Flexible gift cards have become the standard for incentive programs. Indeed, according to Giftbit's 2026 Incentives Trend Report, the amount of senders giving their recipients flexibility through a full catalog choice has risen 38.6% in the last year alone.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest reasons why gift card incentive programs underperform is simple: sending the wrong rewards to the wrong people. Recipients won't bother claiming something that doesn't interest them. And that's not just a waste of your budget. It's a missed moment to build genuine goodwill with an employee or customer.
In this article, we'll explore flexible gift cards, including which types of flexible rewards are available, and how to pick and send them without the headaches that come with rigid, fee-heavy programs.
📨 TL;DR:
Flexible gift cards give recipients the power of choice by letting them either pick their own brands, spend their balance at multiple retailers via multi-brand cards, or spend anywhere via prepaid networks like Visa® and Mastercard®. Our internal research shows that flexible gift and e-gift cards are becoming more and more popular. To use them without added fees, look for a gift card platform with transparent pricing and a robust catalog with 1,000+ global brands.
When Giftbit clients want to give their recipients the most flexible reward option available, they can choose to send what we call 'Full Catalog' rewards. Like the name sounds, it means their recipients can pick exactly what gift card or prepaid they want from the entire global catalog (1000+ brands and growing).
And the numbers don't lie. According to our 2026 Incentives Trend Report, Full Catalog jumped from 29.9% of all sends in 2024 to 41.4% in 2025.
That's a 38.6% increase in a single year, making our most flexible gift card option the single most popular one amongst our clients.
The data is clear: senders are increasingly choosing not to choose for their recipients.
That said, a fully open catalog isn't always the right call, which is why good gift card platforms will let you customize what you send based on your audience and goals.
For example, using a Custom Selection, where you curate and send a shortlist of 2 to 15 brands, still has its place. This can be a great choice for themed campaigns, say giving gas and grocery cards to an underserved population, or a wellness-focused program where you want to keep recipients within a specific category.
That said, the data shows this approach is no longer the default strategy. It's dropped 29.5% year-over-year and increasingly becoming a deliberate, occasion-specific choice rather than the go-to.
And of course, gift card platforms typically give you the option to send just one type of gift card to one specific brand (our bulk Amazon gift cards are incredibly popular, for example).
🔦 Stat spotlight:
Within the Full Catalog category specifically, Standard (i.e. non-expiring) rewards surged 42%, with over half of all Full Catalog sends now running on a non-expiring model.
This makes sense when you think about how people behave. When someone receives a reward with a Full Catalog choice, they don't rush—they browse. So they might take an extra day or two to pick something they genuinely want. You don't want a short claim window to undercut that experience.
Of course, flexibility isn't just about what you send. It's also about how much flexibility you have around expiry dates. And here, too, the data is telling.
Giftbit lets every client decide when their rewards should expire:
- Standard Rewards don't have any expiry or claim-by date. They grew by 10% year-over-year, now accounting for 58.2% of all sends.
- Best for: payouts, employee rewards, loyalty programs
- Promotional rewards (those with a claim-by date) still account for 41.8% of sends.
- Best for: sparking immediate action, like survey incentives
Promotional rewards remain a smart tool for marketing campaigns, especially when you want to create urgency.
Equally important, when you work with a transparent gift card distributor, you may be able to potentially recoup some of the funds from unclaimed rewards (more on that below).
But for milestone recognition, loyalty programs, and disbursements, standard remains the clear winner.
Ideally, of course, you want rewards that are flexible for your recipient and for you.
⤵️ If you want to send flexible gift cards effectively, the rest of this article will show you exactly how. ⤵️
There are many types of gift cards available for incentive programs, so what works best will depend on your goals, your audience, and the nature of your program.
Note: While most people use the terms interchangeably, 'prepaid cards 'and 'gift cards 'are technically different things. Gift cards are restricted to a single brand; prepaid cards from networks like Visa and Mastercard and can be spent more broadly.
Prepaid cards are typically the most flexible digital rewards you can send. Your recipient will be able to use them just about anywhere, including in restaurants, stores, online, even in mobile wallets. Since recipients aren't locked into spending at any one brand, prepaid cards are especially useful when you don't know your audience well, or when your audience is global.
For example, Giftbit's global prepaid cards include the Virtual Prepaid Mastercard with the following key specs:
🌍 Flexible global prepaid card
- Currency: Send in US Dollar or Canadian Dollar
- Amount: USD $1–$2,000 or CAD $20–$2,000
- Region: Global
- Expiration: 6 months
- Network: Mastercard
- Mobile wallets: Add to Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay
- Shopping: Online & in-store
One thing to note: in the 2026 Trend Report we found clear "utility shift" at the $100 mark. Under $100, recipients tend to select treats and experience-based brands (like bulk Starbucks gift cards). Above $100, they gravitate to flexible prepaid cards like Visa and Mastercard for practical, larger purchases. So if you're sending high-value rewards, prepaid cards are often the natural fit.
Multi-brand gift cards are a great middle ground between prepaid cards and single-brand gift cards.
They let you give one card that is accepted at multiple accepted retailers. This means they can offer the brand specificity that some programs call for while still giving recipients more freedom than a single-store card.
For smaller, one-off programs, mall gift cards or chamber of commerce cards are worth exploring (though platforms like Giftbit typically don't offer them). But for any program with meaningful volume or complexity, you'll want access to scalable multi-brand options through a gift card platform.
Here are some examples from Giftbit's gift card catalog:
United States:
Canada:
Australia:
Great Britain:
Finally, decades of academic research clearly show that there's inherent value in choosing your own reward rather than having that choice made for you.
And our 2026 data backs this up: like we've covered, Full Catalog is now the gold standard for reward senders, representing 41.4% of all sends and growing.
With Full Catalog, your recipients aren't limited to one brand or a curated shortlist. They see the entire catalog, customized to their region. They can pick what they want, whether that's a prepaid card, a multi-brand card, or anything else that strikes their fancy.
This option is especially powerful for global programs. You don't need to know where everyone is or what brands are available in their country. Recipients automatically see only the options they can actually claim and use. No extra configuration on your end, no frustrated recipients getting a card that doesn't work in their region. 🌎 🙌
Before you start sending any incentives, it's worth thinking through a few design choices that will determine how well your program delivers:
Your gift card buying and sending approach will depend heavily on your volume and program complexity. Here's a quick comparison.
| Method | Best for | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Retail / grocery store | Personal gifts, 1–5 people | Activation fees ($4.95–$6.95), no tracking, physical only, zero flexibility |
| Direct from retailer online | Small one-off sends | Manual process, locked to one brand, limited analytics and personalization |
| Digital gift card platform | Any business program with scale | Requires setup, but setup is fast |