How administrators can compare unique merchants, locations and supplier coverage without being fooled by inflated totals.
Reward providers often promote “Thousands of options, largest catalog in the industry.”
Repeat that across a few hundred brands and a reward and incentive provider can advertise an impressive total without adding a single new choice.
Those claims may be technically accurate, but no two reward providers measures the same thing. The useful question is how many distinct merchants the recipients can actually choose from.
Unique merchants · Redeemable locations · Supplier resilience
Both measures are useful. Combining them produces a misleading headline. Supplier relationships should be reported as a third measure because they reveal resilience, not additional recipient choice.
A credible comparison separates the metrics that describe choice, convenience and continuity. Each answers a different administrator question.
Count each distinct merchant brand once after consolidating denominations, formats, language and currency variants, spelling differences and duplicate supplier records.
Measures recipient choice →
Report the storefronts or participating locations where a reward can be used. A brand with 2,000 stores internationally still represents one merchant choice—not 2,000 merchants.
Measures convenience →
Record every dependable direct or aggregator source that can fulfill a merchant. Overlap can provide a backup route during inventory interruptions, outages or product removals.
Measures continuity →
Compare the capabilities that matter most to program administrators—not inflated reward-option totals.
Audited unique merchant brands
Countries and regions
Unclaimed value returned on Pay as You Go
U.S. and international options
4,049, audited
1,541 audited
936 audited
1,577 audited
Typically two or fewer locations
129,490+ with ZIP-code search
No comparable network promoted
No comparable network promoted
No comparable network promoted
200+ countries and regions
80+ local gift-card markets; prepaid in 200+
40+ local markets; prepaid in 150+
200+ using gift cards, prepaid cards, and payments
Single Select or MultiSelect—recipients can combine options
Single Select or MultiSelect—recipients can combine options
Primarily one selection
Single Select or MultiSelect—recipients can combine options
Gift cards, payments, prepaid cards, merchandise, charities, and branded SWAG
Gift cards, prepaid cards, payouts, and donations
Gift cards, prepaid cards, payouts, and charities
Gift cards, prepaid cards, payments, and charities
100% automatically returned on Pay as You Go
75% returned through Promo Link
25% returned by default on promotional rewards
No comparable automatic-expiration refund
Included on every plan with custom timing and design
Available through Promo Link – limited
Not listed as a standard feature
Not listed as a standard feature
Real-time delivery and project claim rates
Order and reward reporting
Tracking and reporting
Order and spending dashboard
Sent, delivered, viewed, claimed, expired, revoked, and returned
Sent and redeemed
Sent and redeemed
Sent and redeemed
Yes—sender-controlled message and call to action
Not publicly documented
Not publicly documented
Not publicly documented
Email, SMS, Microsoft Teams, API, and exported links
Email, SMS, and links
Email and API/link delivery
Email, SMS, and links
API, Zapier, SurveyMonkey, Teams, Hubspot, Salesforce, Qualtrics, and more
API, Zapier, and Salesforce
API
API, Zapier, SurveyMonkey, and HubSpot
Free Delivery or refundable Pay as You Go; no subscription or seat fees
Free portal; Promo Link adds $0.25 and retains 25% of breakage
Retains 75% of default promotional breakage
Retains 100% of default promotional breakage
¹ Unique merchant counts use the same standard across platforms: each merchant brand is counted once worldwide, while country, currency, and denomination variants are removed. Prepaid cards, transfers, charities, and proprietary choice products are excluded.
Comparison based on audited catalog data and publicly available platform information as of August 2026. Product availability and features may change.
With 4,049 audited merchant brands, 129,000+ local options, MultiSelect, automated reminders, and 100% return of unclaimed funds, TruCentive goes beyond simply sending rewards.
Denominations, formats, regions, locations and supplier overlap can turn one merchant into many apparent reward options. A defensible count normalizes the catalog before making a claim.
A $10, $25 and $50 card from one coffee chain may also appear in digital and physical formats, in English and French, and from two aggregators. The database can show eight products while the recipient sees one merchant brand.
Location coverage answers whether a recipient can find somewhere nearby to spend a reward. Merchant coverage answers how many distinct brands and experiences the recipient can choose. Do not combine the two.
One provider may reach more storefronts through a national chain or multi-merchant dining product. Another may offer Starbucks, Dunkin’, Peet’s, Tim Hortons, Caribou and independent cafés. The second catalog can offer more meaningful choice even with fewer locations.
Suppliers often carry the same brands with slight differences in descriptions, bundled products, and card images, so adding their totals exaggerates choice. Deduplicate within each source, then compare names, descriptions, images, country and currency variations across sources.
“Amazon,” “Amazon.com,” “Amazon US” and “Amazon Gift Card” represent the same merchant. Two similarly named regional businesses may be unrelated. Product descriptions, redemption terms, geography and imagery help resolve likely matches.
Ask how many unique brands remain after denominations and duplicate products are removed. Confirm whether language, currency and regional naming variations are counted separately.
Check whether individual locations are included in the merchant total. Request merchant availability by country and major category so breadth and depth are visible.
Identify which merchants are sourced directly and which come through aggregators. Ask how many suppliers contribute and which important merchants have dependable backup sources.
Find out how often counts are refreshed and likely matches are manually reviewed. Catalogs change with merchants, countries and supplier agreements, so every total is a point-in-time analysis.
The strongest sourcing model combines direct merchant relationships with multiple aggregators: better economics and product knowledge, broader geographic reach and alternative supply paths.
The largest catalog is not necessarily the one with the most rows, denominations or storefronts. It is the one that provides the broadest set of distinct, relevant and reliably deliverable merchant choices.
Administrators do not need providers to stop reporting products or locations. They need those figures presented honestly and separately.
Unique merchants measure choice →
Locations measure convenience · Supplier relationships measure resilience · Honest reporting separates all three
