If you’re a retailer that wants to boost holiday and seasonal sales, consider harnessing the power of gift cards!
March 2026 | PerfectGift Experts | 5 minute read
Main image courtesy of WRTV.
Gift cards have quietly become one of retail's most reliable revenue engines — and nowhere is that more apparent than during the holidays. What once felt like a last-resort present has transformed into a strategic sales tool, with retailers using them to attract new customers, smooth out post-holiday slumps, and keep shoppers coming back long after the wrapping paper hits the floor.
From Black Friday promotions to Valentine's Day bundles, today's retailers are weaving gift cards into nearly every seasonal campaign with purpose. A well-timed gift card offer doesn't just drive immediate purchases — it locks in future revenue, introduces new shoppers to the brand, and often results in customers spending more than the card's face value. In an era where margins are thin and customer loyalty is hard-won, that kind of long-term return is hard to ignore.
That’s why we’ll be covering everything you need to know about using gift cards for your business, including:
- Why gift cards are what customers really want
- Why it’s so important to take advantage of holiday and seasonal opportunities
- How you can use gift cards to boost holiday and seasonal sales
- The only gift card company you need to reach your goals
Why gift cards work for retailers
Gift cards are one of the most important marketing tools you can use for your business
For retailers, gift cards represent a near-perfect financial instrument — one that generates revenue upfront, builds brand loyalty, and creates multiple opportunities for additional spending. Image courtesy of WWD.
Understanding why gift cards are so effective helps explain why retailers continue to invest heavily in them year after year, particularly during high-stakes seasonal windows. Not every gift card gets fully redeemed. The unspent balance — known in the industry as "breakage" — flows directly to the retailer's bottom line. Industry estimates suggest that billions of dollars in gift card value goes unredeemed every year, the result of lost cards, forgotten balances, and recipients who simply never get around to using them. While retailers rarely advertise this fact, breakage is a well-understood and carefully tracked revenue stream. For large retailers running high-volume gift card programs, even a modest breakage rate can translate into millions of dollars in pure profit annually.
Shoppers rarely spend exactly what's on their card — and retailers are counting on it. Studies consistently show that gift card recipients tend to spend significantly more than the card's face value, often treating the balance as a starting point rather than a ceiling. A customer redeeming a $50 gift card might walk out with $75 or $80 worth of merchandise, driven by the psychological sense that part of the purchase is already "paid for." That incremental spending, multiplied across thousands of transactions during peak season, adds up to a substantial revenue lift that goes directly above and beyond the original card sale.
One of the less obvious advantages of gift cards is their ability to spread demand across a longer window. Holiday gift cards purchased in December are often redeemed in January and February — traditionally slower months for retail. That post-holiday redemption traffic helps offset the seasonal revenue dip, brings shoppers back into stores during off-peak periods, and gives retailers a second opportunity to impress customers acquired during the holiday rush. For seasonal businesses especially, this smoothing effect can meaningfully stabilize revenue across the calendar year.
Every unredeemed gift card still in a wallet or sitting on a counter is a small, persistent brand advertisement. Physical gift cards — particularly those with distinctive designs tied to holidays or seasonal themes — serve as a constant visual reminder of the retailer until the moment they're used. Digital gift cards extend that visibility even further, living in email inboxes and mobile apps where they can be surfaced by notifications and reminders. In an environment where brands compete aggressively for attention, that ongoing visibility comes at virtually no additional cost.
Seasonal sales are important for retailers
Using gift cards to drive holiday and seasonal sales is essential for retailers
Holiday and seasonal sales periods represent some of the most concentrated bursts of consumer spending in the entire year. Image courtesy of Chain Store Age.
Seasonal shopping periods punch far above their weight when it comes to revenue contribution. The winter holiday season alone — spanning roughly November and December — can account for 20 to 30 percent of a retailer's annual sales, and for some categories like toys, jewelry, and home décor, that figure climbs even higher. A strong holiday season can offset a sluggish summer or a slow back-to-school period. A weak one can undermine an otherwise solid year. The stakes are simply too high for retailers to treat these windows as business as usual.
Seasonal sales aren't just an opportunity — they're a competitive battleground. When consumers know that discounts, promotions, and special offerings are widely available during peak periods, they expect every retailer to participate. Sitting out a major seasonal moment, or showing up with an underwhelming offer, risks ceding customers to competitors who are better prepared. This competitive dynamic is especially intense during the holiday season, when retailers of every size are fighting for the same pool of consumer dollars and brand impressions.
Many consumers try a new retailer for the first time during a seasonal event. A well-placed holiday promotion, a compelling gift card promotion, or a seasonal product that goes viral can introduce a brand to shoppers who would never have encountered it otherwise. These first-time customers, acquired during a high-emotion, high-intent shopping moment, represent significant long-term value if the experience earns their loyalty. Seasonal periods, in this sense, function as one of retail's most cost-effective customer acquisition channels.
Consumer attention is naturally elevated during seasonal moments, making marketing spend more efficient. Shoppers are actively seeking gift ideas, deals, and inspiration — which means they're more receptive to advertising, email campaigns, social media content, and in-store displays than at almost any other time of year. Retailers can reach larger audiences with the same budget, and the message lands in a context where consumers are already primed to act. This amplified marketing efficiency is one reason seasonal campaigns tend to produce some of the strongest return on investment in a retailer's annual calendar.
Gift card strategies that work for the holidays and seasonal sales
Gift cards can make a big difference for retailers, and there are a variety of ways to use them effectively
Having a gift card program is one thing. Building a strategy around it that drives real results during peak seasonal moments is another. The retailers who get the most out of gift cards during the holidays and beyond aren't simply putting them on a rack near the register — they're weaving them into every layer of their seasonal marketing, promotions, and customer experience. Here are the strategies that consistently deliver.
- Bonus Card Promotions: Buy More, Get More. One of the most effective and widely used gift card strategies during the holiday season is the bonus card offer — a structure in which a customer who purchases a gift card of a certain value receives an additional card for themselves. A common format might be "Buy a $50 gift card, get a $10 bonus card free." This approach works on multiple levels simultaneously. It incentivizes higher gift card purchases, drives the original buyer back into the store to redeem their bonus, and creates two separate transactions where there might have otherwise been one. For retailers, bonus card promotions are a proven way to accelerate gift card volume during peak periods while building in a built-in mechanism for post-holiday traffic.
- Limited-Edition Seasonal Designs. The physical gift card itself is a marketing asset, and retailers who treat it that way see measurable returns. Limited-edition holiday designs — cards featuring seasonal imagery, festive packaging, or collectible artwork — elevate the perceived value of the gift and make the card feel more intentional and thoughtful than a generic plastic rectangle. Some retailers release annual holiday card designs that become part of their brand identity, generating anticipation and even collector interest. Premium packaging, including decorative sleeves, gift boxes, or coordinated envelopes, further enhances the presentation and justifies the gift card as a standalone gift rather than a fallback option.
- Digital Gift Cards for Last-Minute Shoppers. The final days before a major holiday represent an enormous sales opportunity that physical retail alone can't fully capture. Digital gift cards — delivered instantly via email or text — have become a critical tool for reaching last-minute shoppers who have run out of time for shipping or in-store visits. Retailers who make digital gift cards easy to find, easy to personalize, and easy to send are capturing a segment of holiday spending that would otherwise go elsewhere or go unmade entirely. The best digital gift card experiences include customizable messages, branded delivery templates, and mobile wallet compatibility, turning a transactional product into something that feels personal and polished.
- Tiered Incentives to Drive Higher Spend. Structured incentive tiers encourage customers to purchase gift cards at higher values by rewarding incremental spending. A tiered offer might look like this: spend $25 and get $5 back, spend $50 and get $15 back, spend $100 and get $25 back. Each tier is designed to pull the shopper up to the next level of commitment, and the perceived value of the reward grows with the spend. This approach not only increases average gift card transaction values but also creates a sense of progression and reward that makes the purchase feel like a smart decision rather than a simple transaction. During the holiday season, when consumers are already primed to spend, tiered incentives can meaningfully shift purchase behavior toward higher denominations.
- Loyalty Program Integration. Retailers with loyalty programs have a natural opportunity to amplify gift card sales by connecting the two systems. Offering bonus loyalty points on gift card purchases during the holiday season gives enrolled members an extra incentive to choose gift cards over other gifting options. Conversely, allowing customers to redeem loyalty points toward gift cards creates another use case that keeps the program active and engaging.
Use PerfectGift corporate to drive your holiday and seasonal sales
Allow the pros at PerfectGift to help with your gift card program
When you’re ready to really increase seasonal and holiday sales, you want to have a gift card company that can help you every step of the way. PerfectGift corporate is your one stop shop to ensure you’re taking the right steps to boost sales with gift cards. No matter how you choose to employ them in your marketing strategy — tiered programs, BOGO, or loyalty program integration — you’re making the right decision to use these around the holidays or seasonal sales time.
PerfectGift corporate makes it easy to design and run gift card campaigns from their client portal, with U.S.-based support available 24/7. There’s no minimum volume, and you can choose to go with digital or physical gift card options. You also have the choice to co-brand a Visa gift card, or opt to give out gift cards to some of the top merchants customers want, like Starbucks, Dunkin’, or Target. All gift cards can be customized, and thanks to our in-house printing facility, there’s no pre-production required and gift cards can be approved and sent out the same day. There are no fees and the funds never expire, ensuring your customers can feel free to use the gift card whenever they see fit.
Will you start to leverage gift cards to drive holiday and seasonal sales?
Gift cards have evolved far beyond a simple gifting convenience — they are now a cornerstone of how smart retailers approach holiday and seasonal sales. When backed by intentional strategy, they generate immediate revenue, attract new customers, smooth post-season slumps, and build the kind of brand loyalty that outlasts any single shopping occasion.
The retailers who win with gift cards aren't leaving them to sell themselves. They're designing seasonal promotions around them, integrating them into loyalty programs, meeting last-minute shoppers with seamless digital options, and following up long after the holiday wrapping is gone. In a retail landscape where every margin point matters and consumer attention is fiercely contested, a well-executed gift card strategy isn't a nice-to-have — it's a competitive advantage hiding in plain sight.
