On the surface, the corporate incentive and rewards market looks straightforward. Dig down a little and it is a seriously flawed bazaar. Let’s take a look at incentive and reward mysteries.
Gift cards, rewards and incentives are an important component of recognition and appreciation programs for organizations.
In the not-too-distant past we’d just buy Starbucks or other gift cards, and then manually distribute them to worthy recipients. That isn’t an efficient or scalable model.
Incentive companies were created so that organizations wouldn’t have to handle the logistics of buying gifts cards and distributing them.
It didn’t take long to realize how much waste existed in gift cards and see the profit potential in concealing what’s happening behind the scenes.
Now there are dozens and dozens of companies vying for your gift card, incentive and rewards business. Many of them advance the fiction that they are “no cost” to you!
But most incentive and rewards programs on the marketplace are not cost-effective and strip value from your reward budget. That leaves you less to devote to the very people who deserve the gift.
The incentive and reward industry developed around a broken financial model that isn’t beneficial to the organizations giving the awards. It’s a model that gambles on the hope that your gifts may never be successfully redeemed.
Far too much of the value of gift cards ends up in the coffers of the companies that sell the programs, and not in the gift cards and rewards that recipients get. There is little transparency as to what’s being paid for versus what’s being delivered. The model isn’t conducive to a good user experience for reward recipients.
A lot of value is just lost.
You want to reach 100% redemption. You want your program to be a complete success.
The gift card industry is hoping you don’t reach everyone you intend and that your program has breakage.
Gift card programs come with a lot of variety and options, but also with a lot of terms and conditions, expiration dates and potential areas that can strip value from your programs.
When incentive companies sell you gift cards, they receive the full value of the cards regardless of whether the card is ever redeemed. You pay full price, no matter if the gift is ever successfully redeemed.
Incentive companies know that redemptions don’t reach anywhere near 100%. They get to bank the unredeemed value, not you.
With traditional non-refundable incentive deliveries, every unclaimed or forgotten reward is money left on the table—and it happens more often than you think. According to Paytronix, only 68% of gift cards are ever claimed, meaning over 30% of your budget could simply disappear. TruCentive changes that. Our platform lets you set a specific expiration window for your deliveries—whether it’s days, weeks, or months—so unused rewards automatically expire after your desired timeframe. When they do, the funds return to your account, ready to be reinvested into new campaigns. It’s a smarter way to protect your budget while still delivering an exceptional recipient experience.
Believe it or not, in many states and countries, cards can have expiration dates. When that date passes, the card is no longer redeemable.
All U.S. states adhere to the federal rule that gift cards cannot expire for at least 5 years (either from the date of purchase or the last time funds were loaded)
Several states go further, completely prohibiting the expiration of gift cards. According to authoritative legal analysis, at least 10 states fall into this category :
Most incentive companies limit your ability to track deliveries for a reason: unclaimed deliveries are where they make their money. The less you know about your breakage—your unclaimed or unused gifts—the better it is for them. But for you, it’s not so great to discover you’re effectively paying 30% more than you thought to deliver rewards, gifts, and incentives.
Most incentive companies don’t want you sending reminders to claim gifts. Why? Because every unclaimed delivery is pure profit for them. If participants are reminded, redemption rates go up—and their breakage revenue goes down. That’s why many platforms quietly skip this feature, even though it could save you from losing 20–30% of your budget to unclaimed rewards.
Incentive companies profit from the unredeemed cards.
When digital reward redemption instructions go astray—or when cards are misplaced—the ability to resend them, update delivery emails, or change phone numbers becomes critical. Without these tools, the value is often lost for good… and any unclaimed funds go right back to the incentive company.
Incentive companies tend to offer the options that make them the most money—not the ones that get your rewards redeemed. Limiting recipients to a single type of gift card lowers the chances they’ll actually use it. If they can’t find something they want, they delay… or forget entirely. That unredeemed value becomes pure profit for the incentive provider and erodes the impact of your program.
A CreditCards.com survey found that 52% of millennials and 51% of Gen Z have at least one unused gift card.
The fix? Give recipients real choice. A broad selection ensures they find something they value—boosting redemption rates and ensuring your rewards actually reward.
It isn’t always easy to redeem a merchandise card at full face value. Where does the unused money go if the recipient doesn’t capture it when they redeem the award? This incentive and reward mystery means the unused value usually goes to the card or incentive company. That’s all money lost.
Incentive companies often steer you toward their “recommended” merchandise—not because it’s the best fit for your recipients, but because it’s the best deal for them. They buy select items in bulk at steep discounts, then resell them to you at inflated prices. Add in padded shipping and handling fees, and the true cost of your reward can be far higher than it looks on paper. Don’t think your recipients don’t notice—they know the real value of your options. Those hidden markups mean you’re paying more while your recipients get less, and the incentive company pockets the difference.
What happens when you send merchandise gift options that cost more than the award value? Recipients instantly know that someone else got a bigger reward—and that can lead to frustration, hesitation, or even resentment. When people can’t get what they really want, they may delay redeeming or skip it entirely. A better approach is to show only the items they can get with their award value. That way, the experience stays positive, redemption rates stay high, and you only pay for what’s actually selected.
Too often, incentive company deliveries look more like advertisements for their brand than gifts from yours. They use your budget—and your goodwill—as a vehicle to promote their service, leaving your recognition effort in the background. Every email, SMS, redemption page, and reminder should reflect your brand, your message, and the relationship you’re building—not theirs. Generic, unbranded communications dilute the value of the gift and miss the chance to strengthen your connection with the recipient. You’re the one recognizing and rewarding them—make sure they know it came from you.
Cards and online gifts are convenient. They can reduce much of the guesswork involved in choosing the right incentive for employees and customers by providing recipients with a selection from a vast number of choices.
Don’t get fooled by common incentive and reward mysteries.
Make sure you maximize the value you get from your good deeds.
TruCentive was founded to simplify reward delivery and incentive fulfillment.
A design session is the perfect way to show you how TruCentive can help you realize your rewards, gifts, or payout goals in a real-world scenario, building a complete project with everything from your logo, design options, and messaging to incentive selection, deliveries, and reminders.
When we’re done, you’ll:
If you’re ready to start designing on your own, sign up and start sending samples. There’s no credit card required to start exploring your creative side!
Use powerful features to quickly create professional-looking incentive deliveries
With a TruCentive subscription, you get technical support for all your team members so you can get back to your project fast
Eliminate the time and frustration managing the procurement, delivery, and management of your rewards and incentives deliveries
