Holiday Gift Cards for Customers: Ideas & Sending Tips

Holiday gift cards for customers are a great way to thank people for their business.

And sending them digitally makes the whole process a lot easier: there's no shipping to coordinate, you can include a personal note, and you can let customers choose something they really want (instead of having to guess what that might be yourself). 

Timing matters, too, especially when you're competing with crowded inboxes and holiday schedules.

Giftbit's Holiday Digital Rewards Index found that customer loyalty reward spending peaked in November, while recipients took longer to claim rewards in December.

Both are good reasons to plan your holiday gifting early.

In this guide, we'll show you how to choose digital gift cards your customers will love, and how to send them without creating a mountain of extra work for yourself.

We'll also share more findings from our holiday rewards data to help you plan your campaign and make the most of your gifting budget.

What are the best holiday gift cards for customers?

The best holiday gift cards for customers are ones they'll actually enjoy using, whether that's treating themselves to something nice or getting a little help with their holiday shopping.

If you know a customer well, you might choose a gift card based on their interests.

But when you're buying for a larger group, popular retailers and everyday essentials are usually safer bets.

We also found some interesting trends in our Holiday Digital Rewards Index. In December 2025, grocery gift card reward value increased by 1,067% compared with the September–October average. Sporting goods followed at 475%, toys and kids at 275%, and apparel at 257%.

These figures cover all types of rewards sent through Giftbit, not just customer gifts, and measure spending by category rather than individual brands.

Still, they give us a pretty good idea of the kinds of choices people were making with their rewards during the holidays.

With that in mind, here are some gift card ideas worth considering for your customers:

• Grocery gift cards: If there's one category worth paying attention to this holiday season, it's groceries. A gift card to a popular supermarket can help with a holiday dinner, entertaining guests, or the regular grocery bill. Consider local favorites like Kroger or Publix, and send your gift early enough that customers can use it for their holiday shopping.
  
  
• Department store and apparel gift cards: Macy's, Nordstrom, and Kohl's are all good options for customers who enjoy shopping for clothing, beauty products, and home goods. They also leave plenty of room for recipients to pick out something for themselves or to put the gift toward their own holiday shopping. Apparel and fashion was one of the fastest-growing categories in our December data, so there's a good reason to consider these retailers.
  
  
• Sporting goods and outdoor gift cards: Cabela's, REI, or Bass Pro Shops could make great gifts for customers who enjoy camping, fishing, hiking, or other outdoor activities. Sporting goods and outdoor rewards saw a 475% increase in December, suggesting plenty of recipients were putting their gift cards toward seasonal purchases. 
  
  
• Toys and family entertainment gift cards: Disney and Barnes & Noble are worth considering if you're looking for something that customers can enjoy with their families. 
  
  
• Online shopping and big-box gift cards: It's hard to go wrong with a retailer that sells a little bit of everything. Amazon gift cards, for example, let customers choose from a huge range of products, while gift cards to Walmart and Target give them other options for everyday purchases. These are especially useful when you're sending holiday gifts to a large customer list and don't know everyone's personal preferences.
  
  
• Prepaid cards: Similarly, prepaid Visa® or Mastercard® cards bring even more flexibility to the table, and work particularly well for larger gifts. 
  
  
• Coffee and bakery gift cards: A Starbucks gift card or another coffee shop gift card is a nice way to send a smaller holiday thank-you, particularly if you're working with a budget of $10 or $20 per customer. You could also consider Krispy Kreme, Peet's, or even Cinnabon (and of course, include Tim Hortons gift cards for your Canadian customers). The nice thing about these gifts is that a relatively small amount can cover a real treat, rather than just giving someone a discount on a much larger purchase.
  
  
• Electronics and tech gift cards: Best Buy, GameStop, and your favorite online game store (think Xbox and PlayStation) are good options if you're sending a more substantial gift or know your customers enjoy technology (side note: Epic Games gift cards are now available across many European countries). Just be realistic about the amount you're giving, since a small gift card might not go very far at an electronics retailer.
  
  
• Restaurant and food delivery gift cards: Sometimes the nicest holiday treat is a night off from cooking. A restaurant or food delivery gift card lets customers enjoy dinner out or order something at home during a busy season. Consider something simple like Chipotle or Panera for small thank-yous, or perhaps Morton's Steakhouse when you want to put your best foot forward. Just remember to choose an amount that's enough to cover a meaningful portion of a meal.

💡Pro tip: Work with a good gift card platform and you don't have to choose one gift card brand for everyone. If you're sending to a large or varied customer list, consider offering a selection of popular brands or letting recipients choose from a full gift card catalog. That way, one customer might pick Starbucks, another might prefer groceries, and someone else could choose a prepaid Visa or Mastercard.

🌎 And if you're sending eGift cards internationally, make sure the options you offer are available where your customers live. A familiar brand name doesn't always mean its gift cards work across borders, so check regional availability and redemption restrictions before ordering.

→ See our guide to sending bulk Amazon gift cards internationally for more guidance.

How much should you spend on holiday gift cards for customers?

There's no one-size-fits-all budget for customer holiday gifts. A small thank-you for hundreds of loyal shoppers is a different proposition from a more substantial gift for a long-time business client.

The trick is to choose an amount that's aligned with the brand(s) you're offering. For example, $10 can cover a nice coffee shop treat, but it won't go particularly far at an electronics store.

Here are some ideas for different budgets:

These are just examples, of course. Your budget will depend on how many customers you're gifting, what kind of relationship you have with them, and what your business can reasonably spend.

And if you're sending gifts to business clients, check whether their employers have gift acceptance policies. Some organizations limit the value of gifts employees can receive, regardless of how generous your intentions are.

How to send holiday gift cards to customers in bulk

Once you've decided what to give your customers and when to send it, the next step is getting everything organized.

And if you're buying gifts for dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people, you probably don't want to spend your afternoon purchasing and emailing gift cards one at a time.

That's where a platform built to send gift cards in bulk can make life much easier.

You can organize your recipients, personalize your messages, and schedule the whole campaign in advance, rather than managing a bunch of individual purchases one-by-one. 

Here's how you might approach it:

1. Get your customer list ready. Start with an up-to-date list of recipients, including their names, contact details, and locations. Remove any duplicates and decide whether you're sending the same gift to everyone or setting different budgets for different customer groups. For example, you might send a larger thank-you to your top clients and a smaller gift to a wider group of loyal customers.
2. Choose your rewards. You can send everyone a specific type of gift card or let them choose from a selection of brands. If you're gifting internationally, make sure the options are available in your customers' countries (digital rewards platforms like Giftbit will usually make international sending a lot easier). 
3. Write a personal message. You don't need to write something completely different for every customer, but try to make it more meaningful than a generic holiday greeting. For a long-time client, you might thank them for a particular project or another great year working together. For a broader customer campaign, a sincere note acknowledging their continued support works well.
4. Test and schedule your gifts. Send yourself a test reward first, so you can see what your customers will receive and how they'll claim it. Then schedule delivery for your chosen date, ideally before the busiest part of the holiday season.

Of course you'll want to keep your holiday gifting campaign separate from rewards customers have already earned. If someone is owed a referral bonus or a reward through your customer loyalty program, they should receive it according to the terms you promised, regardless of when you're sending holiday thank-yous.

⬆️⏱️ Want to do this, like, now? Create a free Giftbit account and you could be setting up your first customer appreciation campaign in minutes. More details here.   

Don't forget to check whether your customer gifts were claimed

Just because you've sent a gift, doesn't mean that a customer has enjoyed it. 

So once your campaign goes out, you'll want to make sure those gifts actually reach your customers. With Giftbit's delivery and claim tracking, for example, you can see which gifts have been claimed, and which might need your attention.

That means you can follow up and resend gifts when needed, and send reminders to customers who haven't claimed theirs yet. 

All said, this visibility into your gifts will give you a much clearer picture of the success of your campaign and what happened to your gifting budget. 

💡Pro tip: If your customers earn rewards and/or you'd like to send corporate gifts throughout the year, you don't necessarily need to manage every send manually. Tools like Zapier or a gift card API can help automate those ongoing rewards, while you reserve your holiday campaign for a more personal, seasonal thank-you.

When to send holiday gift cards to customers

For most businesses, November or early December is a good time to send holiday gift cards to customers. You'll want to get your gifts out before inboxes get too crowded and people start leaving for the holidays, especially if you're sending to business clients who might be away for much of December.

Our Holiday Digital Rewards Index offers some more interesting insights, here too. In 2025, customer loyalty reward value on Giftbit's platform jumped 84% from October to November, before easing off in December. While that doesn't tell us exactly when every business sent their holiday thank-you gifts, it does suggest that many companies get their customer-focused rewards out earlier in the season.

In fact, our report recommends having customer holiday campaigns planned and scheduled by late October. As Giftbit CEO Leif Baradoy puts it, "Timing is an important part of creating a powerful reward experience."

Of course, the right date depends on your customers and what you're giving them. If you're sending grocery or shopping gift cards with the hope that people will use them for the holidays, give them enough time to do so.

And if you're sending to business clients, think about office closures, scheduled year-end meetings, and when your contacts are likely to stop checking their work email.

💡Pro tip: Missed the October planning window? Don't worry. One of the advantages of bulk digital gift cards is that you can organize and send them relatively quickly, without waiting on shipping. A thoughtful gift sent in November or early December can still be a nice way to thank your customers for their business.

Give customers time to claim their holiday gift cards

There's another thing worth keeping in mind when planning your holiday sends: people aren't necessarily going to claim their gift cards the moment they arrive. December is a busy month, and even the most wonderful, generous gift might sit in someone's inbox for a little while before they get around to it.

We saw this idea reflected in our 2025 holiday data. Across Giftbit's platform, the median time to claim a reward reached 162 minutes in December, more than triple the November figure. Grocery gift cards took even longer, with a median claim time of nearly 22 hours. These numbers include all types of rewards, not just customer gifts, but they're a good reminder that recipients may have other priorities during the holidays.

So don't worry too much if customers don't claim their gifts right away. Just make sure you're sending them early enough that they have time to use them for holiday shopping, if that's what you're hoping they'll do.

💡Pro tip: You might also schedule a friendly reminder after a week or so for anyone who hasn't claimed theirs.

Should you let customers choose their own holiday gift cards?

If you know your customers well, choosing a specific gift card can be a nice personal touch. Maybe you know a long-time client loves Starbucks, or you want to treat a small group of customers to dinner at a particular restaurant.

But when you're sending gifts to hundreds or even thousands of people, it's much harder to guess what everyone will enjoy. That's epecially true if you're sending rewards across borders and into areas where you might not know the preferred local options. That's where giving customers some choice can make a real difference.

You could offer a curated selection of brands that fit your holiday campaign, like popular restaurants, grocery stores, or department stores.

Or, if your customer list includes people with very different interests or locations, you might prefer to let them choose from a full catalog of flexible gift cards.

Prepaid cards are another option when you want to give customers even more freedom over how they spend their gift. Giftbit offers Visa incentive cards for U.S., Canadian, and Australian recipients, along with a Virtual Prepaid Mastercard that can be used internationally wherever Debit Mastercard is accepted. Just check regional availability, registration requirements, and any spending restrictions before choosing one.

Of course here's nothing wrong with choosing a gift card for someone when you have a good reason to think they'll like it. It can be a sign that you're paying attention and know your clients well. 

But for a larger customer campaign, letting people pick for themselves is often the safer bet. You can still make the gift feel personal with a thoughtful message, without having to know everyone's shopping habits.

Ultimately, the best Christmas gift for customers is a digital gift card they can use for something they'll actually enjoy. And letting customers choose their own gift card means everyone has the chance to pick something that best matches their interests and needs.

And remember, a little thought goes a long way.

Send your gifts early enough that customers can enjoy them during the holidays, and include a personal note thanking them for their business.

You don't need an elaborate or expensive present to show customers you appreciate them, especially when you've chosen something useful and made the effort to say thanks.

Giftbit lets you schedule holiday gift cards for customers, offer the right amount of choice, and see who's claimed their gift.

Create a free account to plan your holiday sends, or book time with us to talk through a larger customer program.