The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Gifting in 2024

Cassy Aite
November 7, 2023
The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Gifting in 2024 | Hoppier


Every now and then, you'll want to say thank you to an employee or congratulate a client on their success. Corporate gifting is the perfect way to do that.

In this guide, we'll take you through the basics of corporate gifting, tell you what you need to know about the tax implications, and share our recommendations on the best way to manage your corporate gifts in 2024.

What Is Corporate Gifting?

Happy woman in a yellow shirt holding a small gift wrapped with a red bow

Corporate gifting is the practice of sending a physical gift or virtual gift from your business to a client, customer, employee, vendor, or prospect. You might also consider gifting the families of those people for an added personal touch.

The intent behind corporate gifting varies, but other popular reasons to send them are:

  • Birthday presents
  • Holiday gifts and Christmas gifts
  • Personal achievements like growing a family
  • Professional achievements like gaining a new qualification
  • Client appreciation gifts
  • Welcome gifts for becoming a new client or employee
  • Anniversary gifts for time spent as an employee or client

Corporate gifts don't have to be big or grand. They can be as simple as a gift basket to welcome a vendor to your business family or a Hoppier card with funds for an employee’s birthday.

Why Corporate Gifting Is Great for Business

Corporate gifts are a fun way to welcome, celebrate, and give thanks to the people who help your business thrive. But they're also beneficial to your business strategy.

Build Relationships With Clients

Business owners have plenty of ways to impress clients and build long-lasting business relationships. Offer an amazing product or service, provide high-quality customer service, use automation integrations to boost profits and efficiency, or have a smart approach to pricing.

However, maintaining a business relationship can often lie outside of operations. Personal relationships forge even stronger bonds between businesses and clients, employees, and others — that’s what makes corporate gifting or employee gifting a savvy relationship booster.

Nevertheless, your clients don't want to be a number on a spreadsheet. They want to feel valued, appreciated, and revered. Thoughtful corporate gifting can create that experience in many ways. For example, you could use gift-giving to acknowledge your client's anniversary with your business or to congratulate them when they win an award or achieve a business milestone.

Encourage Prospects to Become Customers

You can also send corporate gift boxes to prospects who aren't yet customers. This is an awesome introduction to the client relationship, and it shows potential clients that you're the right company for the job — whatever it may be.

Sending corporate gifts can help you stand out in the minds of key decision-makers. If you follow up the first meeting with a thoughtful, personalized, and curated gift, you're likely to bring a smile to that person's face — and stick in their mind when they require your services again.

Motivate and Inspire Your Team

Corporate gifting isn't just for your clients. The idea extends to your staff as well. Your employees are your most valuable asset, so take care of them with a generous and heartfelt approach to corporate gifting for all their hard work.

Your employees are like your business family. They want to work where they're appreciated and feel at home. As an employer, you also reap the benefits of an engaged workforce — increasing employee retention and productivity. According to a study, 81% of employees were more likely to work harder for an employer or manager who appreciated their efforts.

Set up a corporate gifting strategy to send thoughtful gifts to employees during key moments like birthdays and corporate anniversaries or times when they've done an amazing job on a project.

But you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on corporate gifting companies or expensive gifting services. Even in a small company, that can add up quickly.

An affordable way to do corporate gifting for employees at scale is through Hoppier virtual gift cards. You can even plan for large orders or staff expansion and buy virtual bulk gift cards — giving you a one-stop shopping option for all your corporate and employee gifting needs.

Valuable Insights Into Corporate Gifting Programs

Man in a beanie dancing in front of a purple background

The idea of corporate gifting is straightforward for the most part, but you should still have a basic understanding of the policies, taxes, and limitations of it. Before you send corporate gifts to everyone you know, consider a few things.

Gifting Strategies and Policies

Though it’s a thoughtful gesture, creating personalized gifts for every client, vendor, and team member is time-consuming and expensive. To avoid this hassle and a potential budget blowout, an overall strategy and policy are integral. They allow you to create similar experiences for all clients and team members and simplify the gifting process as well.

Set a clear policy that outlines your business's approach to corporate gifting. Think about your budget per gift, the types of gifts you'll send, when you'll send them, and how you can align corporate gifting with your values.

For example, if you're hot on sustainability then an e-gift like a digital gift card is the perfect option. Instead of mailing physical products, you can send a virtual gift without worrying about emissions or your carbon footprint.

You'll also want to set a policy on whether your employees can accept personal gifts from contacts at other companies or not. If you send corporate gifts, chances are your teams will receive them too. Set ground rules whether that's OK or not, and whether they need to inform you of any gifts received.

Tax Implications

On occasion, sending corporate gifts is tax deductible, depending on the value and type of gift.

The IRS states that organizations can deduct gifts of up to $25 for each individual per tax year. This applies to gifts given directly to an employee or indirectly — those given to the family of an employee or to a client.

So if you send your employee a $65 gift basket to celebrate a personal milestone, $25 is tax deductible. Incidental expenses like engraving can be deducted beyond this $25 figure — but only if they don't significantly enhance the value of the item.

Some types of gifts work differently for tax purposes. For example, gift cards are fully tax deductible because they're classed as taxable income — just the same as cash. Unfortunately, you'll need to withhold taxes from your employees for these.

Company swag is also tax deductible if it costs under $4, has your company name engraved on it, or is something you'd normally distribute — like pens.

You should keep records and receipts of any corporate gifts you send and the business purpose for sending the gift — just in case Uncle Sam wants to know.

Restrictions for Clients

While many organizations allow their employees to accept corporate gifts, some don't. Government employees or people in positions of power may be unable to accept your gift — no matter how much it's appreciated.

If you're sending gifts of high value, check with your client's company first to ensure they're able to accept them. If you want to send surprise gifts to clients in the future, include a question in your welcome process to ask if they can accept gifts so you have them on file for later.

Fun Corporate Gift Ideas

Now that we've covered the basics, let's examine some corporate gifting options. From treats to luxuries to health and wellness products, these business gifts are sure to wow your client, employee, vendor, or associate.

1. Luxury Gift Basket

Luxury gift baskets have long been a popular corporate gift idea. They combine that high-quality feel with the freedom to curate a personalized experience filled with the recipient's favorite items, gift vouchers, or products from your local area. Hampers can get expensive though, so they're best reserved for annual gifts or as a welcome gift for a VIP client.

2. Baked Goods

A delicious delivery of brownies, cookies, or cake can brighten a client's or employee's business day. Baked good boxes sent by mail have risen in popularity as a corporate gift, as they're easy to order and sent directly to your team or clients. If you're sending cookies, you could also have them baked and emblazoned with your corporate logo.

3. Wellness Box

With the rise in remote work popularity, wellness gift boxes have become popular corporate gifts. Inside you'll find items to help your giftee focus, find balance, and work on their wellness — like tea, positivity cards, a tumbler, or a candle.

4. Customized Snack Box

A customized snack box is an indulgent and delicious client welcome gift or surprise gift for your teams. Themes add a fun element to the gift to boot. For instance, a globetrotting snack box lets your employees eat their way around the world one treat at a time. Or you could ask your gift recipients for their preferences and build custom gift boxes based on these.

If you want to get started, Caroo helps you build your own snack box with custom swaps to include company swag, luxury items, healthy snacks, and personalized messages for a delicious corporate gift experience.

5. Personalized Stationery

Personalized gifts have their rightful place in corporate gifting, including stationery. It’s a thoughtful and unique gift that looks downright snazzy. Many gifting companies will create a series of notebooks, pens, or pencils that are personalized with your client's business or personal name.

Hoppier: The Ultimate Corporate Gifting Solution

Person holding a present in front of their computer

The trouble with corporate gifting options is that they lack flexibility and simple management. You need to find the perfect supplier, put in a request, and organize all the addresses — an especially tall order if you have a remote or fully distributed team.

Corporate gifting should be easy — which is why we've created Hoppier — a digital corporate gifting platform that lets you treat clients, partners, and employees wherever they are.

If you want a smart, organized, and thoughtful way to send corporate gifts, Hoppier could be the ideal partner for your gifting needs. With our digital gift cards, there's no need to worry about most of the gifting program process — you can focus on getting your thank you or congratulations gift out there right away.

Hoppier cards are the perfect gift for most corporate gifting moments — like birthdays, milestones, and gratitude gifts. They're great for virtual events too, which means you can manage all your client gifting in one place.

Set Up a Program

Setting up a program within Hoppier is quick and painless. All you need to do is create an account or log in, and then you’ll have the option to create a new program. Fill in the essential details, like your program name, and then jump into customization.

Customize your Hoppier cards with your company logo and colors to continue your branding through your corporate gifting program. You can also add a stipend icon to your program, which helps you sort them in your dashboard.

Decide on a Gift Balance and Accepted Vendors

After customizing your card, set a program balance per gift recipient. Choose a dollar amount, and decide whether it’s a one-off gift or a recurring gift — like an anniversary gift. If you want, you can also specify a time period when the balance can be spent.

Hoppier also adds an element of savings to the traditional gift card equation. If your gift recipient doesn’t use their full balance, it doesn’t get lost. After the expiration of the virtual gift card, you recoup the unspent funds and bring them back into your marketing budget for future corporate gifting.

In addition to setting a gift balance, you can limit your gift recipients’ choice of stores. The gift selection is quite diverse though and includes options for food, wellness, home products, and entertainment. Alternatively, you can give them access to all of our vendors if you want your giftee to use their digital card anywhere it’s accepted.

Send Your Invitations

Once you’re satisfied with your corporate gifting program, send gifts to your employees, clients, or prospects with ease. All you need to do here is to use our template to create and upload a CSV file with recipients' email addresses. From here, you can decide when to send the invite with the digital card — no fussy checkouts or profile assists.

Send the Best Corporate Gifts to Your Team and Clients

Successful corporate gifting is all about sending thoughtful presents at the right time to the right people. Create a gifting strategy that lets your employees, clients, and vendors feel appreciated and go the extra mile to stand out in their minds with customized gifts.

Hoppier Corporate Gifting e-card

If you're ready to simplify your corporate gifting program and create a fun experience for your recipients, book a free demo with our team. We'll take you through all the different ways you can use Hoppier to send corporate gifts so you can mark the personal and professional moments in your clients' and employees' lives.

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