Buying gift cards in bulk can save you hassle (and even money) compared to going to a store to pick them up yourself.
If you regularly use gift cards for things like employee rewards, marketing promos, or research participant incentives, then you have a few different options for buying batches of them. You can buy directly from retailers or through third-party distributors, but the easiest way to buy gift cards in bulk is through a specialized platform like Tremendous.
Key takeaways
Where you buy determines what you can send. A retailer typically limits you to its own cards, while a gift card platform lets each recipient choose from a full catalog and handles delivery and tracking in one place.
Most bulk gift card vendors don't charge platform fees or set order minimums, so you pay face value for what you send. Open-loop prepaid cards, like Visa or American Express, usually carry an activation fee on top.
Gift cards given to employees count as taxable compensation in the U.S., no matter how small the amount. Rewards for non-employees may trigger 1099-MISC reporting once one person receives $2,000 or more in a calendar year.
Digital delivery scales better than physical cards for large or international sends. And with the right platform, recipients can pick the rewards they actually want.
Tremendous sends bulk gift cards to recipients in 200+ countries and regions, with 2,500+ reward options and no subscription or platform fees.
What are the benefits of buying gift cards in bulk?
The main benefit is time. Buying a few cards at a time works fine until it doesn't. Once you're sending to 50 people instead of five, the manual work starts to outweigh the costs you're saving.
One bulk order replaces dozens of individual purchases, and a platform that handles delivery and tracking removes the manual admin and spreadsheet work that goes with them. Fewer orders means fewer approval cycles, fewer receipts to reconcile, and one line item instead of 40.
Bulk buying can also lower your per-reward cost, though the savings are usually smaller than you'd expect. Most of them come from avoiding per-card purchase fees rather than from volume discounts. Ordering in batches also makes your program easier to plan around. When you know your recognition cycles, campaign launches, or study fielding dates in advance, you can budget for a whole quarter instead of approving one-off reward orders when people reach a milestone.
6 simple steps for buying bulk gift cards
If you're just getting started using gift cards as incentives, follow these six steps to set up your bulk gift card program and start sending out rewards.
1. Define your use case and plan your budget
Before you place an order, get clear on why you're buying gift cards and how much you’re able to spend.
For example, if you run your company’s employee recognition program, define specific moments when you’ll award gift cards. This could include work anniversaries, birthdays, or performance milestones.
Use these planned payout moments, along with the number of employees you have, to figure out how much you can afford to spend per reward. Our research shows that at least $25 is ideal for employee recognition incentives.
Other use cases for gift card incentives include customer appreciation, survey incentives, referral rewards, and research participant payouts. If you already have an established budget for your program, then how many cards you’ll need becomes a matter of simple math.
2. Research and compare bulk gift card providers
If you opt to buy bulk gift cards through a third-party vendor, look for trusted companies that offer the cards you want. You can also buy through a specific retailer, like Amazon, but it will limit your recipients’ reward options and might make it difficult to send incentives to people outside the U.S. Fee structures vary widely between third-party vendors, so check what a provider charges before you commit.
As you research vendor and platform options, look for key features, including:
Multiple gift card options available. Does the solution offer both digital gift cards as well as physical? Digital delivery is faster, easier to scale, and ideal for remote teams or customers. Physical cards may work better for in-person events.
Reward variety and flexibility. Can recipients choose their own gift cards, or do you have to select the reward for them? Can you send cards internationally if needed? Recipients love having the ability to choose.
Delivery methods. Does the platform support email, SMS, downloadable links, or mail? Digital delivery is the most important here because it offers instant rewards. Physical cards can be useful sometimes, but they take much longer to arrive.
Custom branding. Can you add your company’s logo or a custom message?
Security and compliance. Does the platform follow all relevant privacy regulations and current U.S. state laws? Does it offer fraud prevention tools and secure redemption processes (e.g., one-time links or identity verification)?
If you’re planning to mostly send digital gift cards, choose a provider that makes it easy to upload recipients and automate delivery, either through a dashboard or an API.
Need a good starting point? Here’s an overview of how the top bulk gift card providers line up.
| Provider | # of available rewards | Countries and regions | Delivery methods | Platform fees | Reward fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tremendous | 2,500+ | 200+ | Email, SMS, links, physical cards via mail, API | None, no minimums | Face value; 4% to 6% on monetary options |
| Giftbit | 100+ | 40+ | Email, SMS, links, physical cards via mail, API | None, no minimums | Face value; fees on select prepaid cards |
| Tango | 1,500+ | 80+ | Email, API, physical cards via mail | None, no minimums | Face value; physical card and cancellation fees |
| American Express | American Express only | U.S. | Email, physical cards via mail | None | About $3.95 per card, plus shipping |
In short, the three gift card platforms differ mainly on catalog size and delivery options. American Express is the only provider here that charges a per-card purchase fee and limits recipients to a single brand.
3. Choose card types
Decide whether you're sending digital cards, physical cards, or both, then pick between open-loop and closed-loop rewards. Open-loop cards like prepaid Visa and Mastercards work at most merchants and make sense when you don't know much about your recipients. Closed-loop cards are tied to a single retailer, which is a better fit when you know the audience well and know where they actually shop.
Letting recipients choose from a catalog sidesteps the decision altogether, since each person selects the card they want.
4. Understand the tax implications
When you’re buying bulk gift cards for employees, there’s a major tax consideration to keep in mind. In the United States, the IRS considers gift cards given to employees by employers as a form of compensation.
No matter how small the amount, these gift cards are subject to income and employment taxes.
If you’re sending bulk gift cards to non-employees, like customers, partners, or research participants, the amounts may fall under 1099-MISC reporting. As of the 2026 tax year, that generally applies once the total value given to one person in a calendar year hits $2,000, up from the longstanding $600 threshold.
A good bulk gift card provider should offer reporting features that help with tracking payouts and collecting tax information as needed.
5. Place your order and plan distribution
Once you’ve picked a bulk gift card provider and figured out which cards to send, it’s time to place an order.
Most platforms, including Tremendous, offer a self-serve option where you can upload a CSV with recipient details to send gift cards in bulk. For larger or ongoing programs, you can use an API to automate reward delivery directly from your internal systems.
If you order bulk gift cards directly through a retailer, the order and delivery process will involve more manual methods, such as spreadsheets and shipping. Delivery methods are also more restricted compared to full-service platforms, which frequently offer multiple delivery options like text message, link, email, and physical delivery.
6. Track delivery and usage
After you’ve sent out your gift cards, there’s a bit more work to do. With your chosen platform, you should be able to monitor key steps of the gift card redemption process. You want a platform that lets you track key metrics:
Your spend activity over time
Which redemption options recipients have chosen
Redemptions by recipient location.
Over time, you’ll start to see patterns in which reward amounts perform the best, which delivery methods get the highest open rates, and which redemption options recipients like most.
Use cases for buying gift cards in bulk
Bulk gift cards work well for any team or company that regularly needs to send rewards and incentives to multiple recipients.
Human resources departments
HR teams frequently use gift cards. They're perfect for employee recognition programs. Birthdays, work anniversaries, and performance milestones all warrant celebration, and what’s better than a gift card?
Bulk gift cards make it easy to reward employees consistently. They're a versatile solution for all sorts of HR initiatives.
Take employee recognition, for example, which is crucial for retention. One study found that employees who feel appropriately recognized are 45% less likely to have turned over two years later.
Gift cards offer the best of both worlds. As shown in one study, employees can view gift cards as "fun money," which encourages people to treat themselves rather than buying mundane things like groceries.
Marketing teams
Marketers use gift cards to promote lead generation, customer acquisition, and brand loyalty programs. And bulk purchasing makes sense for large-scale promotional campaigns.
Rebates and cashback programs that offer gift cards can be powerful marketing tools. Plus, gift cards are an obvious redemption option for loyalty programs, which impact revenue. Effective loyalty programs can boost revenue gained from active program members by 15% to 25% annually.
Referral programs powered by gift card rewards can also be highly effective. Referred customers are 200% more likely to spend than non-referred customers.
Research professionals
Research operations managers use gift cards to fill studies and keep panels engaged. Gift cards are a core incentive type for market research, UX studies, academic research, and medical studies.
A 2023 meta-analysis of 46 randomized controlled trials found that incentives raise survey response rates regardless of what form they take. Money worked best, gift cards and vouchers followed closely, and lottery entries came in last.
When analyzing the impact of incentives on research outcomes, one study found that rewards help attract more diverse participant pools and increase completion rates.
Buying in bulk is what makes that practical at scale. Research teams often field several studies at once, each with its own participant list and timeline, and ordering incentives one at a time doesn't hold up past a few dozen participants.
Class action administrators
Class action administrators handle complex payment distributions. They need reliable, scalable solutions for sending legal disbursements. Bulk gift cards provide an efficient way to handle these payments.
Bulk gift card purchases help class action administrators:
Distribute disbursements quickly and securely
Reduce operational errors
Save on administrative costs
Provide a smooth recipient experience
Fraud is also a real risk at that volume. Administrators tend to favor providers with screening tools and verified redemption to help reduce it.
Can you send bulk gift cards internationally?
Yes, though it depends on the provider. Most retailer gift cards are region-locked, so a card bought in the U.S. is useless to someone shopping in Germany or Japan. Reward platforms get around that with country-specific catalogs, automatic currency conversion, and rewards people recognize in their own market.
That matters for research firms recruiting participants across Europe and Asia, companies recognizing global employees, and consumer brands running rebate campaigns in multiple markets.
International sending is easiest with digital-first options to keep logistics simple. There's no shipping, no customs paperwork, and no need to contract a separate vendor for every market. Physical cards remain an option in some countries, but most global programs run entirely on digital delivery so recipients get their rewards in minutes instead of weeks. Reward availability varies by country, so it's worth checking the catalog for your specific markets before you launch.
How buying bulk gift cards works with Tremendous
Tremendous simplifies the process of bulk gift card purchases, from ordering to distribution. You can choose which gift cards you want to offer, send as many as you need, and easily manage distribution without resorting to manual spreadsheets and shipping. Tremendous also lets you track spend, redemption options, and other analytics.
Plus, with Tremendous, you get:
2,500+ rewards options, including charitable donations and monetary payouts
A free-to-use platform
International reward options in 200+ countries and regions
Customized reward messages and branding
Built-in W-9 and 1099 support
Buying gift cards in bulk for employees, customers, and research participants doesn't have to be complicated. With Tremendous, it's simple.
