The most effective customer gifting strategies start with a clear purpose. Thoughtful gifting can influence customer behavior like increased engagement, repeat purchases and loyalty by creating positive moments that strengthen the relationship between a customer and a brand. In fact, a Forbes State of Customer Service and CX Study found that 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience.
At ITA Group, we recommend starting with the behavior you want to change before selecting the gift. The strongest gifting strategies identify where a thoughtful gesture can influence a specific behavior, then build the message, reward and measurement around that goal. That shift helps gifting become part of a broader customer loyalty strategy rather than a one-time thank-you.
To better understand what goes into a successful gifting strategy, we turned to two ITA Group experts who help organizations create customer experiences that drive results. Matt DeVries, Sr. Manager and Business Strategy Team Lead for Customer Solutions, works with clients to align customer engagement strategies with business objectives. Haley Dubberke, Awards Strategist, assists organizations in designing gifting experiences that feel thoughtful, intentional and memorable. In the Q&A below, they answer some of the questions they hear most often from brands looking to make customer gifting more thoughtful and effective.
How to create a foundation for strategic customer gifting
What are the most effective customer moments to start with when building a gifting strategy?
Matt: Start with the customer moments that have the greatest impact on the relationship and the biggest opportunity to influence future behavior. The most effective moments typically include:
- Customer onboarding
- Milestones and anniversaries
- Renewal and retention opportunities
- Service recovery situations
- Re-engagement efforts
These are the points in the journey where customers form opinions, make decisions or determine the value of their relationship with your brand.
Once those moments are identified, prioritize the ones that are most meaningful to customers and most valuable to the business. The best customer gifting strategies focus on moments where a thoughtful gesture can strengthen loyalty, encourage future engagement or improve customer retention. Use customer data and performance analytics to determine where gifting can have the greatest impact and return on your investment.
How can brands ensure gifting supports larger customer loyalty, retention or acquisition goals?
Matt: Brands should start with the specific business outcome(s) they are trying to influence. The most successful programs treat gifting as a strategic behavior-change tool that is aligned to a broader customer lifecycle strategy. Key strategic considerations when designing a gifting solution should include:
- Aligning gifts to key customer moments in the journey
- Connecting gifts to desired behavioral outcomes
- Personalizing experiences driven by customer data
- Measuring of outcomes beyond gift fulfillment
How should brands determine which customer audiences receive a gift?
Matt: A strategic gifting program shouldn’t be offered to every customer equally. The most effective brands identify audiences where a gifting touchpoint is most likely to influence a meaningful business outcome, whether that's accelerating onboarding, increasing retention, driving advocacy or re-engaging at-risk customers.
Start by evaluating audiences through three lenses.
1. Business value
Prioritize customer segments that have the greatest potential impact on revenue, profitability and long-term potential.
Examples include:
- High-value customers
- Newly acquired customers with strong lifetime value potential
- Customers nearing a renewal decision
- Customers who are expanding into additional products or services
2. Behavioral opportunity
Look for audiences where a gift can influence a specific behavior you want to encourage.
Examples include:
- Completing onboarding activities
- Participating in a loyalty program
- Making a second purchase
- Providing referrals or reviews
- Re-engaging after a period of inactivity
3. Emotional significance
Some customer moments carry a higher emotional weight and create a disproportionate opportunity to strengthen the relationship.
Examples include:
- Anniversaries and milestones
- Major purchases
- Service recovery situations
- Unexpected "thank you" moments
From ITA Group’s perspective, customer gifting should be intentionally selective. A smaller, better-targeted program tied to high-value moments will often create more business value than a broad program that treats every customer the same.
How to maximize the value of every gift
What role does personalization play in making gifting more effective?
Matt: Personalization is what transforms a gift from a simple transaction into a meaningful customer experience. When a gift reflects a customer's preferences, behaviors, history and relationship with the brand, it feels more relevant, thoughtful and memorable. This increases the likelihood that the gift will strengthen the relationship and influence future behaviors.
Personalization also helps brands deliver the right experience to the right customer at the right time. Rather than sending the same gift to everyone, brands can tailor gifts based on customer value, lifecycle stage, individual interests, and more. This makes every interaction more impactful, leading to a stronger emotional connection with your customers.
Haley: Personalization doesn’t always require selecting a specific item for each recipient. In many cases, giving customers meaningful choice creates a more personalized experience than a brand choosing a gift on their behalf. The most effective gifting experiences balance customer choice with thoughtful curation, ensuring recipients receive options that feel relevant rather than overwhelming. Personalization at scale is often achieved through targeted reward assortments, branded experiences and localized offerings rather than one-to-one gift selection.
Related: 4 personalization strategies that drive engagement in customer loyalty programs
Important considerations for building a customer gifting program
What are the most common mistakes brands make when launching customer gifting programs?
Matt: One of the biggest mistakes brands make is starting with the gift, instead of the objective and surrounding experience. The most successful programs deliver relevant and personalized gifts during meaningful customer moments, supported by thoughtful messaging that reinforces the intent behind the gesture.
Haley: From an awards and fulfillment perspective, one of the biggest mistakes brands make is assuming they know what recipients want instead of designing experiences around customer preference. A gift that feels meaningful to one audience may have little relevance to another, which is why choice-based experiences often outperform a one-size-fits-all approach.
What should brands measure to understand whether gifting is driving meaningful business outcomes?
Matt: The most important metrics are the ones tied to the business objective the gifting program was designed to influence. Rather than focusing only on operational metrics like gift delivery or redemption rates, brands should measure whether gifting is changing customer behavior and improving business results.
For example:
- If the goal is customer acquisition, measure member penetration and conversion rates, enrollment/onboarding completion and second-purchase rates.
- If the goal is retention, measure renewal rates, transaction frequency, and customer churn vs. acquisition.
- If the goal is loyalty, measure engagement, program participation, advocacy, referrals and customer lifetime value.
Related: 8 customer loyalty programs best practices for stronger engagement
What’s next for customer gifting?
What are the latest trends shaping customer gifting programs, and which products are driving the greatest engagement?
Matt: Customer gifting is evolving beyond one-size-fits-all rewards. Today's leading brands are combining personalization, customer data and automation to deliver gifts that feel timely, relevant and meaningful.
While gift cards and merchandise remain popular, experiences, curated gift selections and personalized rewards are generating some of the strongest engagement because they create emotional connections customers remember. The biggest trend is using gifting strategically to make customers feel valued at the moments that matter most.
Haley: At ITA Group, we are finding that customers increasingly expect flexibility and choice, driving demand for digital reward experiences that allow recipients to select what is most meaningful to them. Branded merchandise is evolving toward higher-quality, lifestyle-oriented products that recipients are more likely to keep and use. Experience-based gifts and curated collections are gaining traction as organizations look to create more memorable moments beyond traditional product gifting.
Looking ahead, what will distinguish the most successful customer gifting strategies over the next few years?
Matt: The most successful customer gifting strategies will be those that move beyond one-time transactions and become fully integrated into the overall customer experience. Leading brands will use customer data, automation and behavioral insights to deliver highly relevant gifts at the moments that matter most, generating greater emotional connection with customers, at scale.
Ultimately, the brands that win will treat gifting as a strategic engagement tool.
Haley: The strongest programs will move beyond simply sending gifts and instead design reward experiences that feel relevant, choice-driven and easy to redeem. Brands that leverage customer preference data to inform reward selection, catalog strategy and gifting experiences will create stronger long-term engagement. Global consistency paired with local market relevance will become an increasingly important differentiator for large customer programs.
Brands that connect customer data, meaningful moments and thoughtful reward design will be better positioned to create gestures that feel relevant and drive measurable engagement. Explore ITA Group’s strategic customer gifting lookbook "Customer gifting for moments that matter" for creative strategies that turn gifting into a more intentional part of the customer experience.