains when it is worth the extra effort.
Business uses for digital gift cards
Digital gift cards fit almost any program where you need to thank, motivate or compensate someone quickly. These are the most common uses.
E-gift cards for employees
E-gift cards for employees work for onboarding welcomes, birthdays, work anniversaries, promotions, spot awards and retirement. Because recipients choose how and when to redeem, the reward carries a reminder of the achievement each time they think about using it. See more ideas in our guide to employee gift cards.
Sales incentives
Digital gift cards make flexible sales incentives because they come in many denominations and can be sent the moment a target is hit. Use them to reward booked demos, closed deals, training completion and contest wins without waiting for the payroll cycle.
Customer acquisition, activation and retention
Businesses use digital gift cards across the customer journey: a welcome reward for opening an account, a thank-you on the first purchase, a birthday surprise, a contest prize and a referral reward for both sides. For tactics, see our guide to gift card marketing strategies.
Customer success and support
Customer success teams send e-gift cards to apologize for service issues, thank customers for reviews, testimonials or survey responses, and reward renewals or advocacy.
Gig workers and freelancers
Gig and freelancer platforms use digital gift cards to reward milestones, referrals and training participation, and as an instant payout option alongside bank transfers.
Channel partners
Discounts and rebates are expected in most distribution channels, but digital gift cards make partner incentives more targeted and memorable. Use them to reward product training, sales of a specific line and new-partner onboarding.
Fraud and expiry rules for digital gift cards
Digital gift cards carry the same value as cash, so they need controls against misuse and clear terms for recipients.
- Bind codes to recipients: Lock each code or link to an email, phone number or company domain so a forwarded link cannot be redeemed by someone else.
- Use one-time codes and approvals: Codes should be single-use, and large orders should need a second approver.
- Watch for impersonation scams: Warn staff that no genuine executive or vendor asks to be paid in gift cards.
- Show the expiry date: In the US, retail gift cards cannot expire within five years, but promotional and award cards can, if the terms are disclosed. State the date in the delivery message and send reminders.
Our guide to corporate gift cards covers expiry, tax and fraud rules in more detail.
How to choose a digital gifting platform
A digital gifting platform is software that lets you buy, send and track digital rewards from one place. The right one depends on where your recipients are and how you want to trigger rewards.
- Global coverage: Multi-currency, cross-border gifting with brands that are actually available in each recipient's country.
- Catalog breadth: Gift cards plus prepaid cards, experiences, merchandise and charity, so recipients have real choice.
- Automation and integrations: Connections to your HRMS, CRM, marketing automation and survey tools, plus an API for product events.
- Branding and personalization: White-labeled emails, custom messages and branded redemption pages.
- Security and compliance: SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR compliance, approval workflows and fraud monitoring.
- Tracking and analytics: Delivery, redemption and budget reports your finance team can trust.
Why choose Plum as your digital gifting platform
Xoxoday Plum is a digital rewards and incentive platform used by more than 5,000 companies to send gift cards and other rewards at scale.
- 10M+ reward options across 30+ categories in 150+ countries, redeemed in the recipient's local currency.
- Instant delivery by email, SMS, WhatsApp, link or API, one at a time or up to 10,000 recipients in a single CSV.
- 250+ native connectors and three REST APIs with a sandbox to automate rewards from HR, CRM and product events.
- Custom branding, curated catalogs and real-time dashboards for delivery and redemption.
See how a leading health and fitness platform ran activation, referral and employee rewards through more than 150,000 reward links from one Plum account.
Conclusion
Business digital gift cards give companies a fast, flexible and measurable way to reward people anywhere. Email gift cards remain the workhorse, while reward links, wallet passes and API delivery now let you match the format to each audience. Pick a digital gifting platform with global coverage, automation and strong controls, and digital gift cards will scale with every program you run.
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Frequently asked questions
A business chooses a brand or catalog, a value and the recipients, then sends the gift card by email, SMS, link or API. The recipient opens the message, sees the code or card number and redeems it at checkout online, in store with a barcode, or from a mobile wallet. The sender can track delivery and redemption.
An email gift card is a digital gift card delivered by email. Digital gift cards can also be sent by SMS, WhatsApp, reward link, API or into a mobile wallet. The card itself works the same way whichever channel delivers it.
Yes. E-gift cards arrive instantly, let employees choose a brand they like and work equally well for remote, hybrid and office staff. They suit onboarding, birthdays, anniversaries, spot awards and festive gifting. In most countries they are taxable as a cash equivalent, so check local rules.
Some can. Google Wallet lets users add gift cards from supported merchants by scanning or entering the details, or through an Add to Google Wallet button on the issuer's site. Apple Wallet supports passes from issuers that offer them. Support depends on the brand.
It depends on the issuer and local law. In the US, retail gift cards cannot expire within five years of issue, but award and promotional cards are excluded and can expire sooner if the terms are disclosed. Reward links on Plum carry an expiry set per campaign. Always show the expiry date to recipients.
Use a digital gifting platform that accepts a CSV upload or an API call. On Plum, you can send to up to 10,000 recipients in one CSV, with a separate name, message and value on each row, and track delivery and redemption from the dashboard.
They are secure when the platform uses single-use codes, recipient binding, encryption and approval workflows. The main risks are forwarded links and impersonation scams, so bind codes to the recipient and remind staff that no genuine executive or vendor asks for payment in gift cards.
