Gift Vouchers are a Story: It's all about Crafting One that Sells

If you’ve stumbled upon this piece and were born any time before the 2000s, you know what a gift’s value was back in the day. It started from stuffed teddy bears as a toddler, moved to Lego’s, GI-Joes, Barbie Dolls, and Music Players in the coming years, and of course—became notebooks, chocolates, and free massage coupons. Gifts have had an immense value in every walk of life, and while gifting changed itself for the best, there’s one thing that revolutionized it forever—gift vouchers. 

Back in the day, the eight-year-old in us would choose a bagful of gummy bears over a $50 Amazon Gift Card. But right now, the real advantages of gift cards come with a story attached to them. Those commercials on TV and 5-second ads on YouTube serve as a gift card story as victuals to the pairs of eyes watching them. 

Gift vouchers started as mere gift-giving instruments, and to be brutally honest, they were considered a highly detached and impersonal form of gifting. Gifting a close one a bag of chocolates with a heartfelt note held more value than slapping a $50 card in someone’s hands. The perception? It’s got a catch that it can be cashed in at one place. 

But times changed, and gift cards as solutions fought back into people's hearts as thoughtful gifts. What was just a $50 gift card before became a sumptuous opportunity from a spa session to fueling the weekend’s happy hours. How did this happen? Digital gift card providers no longer sell them wrapped in plastic or a text message—they come with a fable that sells with the feasibility of gift cards for business. 

The key to portraying gift vouchers as a thoughtful gift is a story—and here’s how you craft a perfect story with everything amazing about gift vouchers. 

Let’s look at the advantages of gift vouchers, what they hold within people’s minds, and how all of them can be used to knit a story that gives it the respect, it deserves—an amazing token of gratitude. 

The gift voucher v/s cash debate 

When incentivizing something using gift vouchers, the first thing that comes to mind is to make it a more exclusive option than cash. When people are asked about gift vouchers, they say, “what's the point of getting someone a gift voucher when cash is a much more versatile option?”. 

This point is highly logical initially, but gift vouchers don’t come with the pain of taking out the money from your wallet and paying for something. Unlike cash, they can be spent on a memorable commodity, perk, or appreciated experience. 

Cash, on the other hand, is simply a fat wad of notes with a sticky note. It goes into the wallet and gets mixed up with 10s and 50’s there. Its gift-worthiness is lost. That’s what a great gift voucher story should always have on the tapestry—that it’s better than cash any day. 

Benefits of gift vouchers 

Here are a few undeniable benefits of gift vouchers: 

1. Gift vouchers were always intimate 

What efforts does a person go through to pick out a gift for their beloved? They check their wallets, research for a gift, wrap it, and stick a personal note. In the modern-day age, gift vouchers coalesce the monetary clutch of cash and the thoughtfulness of selecting a gift. Here’s how it happens: 

When the gift vouchers of a monetary value are gifted, it’s used by the recipient on something desirable which counts as a break from mundanity. It is at this point that the gift-giver sparks an intimate connection with the recipient. 

This saves the gift-giver from the hassle of “choosing a gift” for the recipient. As a gift voucher leaves the choice up to the latter, it saves the jitters of risking the wrong gift. $15 billion were spent last Christmas on unwanted gifts. Presenting a gift card takes your name off the list of gifts not needed. 

And finally, the degree of personalization matters. As if the freedom to choose one’s gift wasn’t enough, it’s nowhere close to a handmade or personal gift. A gift card can be stuck onto chocolate, sent as an email, or simply as a text message with a note or a poem. Confused about what to write? Here’s a book of poems for every mood. 

That’s all good for crafting a story that goes around gift vouchers, but let’s get onto the practical standpoint of how gift vouchers save companies a lot of money. 

2. In the corporate world, gift vouchers have a fiscal edge 

In most countries across Asia-Pacific and Europe, taxable income deducts a substantial amount of pay from an employee’s paycheck. The tax authorities of these countries give out Small Benefit Exemptions, which are specially designed for distributing perks, incentives, and rewards to employees in the form of gift cards. There are different laws for it, and here are some helpful resources for you: 

• ‍Guide to Small Benefit Exemptions: Europe 
• ‍The Employer’s Guide to Tax Laws 

These tax exemptions help the employer distribute handsome incentives to the workforce in the form of vouchers redeemable for products and services. This is a great way to save on tax for both the employer and employees, making gift vouchers an indispensable part of today’s corporate zeitgeist and the hook of a story for your employees. 

3. Gift vouchers come with the freedom of choice 

Wait, aren’t gift vouchers supposed to be a “cash-at-one-place” thing? 

Gone are the days when gift vouchers used to wrap the recipient with no choice but to cash them in at that very place where it’s from. This was a major drawback with gift vouchers, and to work around it, the solution was to come up with a gift voucher that gives its holder the freedom of choice. 

Next time someone tells you that gift vouchers aren’t their piece of cake because of their stiffness, gift them some Xoxo-Points. 

And yes—Plum complies with the Small Benefit Exemptions purview of various countries across the globe, making it a perfect gift for employees across the geographies. Let’s look at how gift vouchers are completely safe and secure when redeemed from a rewards platform or otherwise‍ 

4. Gift vouchers build brand awareness 

Gift vouchers serve as a cost-effective form of advertising that keeps your brand top-of-mind with your audience. Traditional plastic vouchers act like wallet-sized billboards for your business, offering a tangible way to showcase your message at a fraction of traditional advertising costs. Digital gift vouchers further extend this reach, reinforcing your brand message among online customers. 

5. Gift vouchers boost holiday sales 

The holiday shopping season isn’t limited to traditional retail anymore. Gift vouchers enable businesses across sectors—be it fitness, auto care, home services, or beauty—to tap into festive buying behavior. Whether it’s a gym pass, salon service, or car wash plan, a gift voucher program allows you to make the season brighter for customers with varied interests. 

6. Gift vouchers support digital wallet adoption 

To meet the rising demand for digital payments, a modern gift voucher program can offer both virtual and physical options. With platforms like Digital Gift Plus, you can set up a custom-branded gift voucher site that connects directly with your e-commerce payment gateway, offering a seamless purchase experience for your customers. 

7. Gift vouchers enhance customer engagement 

The journey of customer engagement can begin with a gift voucher, but it certainly doesn’t have to end there. These programs foster deeper customer relationships and unlock new marketing touchpoints. Gift givers essentially act as brand advocates, so it’s essential to create a positive experience for both the sender and the recipient. 

8. Gift vouchers generate valuable data 

Gift vouchers provide insight-rich opportunities to understand your customers better. They can be linked to online registrations or surveys that capture preferences and behaviors, helping you tailor your offerings more effectively to meet customer needs. 

9. Gift vouchers are secure and convenient 

While paper certificates had their moment, today’s gift vouchers are safer and more user-friendly. Unlike paper formats that were prone to being lost or duplicated, modern gift vouchers can be securely processed just like credit or debit cards—whether online, through an app, or at a physical location. 

10. Gift vouchers allow easy distribution 

Gift vouchers are a smart, space-efficient marketing asset. Whether displayed in your own store or distributed through gift voucher malls in high-traffic venues like supermarkets, they expand your reach by sitting alongside established consumer brands and drawing in new audiences. 

11. Gift vouchers improve cash flow 

A well-managed gift voucher program can support healthier cash flow compared to traditional marketing efforts. Unlike campaigns that take time to yield sales, gift vouchers offer upfront revenue as customers purchase them in advance—providing immediate funds before any product or service is redeemed. 

How the right storytelling and gift vouchers help your business? 

Rewards are a great way to get things up and running, and when they are presented in the form of gift vouchers, a new avenue opens. Here are a few fronts on which gift vouchers can upscale your business in productivity and growth. 

1. Acquire new customers 

Gift vouchers act as an amazing tool to encourage sign-ups, sales, demos, and acquire new customers by incentivizing. This can be done through Plum, which integrates with various CRM and email marketing tools to reward for every step completed in the customer’s life cycle. 

2. Generate more revenue 

As a butterfly effect, gift vouchers implement a seamless flow from when a user comes in as a prospect to the moment when they are officially a customer. With incentivized milestone rewarding, make it a case to put gift vouchers to the right use and keep your end-user happy, as they can redeem from a catalog that has something for everyone. 

3. Build a happy culture 

When reward and recognition build formidable teams, build a culture that can house a highly motivated and engaged workforce. With Empuls, reward, recognize, and collaborate on all fronts between teams and encourage a vibe where people get appreciated with gift vouchers and points from superiors and peers. 

4. Tax benefits 

Incentivize your sales force, channel partners, and even hard-hustling blue-collar workers with gift vouchers on every step of the ladder. Gamify their targets, incentivize them, and watch the constructive competition take the graph of productivity above and beyond. With a platform like Compass, we keep track of your incentives and ensure that they fall under the Small Benefit Exemptions of your geography. 

Now that we know how gift vouchers can be pitched to people and professionals and their lines of duty let’s move to the final piece of the puzzle—exemplifying the safety of a gift voucher. 

Conveying how safe & secure gift vouchers are 

Most gift card exchanges are done by the age group of 30 to 60 years and Millennials got most of their gift cards from people above the age of 35. This highlights how crucial it is to highlight the security of gift vouchers because most Boomers are hesitant with their online transactions. 25% of gift card buyers just get it because they are simply easy to buy (Card-Cash). Keeping that in mind, here are some things that Gift Voucher platforms offer to make it a secure experience with gift card solutions. So what’s your gift story? 

• Complementary payments: With the gift card points being distributed, the recipient can add them as currency in their wallet and get the product/service at no price—thanks to the complementary payment done on behalf of the gift voucher sender. 
• Partial payment: Most gift card recipients use gift cards to cash them in on things that are above their budget. This can be achieved by partially paying through the complementary addition through gift voucher and the rest by card/other payment modes. 
• Theft and fraud protection: Since these gift vouchers are directly redeemable at some of the biggest online and offline brands, they go to all lengths to make it free of any fraud or theft as it’s their reputation at stake. 
• Log in, redeem, & checkout: The buyer’s journey is as simple as it gets. The gift voucher code is handy and available by email and text message. The recipient can redeem it instantly and checkout without logging in or signing up via guest checkout. 

These points would surely make your case when it comes to putting your gift voucher as a story—be it to a friend or in the corporate circle when it comes to gift voucher solutions. 

How can corporate gift voucher management systems help 

While gift voucher solutions often come in handy at various instances, it's a pain in the head to get them all aligned to deployment. That is where a gift voucher management system comes into the picture. 

The next time you look for gift card solutions, enrich your gift voucher story with Xoxoday Plum - the platform for corporate gift vouchers, digital rewards, solutions, and more. Want to learn more about Plum's catalogue full of options? Book a demo now. 

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