Roundup: Common Challenges When Incorporating Rewards and Gifting into Business Strategies

Jan 22, 2025 | Business Insights

Learn more about the common challenges when incorporating rewards and gifting into business strategies and how to overcome them.

The environment of business is always evolving. But one thing that remains constant is the importance of relationships in business. Whether it’s establishing goodwill, an act of gratitude to an employee or nurturing a bond with a client – gifting has become a key strategy to enhance loyalty and foster connections. It doesn’t come without its challenges, though.

To understand the landscape we asked a few professionals for their option. So, let’s have a look at some of the common challenges of incorporating gifting into business strategies and how we can solve them.

Key Takeaways:

  • Generic gifts fail to make an impact, while personalized gifting fosters meaningful connections. However, achieving personalization at scale is a challenge, requiring time and effort. Platforms like Giftsenda streamline this process by offering tailored gifting solutions.
  • Managing multiple vendors can be inefficient due to pricing negotiations, hidden costs, and rigid order requirements. Gifting platforms centralized vendor management, ensuring cost transparency, flexible order quantities, and hassle-free logistics.
  • The effectiveness of a business gift depends on when it is given. Rewards should align with milestones and achievements rather than being given too soon or too late. Automated tools like CRM workflows help optimize gifting timing.
  • Thoughtful and relevant gifts strengthen business relationships, increase engagement, and boost morale. Leveraging customer data ensures gifts are meaningful, leading to better feedback and loyalty.

The problem: Impersonal gifting can hurt more than help

When it comes to gifting in business, one thing that’s for sure is personalization matters. A personalized approach to business gifting is a true act of thought, care and effort. Moreover, it shows your recipient they are valued as a person and not just a mere stakeholder. 

One of the main challenges we’ve faced when incorporating gifting and rewards into our business strategy is ensuring personalization at scale. While sending generic gifts or rewards is relatively straightforward, they often fail to create a meaningful impact with clients or prospects. On the other hand, deeply personalized gifting requires significant time and effort, especially as the volume of engagements grows. Balancing this level of customization with operational efficiency has been a persistent challenge.

Aimie Ye, Director of Inbound Marketing, Centime

A common trap to fall into is the transactional act of generic gifts. Generic gifts are perfectly appropriate – just not when you are trying to achieve a personalized approach. In other words, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t quite cut it when gifting in business. The founder of Salesforge AIV. Frank Sondors, echoes the same sentiment in the challenges he faces when implementing his business gifting strategies. 

One challenge is making sure they feel personal and relevant to the recipient. Generic gifts can come across as transactional and fail to create the intended connection. It’s important to understand your audience and tailor the reward to their preferences or needs. We experimented with sending personalized thank-you gifts to clients after they reached milestones with our platform, such as completing a successful pilot. Before, we used a one-size-fits-all approach, but the response wasn’t good. We started using customer data to tailor the gifts by sending coffee kits to clients who loved espresso or donating to causes they supported. This change led to a noticeable improvement in feedback and engagement.

Sending personalized gifts and rewards at scale can be challenging, but a gifting platform like Giftsenda offers an effective solution. Such platforms enable businesses to tailor gifts to recipients based on their individual profiles, preferences, and lifestyles while ensuring cultural sensitivity and compliance with company policies where applicable. Tools like personalized email gift invites allow recipients to select their preferred gift and provide delivery details, all within a branded, customized experience. This thoughtful approach streamlines the process while making the gesture memorable and impactful.

use email gift invite when incorporating  gifting into business strategies

The problem: Managing vendors is time consuming

Gifting in business can be expensive when done incorrectly. Reliable vendors ensure the gifting process is smooth but when sending gifts to various countries/ and or handling multiple gifts at once; the strategy can easily overlook important aspects, such as cost-efficient logistics and budget parameters. Not to mention the nitty gritty details, like minimum order quantities that don’t necessarily match your business goals. 

One of the biggest hurdles is constant haggling with vendors. The back-and-forth over pricing and finding the right gift can become frustrating, especially when you’re working with a set budget. A major challenge is the lack of transparency from vendors, where hidden fees or markups can suddenly appear, making it hard to get a clear picture of the actual costs involved. Another issue is finding vendors that are flexible with your budget. Many vendors have minimum order quantities or fixed pricing tiers that don’t always fit your needs. This often leads to the time-consuming task of reaching out to multiple vendors to find the right fit.

One way to ease these challenges is by building strong, long-term relationships with vendors. This can help simplify the process and possibly lead to better pricing. But, with a large number of clients or employees to consider, it’s not always a simple solution.

James Owen, Co-Founder & Director, Click Intelligence

A gifting platform like Giftsenda simplifies the complexities of business gifting by centralizing vendor management through an online catalog – eliminating the need for haggling. With transparent pricing and no hidden fees, it allows businesses to set budgets and track costs easily. Flexible solutions, such as variable order quantities, ensure the platform adapts to your needs, whether sending a single gift or managing large-scale campaigns. We manage the logistics and streamline international deliveries, reducing costs and ensuring timely arrivals. Additional features like branded packaging, personalized messages, and automation enhance the gifting experience while saving time. 

The problem: Timing is everything in business gifting strategies

As always, there is a time for everything. While it may be a general consensus that something is better early than late – this is not always the case when gifting in business. 

Timing rewards effectively has been one of the most nuanced challenges I’ve encountered in integrating gifting and recognition into our business strategy. From my experience, timing isn’t just about when a reward is given, it’s about ensuring that the recognition feels meaningful and aligned with the recipient’s effort and achievement. 

In guiding students toward their academic and personal goals, I’ve come to appreciate how critical it is to create a framework where rewards are both well-timed and well-deserved. For example, celebrating a student’s progress after they’ve successfully developed a new skill or achieved a key milestone, rather than waiting until the end of their journey, provides immediate reinforcement. This not only boosts morale but also strengthens their commitment to continued growth. Similarly, rewarding too soon, perhaps after minimal progress, might discourage them from digging deeper into their potential. At its core, timing rewards effectively requires a thoughtful understanding of the individual’s journey. Whether it’s a student striving for acceptance into a top university or a colleague achieving professional growth, the reward must feel earned and connected to a clear accomplishment.

Joel Butterly, CEO, Ingeniusprep

To overcome this, businesses can incorporate tools like CRM workflows and integrations with gifting platforms like Giftsenda to automate gifting triggers based on customer lifecycle stages or activities. This ensures the right reward reaches the right person at the right time, while also enabling you to measure the impact of gifting on engagement and conversions. 

an infographic of the common challenges when incorporating gifting into business strategies

Integrating rewards and gifting into your business strategy with Giftsenda 

Managing gifting and rewards programs in business can be a fruitful investment when using the right corporate gifting platform. By prioritizing quality, thoughtfulness and relevance, your business can create memorable experiences that enhance relationships and solidify your brand’s reputation as considerate and forward-thinking. No matter the business intent or goal, gifting is an investment that pays dividends in trust and goodwill. 

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