You've probably done it yourself. Your business wants to show customer appreciation, so you buy Amazon gift cards or Visa prepaid cards. You hand them out (or email them) with a generic "Thank you for your business!" message. Then... nothing.
No response. No excitement. No meaningful impact on loyalty.
Meanwhile, you've spent thousands on what amounts to forgettable tokens that feel more like corporate obligation than genuine appreciation.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Traditional gift cards—Amazon, Visa, Starbucks, whatever—are failing to deliver the customer loyalty and emotional connection businesses actually need.
The Five Fatal Flaws of Traditional Gift Cards
1. They're Completely Impersonal
Think about the last time you received an Amazon gift card. Did you feel appreciated? Or did it feel like the sender just checked a box?
Generic gift cards send a clear message: "I needed to give you something, and this required the least thought possible."
When every business from your dentist to your car dealership sends the same Amazon gift card, none of them stand out. There's zero emotional connection, zero brand association, zero memorability.
The result? Your customer forgets who gave them the gift within days. The entire point—building loyalty and staying top-of-mind—is lost.
2. They Often Go Unused (Wasting Your Investment)
According to research from CEB TowerGroup, the average person has $300 in unused gift cards sitting in a drawer or forgotten in their email inbox.
Why? Because generic gift cards create decision paralysis and lack urgency:
- "I'll use it later" turns into never
- The amount is too small to buy what they really want ($25 doesn't buy much on Amazon anymore)
- They lose the physical card or the email gets buried
- There's no emotional reason to act on it immediately
$3 Billion - That's how much in gift cards went unused in 2023 alone, according to the Mercator Advisory Group. When customers don't even bother redeeming your "gift," what does that tell you about its impact?
3. They Don't Build Brand Association
Here's a question: When someone redeems an Amazon gift card you sent them three months ago, do they remember you gave it to them?
Probably not.
Traditional gift cards are branded with Amazon's logo, Visa's logo, Starbucks' logo—not yours. The recipient's experience is shopping on Amazon, not thinking about your business.
You paid for customer appreciation that built loyalty to Amazon, not to you.
We used to send $50 Amazon gift cards to clients after closing. Nobody ever mentioned them. We switched to curated choice gifts with our branding, and now clients actively thank us and refer friends. The difference is night and day.
— Sarah Martinez, Real Estate Agent, Keller Williams
4. They Feel Transactional, Not Relational
Gift cards reduce appreciation to a monetary transaction. It's literally just... money. And money feels cold.
Traditional gift cards are transactional. They say "Here's money, we're even now." That's not how you build relationships.
What Customers Actually Want
Here's what research from the Incentive Research Foundation tells us about what makes gifts meaningful:
- Personalization matters more than value. A $30 gift that shows you know them beats a $100 generic gift card every time.
- Choice creates ownership. When people choose their own gift (within a curated selection), they value it 40% more than when you pick for them.
- Experience trumps transaction. The act of browsing, selecting, and receiving feels special—more so than just "redeeming $50."
- Brand association sticks. When your branding is part of the gift experience (not Amazon's), they remember who appreciated them.
The insight: Customers don't want your money. They want to feel valued. Traditional gift cards deliver money. Thoughtful gifting delivers feeling valued. That's the difference.
What's Replacing Traditional Gift Cards
Smart businesses are moving away from generic gift cards toward what we call "curated choice gifting."
Instead of giving customers a generic $50 Amazon gift card, businesses send them a branded gift experience where customers browse a curated selection of premium products and choose what they actually want.
Traditional gift cards had their moment. But that moment has passed.
The businesses winning customer loyalty today aren't the ones sending Amazon gift cards. They're the ones creating branded, personalized experiences that make customers feel genuinely valued.
Because at the end of the day, people don't remember the dollar amount. They remember how you made them feel.
Ready to Transform Your Customer Gifting?
See how CustoThanks can help you build stronger customer relationships
Request Access Today