Top 10 gift cards powering incentive programs in 2025
A gift card incentive program can motivate employees to achieve ambitious goals. Plus, incentives are a proven way to help companies attract and retain customers.
In an incentives experiment, Tremendous found that offering gift cards to prospects who book sales demos doubles response rates and decreases cost per lead by 81%.
Sending out gift cards as part of an incentive program also offers an effective way to promote employee engagement and reduce turnover. But which gift cards do employees and customers prefer?
There are virtually thousands of options, and it’s difficult to pick one retailer that will satisfy the vast majority of people.
In this article, you can compare the 10 most popular gift card options this year.
Table of contents
The basics of gift cards
Gift cards remain one of the most popular gift ideas around the globe, with the market expected to rise to a value of $510 billion this year. As part of an incentive program, one study found that gift cards increase performance even more than cash. Plus, gift cards have the ability to cater to an individual's specific interests.
Types of gift cards
Gift cards fall into two formats:
Open-loop: Open-loop cards can be used at any retailer (as opposed to only a specific, predefined retailer). Prepaid cards like Visa® or Mastercard®, which are accepted at a wide variety of locations, are among the most popular options. Prepaid cards give the recipient freedom of choice. Though users may be inclined to spend the money on necessities rather than on splurges.
Closed-loop: By contrast, closed-loop gift cards limit users to specific retailers, like Starbucks or Target. These types of gift cards can seem more personal, especially if coupled with a thoughtful note. Closed-loop cards often require knowledge of an individual's needs, wants or preferences.
Physical gift cards versus e-gift cards
When you set up an incentive program that rewards with gift cards, you have a choice to make:
Physical cards or digital cards?
The popularity of physical gift cards has crashed alongside physical money. In society's seemingly unstoppable shift to all-digital-everything, the benefits of digital gift cards certainly outweigh those of physical cards.
| Digital gift cards | Physical gift cards | |
|---|---|---|
| Ordering and inventory | Order individually, in bulk or automatically by API; no inventory | Buy in bulk for the best value; must manage and track inventory |
| Delivery time | Instantaneous | Days or weeks by snail mail |
| Costs | 1. Face-value cost of the card 2. Some providers charge fees. (Tremendous has no fees) 3. High-volume purchases often receive discounts | 1. Cost of the card 2. Postage fees 3. Manual labor overhead |
| Security | Tracking is much more thorough, allowing for better customer support in the event of theft or fraud | Cards could get stolen by mail or lost by the recipient; hard to track fraud |
| User experience | Add the card to your digital wallet; use card in store or online | Recipients must carry and keep track of the physical card |
Pros and cons of gift card incentives
When you build gift cards into your incentive programs, you should understand the nuances of offering cards.
Pros
You empower recipients to buy products and services that matter to them.
Gift cards are easy to understand, claim, and spend.
You can receive discounts if you purchase a high volume of digital cards.
You can connect your program to a gift card provider’s API to automate sending gift card rewards.
Cons
Some gift cards require activation fees. You should research fees before buying cards.
Recipients may find themselves with a small, unusable amount of money left on the card.
Cards can seem impersonal. To avoid this, add warmth to the reward by including a personalized note expressing your gratitude.
10 popular gift card categories in 2025
The key to building a successful gift card-based reward and incentive program:
Offer what people want.
To find the best mix of practicality, ease of use, choice, and an excuse to splurge, look for options in one of these 10 categories:
1. Alternatives to cash: Prepaid open-loop cards — like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express® — offer recipients the most choice. Recipients can spend these cards nearly anywhere, and senders can distribute them without prior knowledge of a recipient’s unique interests.
2. Multi-store cards: Multi-store or multi-brand cards offer a similar level of choice and convenience as open-loop cards, so the recipient can pick where they want to shop.
3. Electronics: Rewards centered on electronics are ideal options for end-of-the-year sales incentives, with Best Buy gift cards remaining the most favored.
4. Home improvement: Home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes are always a safe bet. These stores offer an extensive range of useful home products and utilities for all kinds of homeowners and renters.
5. Streaming services: Streaming is the main way people watch shows and movies these days. The availability of dozens of streaming sites make these kinds of cards useful and appealing.
6. Transportation: For drivers, gas cards make for an appealing corporate reward. Electric vehicle owners might prefer a card covering the cost of recharging. People with access to public transportation might like a card for their local transportation authority. If that’s too granular for your reward and incentive program, then a gift card for a ride-sharing app, like Uber or Lyft, might be best.
7. Groceries and consumer staples: Whether the economy is good or bad, there are certain things everyone needs. Helping foot the bill for groceries and other consumer staples could be a huge motivator with universal appeal.
8. Food delivery: Sometimes, you just want a pizza or your favorite dumplings delivered to your door. Providing gift cards to food delivery services like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats offer the right mix of ease and choice that recipients love.
9. Cards for splurging: Self care and retail therapy are how many people decompress and relax from the natural stressors of life. But spas, massages, and the like can be expensive. Offering gift cards that help fund these activities can associate your brand with a happier, more relaxed life.
10. Gift cards that give back: Some gift cards are designed to donate a percentage to charities like Feeding America or Habitat for Humanity. If your business is committed to making a positive community impact, this can be a great, on-brand way to say “thanks” while making a difference.
10 most popular gift cards in 2025
The following are the most popular gift cards of the year, using a combination of monthly search volume and internal expertise as a proxy for interest.
Visa gift card
Visa gift cards are the top-searched and most popular gift card option, and it’s easy to see why. Recipients can buy just about anything with a Visa gift card, and it’s almost as flexible as cash.
These cards are accepted by most retailers, and recipients perceive them as being just about as valuable as cash.
Unlike store-specific gift cards, Visa gift cards can be used at any location that accepts Visa. This includes millions of merchants worldwide, both online and in-store. This flexibility ensures that recipients can use their gift card in a way that best suits their needs and preferences.
Some other gift cards tend to cater to some demographics over others. But Visa gift cards have near-universal appeal. Everyone from young professionals to retirees love these cards.
Amazon gift card
You can find almost anything you want to buy on Amazon. The retailer’s extensive product range makes it a close second to Visa's universal appeal.
Amazon is, of course, the largest online retailer with millions of products across various categories, from electronics and books to clothing and home goods. Recipients can find items that suit their specific tastes and needs.
Another bonus: Amazon gift cards are extremely easy to use. The Amazon site and mobile app is decently user-friendly. Recipients can buy little-known products on Amazon from niche sellers through an easily accessible, intuitive user interface.
Target gift card
The third-most popular gift card of the year is for Target. These gift cards don't have as broad a product selection as Amazon or as much flexibility as a Visa prepaid card, but Target is the second-most popular department store in the country.
Recipients can use their Target gift cards online or in-store. A Target gift card gives people the chance to do some guilt-free shopping, or to get their necessities without having to worry as much about the price tag.
There are Target locations in over 1,300 cities across the US, and the retailer has at least one store in every state. Plus, Target's wide variety of items means there's truly something for everyone.
Starbucks gift card
Fourth on the list: Starbucks. It’s the most valuable restaurant brand worldwide. And while Starbucks prices come in a bit higher than rivaling chains Dunkin’ and Tim Horton’s, people feel less guilty splurging on an $7 latte if they know they’re paying with a gift card.
Another reason it’s so popular is because coffee is, for most people, a daily necessity. So if someone receives a Starbucks gift card, they’re highly likely to actually use it.
Starbucks gift cards are equally convenient in digital and physical form. The coffee chain has a popular mobile app and more than 35,000 locations worldwide. There’s one on every corner in major cities, and chances are, many of your recipients pass one on their way to work.
Disney gift card
Perhaps surprisingly, Disney gift cards are fifth on the list. Recipients can use them to buy Disney merchandise online, put them toward theme park tickets or resort stays, or spend them on dining experiences at Disney locations.
A word of caution: While these gift cards are extremely popular, they are limited in use and won't work for everyone. Unless you’re specifically targeting families with young children, you may want to skip this one.
It likely makes more sense to offer recipients a Visa prepaid card, because Disney accepts Visa prepaid cards at all theme park and resort locations. And if some recipients don’t have a Disney vacation on the docket this year, they can still get plenty of use out of their gift.
Sephora gift card
While Sephora gift cards aren’t a universal crowd pleaser, they’re by far the most popular cosmetic gift card of the year. Sephora carries over 340 different brands and more than 45,000 products, from Chanel to Glossier.
One reason Sephora gift cards are so popular is because makeup and cosmetics are seen as luxurious vs. utilitarian. In other words, people buy indulgent beauty products for pleasure rather than necessity.
Pleasurable purchases are more strongly associated with feelings of excitement. However, hedonic purchases can also make us feel guilty. Fortunately, if someone purchases these types of goods with a gift card, (which feels like free money,) they can splurge without experiencing the buyers' remorse that sometimes comes with impulse purchases.
American Express gift card
The appeal of an American Express gift card is the same as that of a Visa gift card – they can be used just about anywhere to buy just about anything. Like Visa prepaid cards, prepaid American Express cards function like debit cards and are accepted by millions of retailers.
eBay gift card
eBay gift cards are like Amazon gift cards for people who love thrifting. eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, and shoppers can find anything from electronics and fashion to rare collectibles and vintage furniture.
With an eBay gift card, recipients can purchase new, used, or rare items. And because eBay offers so many used goods in great condition, the platform appeals to recipients who want more bang for their buck.
Apple gift card
Apple gift cards are even more useful in 2025 as they were back in the iTunes days. Beyond using these gift cards to buy music, recipients can redeem them for Apple TV+ subscriptions, apps, games, Apple News+ subscriptions, or more iCloud storage space.
This type of gift card gives recipients access to an extensive content library that includes movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and more. And a lot of people can benefit from them. iPhones are the most popular phone in the US by a wide margin, with a whopping 57.68% marketshare. Chances are good that your recipients have an iPhone, or at least a TV that can stream Apple TV+.
Chick-fil-A gift card
Chick-fil-A is the third-most popular fast food chain in the country, behind only McDonalds and Starbucks. The restaurant's popularity has exploded in the past decade or so. While Chick-fil-A started as a regional chain in the southern U.S., locations have cropped up everywhere from Massachusetts to Iowa.
Like Sephora, Chick-fil-A gift cards are appealing to recipients because they allow for guilt-free indulgent purchases. No one feels great about spending $25 on fast food, but it stings a lot less if you know you received the money as a gift.
How business use gift cards as rewards and incentives
Gift cards can be a powerful business tool when coupled with clever strategies.
There are many use cases for leveraging gift cards to achieve business goals. You can break down these strategies into three categories: marketing incentives, research incentives, and employee incentives.
Marketing incentives
The options for marketing with gift card programs are vast.
You can offer gift card incentivizes to customers who leave a review or refer new clients or for big purchase.
Or, you can build a gift card loyalty program to better retain customers. For instance, customers can earn a certain amount of points with each purchase, adding up to a free item down the line.
Marketing incentive programs could include:
Sales lead generation programs
Customer acquisition programs
Customer loyalty programs
Customer advocacy programs
Event attendance and monetization programs
Partner and vendor incentive programs
Research incentives
Many companies conduct research of some kind. That could mean surveying employees, conducting user research for a new product or running a dedicated market research department.
A common way to incorporate rewards into research is to compensate participants for their time — for completing a survey, interview or some other task.
Research incentive programs could include:
Employee (or customer) surveys
Market research
Clinical research
University research
User experience (UX) research
Employee incentives
How do you maximize employee output and wellbeing?
By aligning employee interests with business goals.
One way to do that is through employee reward and incentive programs, which can be used in various way to both encourage behavior or reward it after the fact.
Employee incentive programs include:
Employee recruiting and referral programs
Employee reward and recognition programs
Sales incentive programs
Employee safety programs
Continuing education programs
How to evaluate what gift card is best for your employees or customers
While the above are the most popular gift cards by search volume, ultimately, individual preferences are fickle and unique. Everybody is different, and there’s no way to accurately paint your entire workforce or customerbase with a broad brush.
Consider the following before making a selection:
Employee or customer preferences: Consider the attributes of your target demographic. Are your customers largely young professionals, suburban women, men with young children, etc? If you’re sending gifts for employee recognition, do your employees commute to an office everyday and pass the same coffee shop, or are they distributed around the country or around the world? If you’re targeting a specific demographic, it may be easier to pick a single gift card that will appeal to most. However, if you have a broad customer base or distributed employees, it may make more sense to let them choose their own gift card.
Personalization: Think about how much or how little you’d like to personalize the gift. Tremendous's own research found that recipients don’t care much whether a gift was picked out specifically for them. Rather, 85% would be satisfied with a personal message or note along with the gift.
Inclusivity: Make sure to gift something anyone can use – no matter where in the world they are. With Tremendous, you can send gift cards to recipients in more than 200 countries.
Budget: Again, you don’t need to break the bank to send the right work anniversary gift. Between $50 and $100 should satisfy most employees.
Let recipients choose their own gift card
Rather than trying to pick one gift that suits all, let recipients choose the gift they want most with Tremendous. Tremendous offers more than 2,000 reward options in over 200 countries, including everything from direct deposit and Venmo payouts to DoorDash and Amazon gift cards.
Plus, it’s totally free. Only spend what you send.
Sign up now and send your first incentive in minutes, or chat with the sales team.
FAQs about incentive programs
What is the best gift card to give employees, customers, or research participants?
Visa gift cards are the most popular gift cards based on search volume. People value Visa prepaid cards about as much as they value cash. It makes sense – recipients can use Visa gift cards just about anywhere to buy almost anything. While Visa prepaid cards are a safe bet, the best option is to let recipients choose their own reward.
With Tremendous, businesses can offer recipients the choice of prepaid cards, money transfers, and 2,000+ gift card options.
What is an appropriate gift card amount for employees, customers, or research participants?
For employees, anywhere between $50 and $100 will satisfy the vast majority of people. When it comes to incentivizing customers and research participants, ideal amounts will vary based on each person’s profession and the purpose of the reward or incentive.
Are gift cards good gifts for employees, customers, or research participants?
By and large, people prefer prepaid cards over gift cards. However, gift cards can be a great option when you give recipients the option to choose their own gift card. Using an incentives and rewards platform (like Tremendous) makes it easy to give recipients the option to choose between 2,000+ gift cards.
Can gift cards be sent virtually?
Yes. With Tremendous, businesses can send gift cards via SMS, email, or bulk link export.
Can I give my employees, customers, and research participants gift cards without being taxed?
Yes, depending on the amount. You can send gift cards tax-free, as long as the total amount you send is below the $600 threshold. You can learn more information on whether gift cards are taxable.
