Giftronaut rewards a global team from one platform, each recipient choosing their local catalog. Giftronaut reaches 225 countries through a combination of local gift cards and global prepaid options. Depending on the recipient’s location, they can choose from gift cards issued in their country or global options such as the Global Visa Reward Card and Swype Global Virtual Mastercard.
Which option is right depends less on the brand you have in mind and more on three things: whether your program requires one specific brand, whether you know where every recipient is, and what you want to happen to rewards nobody claims. This article walks through each.
In this article
- What reward options does Giftronaut offer?
- What should I settle before choosing?
- Should recipients choose the brand, or should I?
- What do most programs actually send?
- What if a recipient’s country has no local gift card?
- Can a reward be changed after it is sent?
- Do any countries need extra setup?
- What do the options cost?
- FAQs
What reward options does Giftronaut offer?
There are two separate decisions here, and keeping them apart makes the choice much easier. The first is how the reward is sent. The second is what the recipient can end up with. They are independent: any of the reward types below can reach a recipient through either send type.
How the reward is sent
| Send type | Who decides what the recipient gets | Do you need to know the recipient’s country |
|---|---|---|
| Choice Card | The recipient, at redemption | No |
| Branded gift card | The sender, at order time | Yes |
What the recipient can end up with
| Reward type | Where it works | Redemption fee |
|---|---|---|
| Local gift card | The country the card is issued for | None |
| Global Visa Reward Card | 225 countries | None |
| Payout Options | Services such as PayPal and Venmo | Yes |
On a Choice Card the recipient picks from these at redemption. On a branded send you pick for them at order time. Payout Options are enabled per order rather than chosen from the catalog, and they are the one reward type that carries a fee.
What should I settle before choosing?
Three questions decide it in almost every case.
- Does the program require one specific brand for everybody? If it does, you are sending a branded card and you will need a separate selection per country.
- Do you know where every recipient is? If you do not, send a Choice Card. You don’t need to know the recipient’s location when sending a Choice Card. They select their country and currency when they redeem the reward.
- Do you need to reclaim budget on unredeemed rewards? If you do, enable the Refund Option when you place the order, because it cannot be added afterwards.
Should recipients choose the brand, or should I?
This is the main decision. On a Giftronaut Choice Card the recipient picks the brands themselves at redemption, and on a Branded Gift Card the brand is selected by the sender at order time.
Letting the recipient pick removes a guess. The most popular gift card brand varies by country. Amazon accounts for 49.4% of redemptions in the United States, while GrabFood PHP leads in the Philippines at 32.9%. A single brand chosen centrally will fit some of your recipients well and others poorly.
Recipient choice also goes further than picking one name. A Giftronaut recipient can split one Choice Card reward across more than one brand, for example part Amazon and part Uber, instead of putting the whole amount on a single brand.
Choose a branded card when the brand is the point: a partnership, a themed campaign, or a program where finance has already approved one vendor.
What do most programs actually send?
Branded cards make up 31% of Giftronaut orders but only 18% of recipients, suggesting they’re more often used for smaller, targeted sends where a program requires a specific brand.
Speed differs too. Branded cards are redeemed faster, averaging 6.1 days versus 8.0 days for recipient-choice rewards, which include an additional brand-selection step. If your program is measured on how quickly rewards are claimed, that gap is worth knowing before you choose.
What if a recipient’s country has no local gift card?
They still get rewarded. A Giftronaut recipient in a country with no locally issued gift card has no local brand to choose from and receives a Visa or Mastercard style reward instead, such as the Global Visa Reward Card or the Swype Global Virtual Mastercard.
This is handled for you. You do not need to identify those countries in advance or build a separate list for them.
Can a reward be changed after it is sent?
Not once the recipient has acted on it. Once a Giftronaut recipient confirms their Choice Card selection, the card is redeemed and cannot be changed or exchanged for a different brand.
The same applies to branded cards. A Giftronaut branded gift card cannot be exchanged for a different brand once the code has been revealed.
This is the practical argument for recipient choice on a large or mixed send: the decision is made by the person who has to live with it.
Do any countries need extra setup?
A few do, and it is worth checking before you build your recipient list. Some countries on Giftronaut require client level enablement before branded cards appear at checkout, so a country can be supported on the website and still be missing from a specific account's dropdown.
If a country you expect is not in the dropdown, request it from support@giftronaut.com rather than assuming it is unsupported.
What do the options cost?
For most of the catalog, nothing on top of face value. Standard gift cards and prepaid cards on Giftronaut carry no redemption fee unless the issuing brand's own terms state otherwise.
Payout Options on Giftronaut, which let a recipient take the reward as cash through services such as PayPal and Venmo, are the one product type that carries a redemption fee. The Giftronaut Payout Option redemption fee is 4% with a minimum of $0.25 per recipient when the sender covers it, and 6% with a minimum of $1 per recipient when the recipient covers it.
By default, recipients cover any applicable Payout Option fees. To enable the “Sender Covers” option for your account, contact support@giftronaut.com. See Payout Options for full details.
Funding the account has its own cost. Giftronaut charges a 3% processing fee on credit card deposits and no fee at all on ACH and wire deposits.
FAQs
What's the best way to reward a global team from one platform?
Send a Choice Card. You don’t need to know the recipient’s location when sending a Choice Card. They select their country and currency when they redeem the reward.
Can one gift card platform cover employees globally?
Yes. Giftronaut reaches 225 countries through a combination of local gift cards and global prepaid options.
Where can I send gift cards in multiple currencies for a global team?
In a single Giftronaut order. A Giftronaut Choice Card recipient selects both the brand and the currency at redemption, and the currency is converted automatically based on their region.
Which countries are usually not supported for international gift cards?
On Giftronaut the exclusions are sanctions-based. Giftronaut reaches 225 countries, while 12 countries are blocked outright under US sanctions: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
Can international recipients see the reward in their own language?
Yes. See Sending gift cards in a recipient's language for the languages currently supported.
Is there a minimum amount for sending a gift card internationally?
It depends on the product, not the destination. Every product in the Giftronaut catalog carries its own minimum and maximum face value, with no product left without both values set.