New: Gift Card Rewards
Gift Cards for Employees: Real Rewards Attached to Recognition eCards
Send digital gift cards to employees inside the branded eCards you already automate. A birthday card that carries an actual reward, a work-anniversary card with a gift attached — delivered automatically, claimed in one click.
Available on the Enterprise plan · USD gift cards · works with your existing automations
How it works
Send gift cards to employees in three steps
Rewards ride along with sends you already make, from your widget, a bulk campaign, or an automation. No separate rewards tool to run.
Choose the reward
Pick a brand and amount from the catalog (via your connected Giftbit account) or upload a pool of gift-card codes you've already purchased.
Attach it to a send
Add the reward to an automated birthday eCard, a work-anniversary send, a bulk campaign, or your eCard widget.
Recipient claims in one click
The eCard arrives with a secure, verified claim link. The recipient confirms their email and the gift card is theirs — no accounts, no apps.
Two ways to fund rewards
Your employee gift card program, your rules
Connect your Giftbit account
Bring your own Giftbit wallet and API key. Choose from Giftbit's catalog of digital gift card brands (Amazon and many more), set the amount per send, and fulfillment happens from your own balance — you keep full control of spend.
Enterprise plan
Upload your own code pool
Already buy bulk gift cards for employees from a vendor you love? Upload the codes as a pool and each send automatically assigns the next available card — with live inventory tracking so you never run dry mid-campaign.
Enterprise plan
Built for finance sign-off
Spend guardrails on every card
Corporate gift cards shouldn't be a budget surprise. Every reward is bounded by controls your admins set once:
- Per-card minimum and maximum amounts
- Velocity limits — hourly, daily, and monthly spend caps plus card-count caps
- Full audit log of every reward order, claim, and setting change
- Order analytics and CSV export for reconciliation
The part nobody else automates
Recognition that remembers, rewards that arrive
Attach a gift card once to your birthday or anniversary automation and every future send carries it — the right employee, the right day, a real reward, zero manual work. That's an employee gift card program that actually runs itself.
There's a gift card API, too
Products, orders, inventory, analytics, audit log — the whole reward subsystem is scriptable, and it's exposed to AI assistants through our MCP server.
Employee gift card program
eGift cards for employees, tied to the moments that matter
An employee gift card program works when the reward is tied to a reason. Attach eGift cards to years of service awards at the milestones you choose, to spot recognition a manager sends the same day, to a first-day welcome, or to a company-wide campaign. Because the reward rides inside the branded eCard, employees know exactly what it is for.
- Service awards: a set amount per tenure tier, sent on the anniversary
- Spot awards: managers send a card with a reward within the day
- Employee of the month: the winner's card carries the reward
- Campaigns: Employee Appreciation Day, year-end, or a team win, in one send
- Onboarding: a welcome card with a reward on day one
What Finance will ask
Are gift cards to employees taxable?
Yes. Under IRS Publication 15-B, cash and cash-equivalent benefits, including gift cards and gift certificates, are never excludable as de minimis fringe benefits, regardless of amount. Their face value is taxable wages, reported on the employee's W-2 and subject to withholding. That is true of any employee gift card program, whichever vendor issues the cards.
What eCardWidget adds is the record: every reward order, amount, recipient, and claim is in the audit log and exportable as CSV, so payroll gets a clean list instead of a reconstruction. Spend caps keep the total inside the budget Finance approved.
Source: IRS Publication 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits. This is general information, not tax advice; confirm treatment with your payroll or tax advisor.
Questions
Employee gift cards, answered
Which gift card brands can I send?
With a connected Giftbit account you choose from Giftbit's digital gift card catalog, brands like Amazon and many others. With a manual pool, any brand works: you upload the codes you've purchased and eCardWidget handles assignment and delivery.
How do employees receive their gift card?
The gift card is attached to the eCard itself. The recipient opens their card, clicks the claim link, verifies with a one-time code sent to their email, and the reward is theirs. No account creation, no app download.
Can I send gift cards in bulk?
Yes. Attach a reward to a bulk campaign and every recipient gets a card with their eCard, or attach it to an automation so bulk happens on its own schedule (everyone's birthday, every 5-year anniversary). Inventory tracking and velocity limits keep bulk sends inside budget.
What currencies are supported?
Gift card rewards are currently USD only. (eCards themselves, without rewards, support six currencies for fundraising and payments.)
Which plan includes gift card rewards?
Gift card rewards are available on the Enterprise plan. Book a demo and we'll walk through your reward program setup.
Is there an API for gift card programs?
Yes. A full gift card API covering the product catalog, reward orders, manual-pool inventory, analytics, spend rules, CSV export, and the audit log. See the gift cards developer guide.
Are gift cards given to employees taxable?
Yes. The IRS treats gift cards as cash equivalents, so they are taxable wages at any amount and cannot be excluded as de minimis benefits (IRS Publication 15-B). eCardWidget logs every reward order and claim and exports them as CSV so payroll has a complete record. Confirm treatment with your tax advisor.
Put a real reward inside your recognition
See gift card rewards attached to your own branded eCards: birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones, funded your way.