Amazon Gift Card: Our expert opinion
Amazon Gift Card proudly claims the top spot among the 50 most searched-for e-gift cards. Each month, it is searched over 30,000 times on search engines. And for good reason: this e-commerce giant was one of the first to dive into the world of digital gift cards. In fact, it pioneered new strategies, such as using the gift card to conquer the B2B market.
When it comes to monitoring its gift card, Amazon is undoubtedly a benchmark to follow. That’s why we decided to closely examine the ordering journeys of its gift cards, with a rating grid of more than 50 criteria and a bonus system. A final score, highlights, areas for improvement, and recommendations—this is the focus of this article.
Amazon works on its Gift Card visibility
On search engines
If we happen to miss the natural links to the Amazon gift card, the e-commerce giant also runs AdWords campaigns.
Overall, the brand has done a great job on the titles and meta descriptions for both organic results and Google Ads campaigns. It amplifies the key message of the gift card’s primary advantage: a gift that’s guaranteed to please.
Feel free to do the same: list the benefits and features of your gift card service and test different messages. You can use emotional messages or reassurance-based messages.
Bonus: Amazon ranks 5th for the general query “gift card.”
On its e-commerce homepage
On Amazon’s homepage, it’s more complex. The page changes depending on whether we’re logged into our account or not.
If logged in, the gift card is prominently featured in both the header and footer menus, maximizing the chances of quickly finding the service and not forgetting about it.
If not logged in, the gift card service is only found in the footer. Here, Amazon misses an opportunity. Most gift card buyers are not regular customers of the brand. They may struggle to find the service if they want to buy a gift. Thankfully, when using the search bar with the keywords “gift card,” the service appears in the results.
In summary, consider placing the service in both the main menu and footer, and ideally in the “gifts” section. Gift card buyers value speed and simplicity. If they have to make extra efforts to find it, they might give up.
On its “gift card” store
The e-commerce giant has opted to create different ordering journeys based on the gift card format (a physical card with a greeting card, a physical card in a gift box, a printable e-gift card, a digital e-gift card by email, etc.), the type of event (Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Thanks, Birthdays, etc.), and the recipient (Child, couple, family, etc.).The filtering is relevant and detailed enough to easily find what you want, initiating a smooth and quick experience.
The Amazon e-gift card ordering page
Advantages and reassurances
Let’s say we want to buy a digital gift card.
The e-gift card ordering page is well-crafted. Amazon highlights the advantages of the e-gift card through an infographic. All necessary information about the product is provided: validity period, where and what products or services the card can be spent on. As for reassurance, an FAQ is available, addressing possible concerns like “What is the process if an incorrect email address is provided?”
Lastly, Amazon has created a comparison chart between the e-gift card, printable gift card, and physical gift card.
Amazon has carefully designed a page full of information about the benefits and features of the e-gift card to maximize conversions. It’s important to note that there’s still room for wider adoption of e-gift cards by consumers. This is why it’s crucial to spend time explaining and reassuring users.
Expansion of personalization features
Amazon is ahead when it comes to customization options.
For each occasion (birthday, retirement, thanks, congratulations, Christmas, etc.), the e-commerce giant has created a dedicated visual, whether it’s an image or an animation video. If the customer wants to make the e-card more personal, they can upload their own image or video. The supported formats should be specified to make the experience smoother.
The card value is adjustable down to the cent, and customers can write a personalized message.
One improvement opportunity would be to allow buyers to enter the recipient's first and last name on the gift card. This feature would provide an added emotional value for the person receiving the card, as it's always more pleasant to read one’s name on a gift than an email address.
Another idea could be integrating a system for pooling funds from multiple people to increase the final gift card value.
A surprising point: Amazon allows customers to input multiple email addresses on a B2C journey. This means one customer can order multiple gift cards for various recipients simultaneously. In practice, individuals typically order only one gift card at a time, rarely two or three.
This possibility raises a major security concern. If we push the parameters to the extreme, we could order 999 e-gift cards worth €5000 each, totaling almost €5 million in one go. If fraudsters find a vulnerability and have a small window of opportunity, this is the amount they could steal. Of course, Amazon must have an anti-fraud system and security barriers in place to prevent such scenarios. However, it's something to keep in mind when creating an ordering journey.
Ordering an Amazon e-gift card
A traditional payment journey
To purchase the gift card, the buyer needs to go through the standard ordering process (the shopping cart) and create a customer account.We advise against this approach because the buyer is rarely an Amazon customer. They don’t necessarily want to create an account or add another product to their cart. Here, the e-commerce giant adds unnecessary steps for a buyer who just wants efficiency.For the rest of the payment journey, everything is smooth and flexible.
A flexible but lengthy delivery
Amazon offers email or SMS delivery for its digital gift card, and home or pickup point delivery for its physical card. A special mention goes to the SMS delivery, which is still rare in the market.
Regarding delivery times, the physical gift card can be delivered in one business day. For the e-gift card, the customer can choose between immediate sending or scheduling it up to a year later. However, the SMS delivery remains immediate.
During our test, the e-gift card was estimated to be sent in 5 minutes, but we had to wait more than 20 minutes, likely due to an increase in orders related to Mother's Day.
The email received by the recipient is clear. The subject line is striking: “X sent you an Amazon gift card,” and there’s a call-to-action prompting the recipient to add the gift card to their Amazon account. Additionally, there’s a detailed explanation on how to redeem the gift card.
One downside: the expiration date of the gift card is not indicated.
The email also lacks personalization with the recipient’s name. Since this information is not requested during the order process, it's difficult to include.
For the buyer, they do receive a payment confirmation email and can track the delivery status through their Amazon account. However, it would be simpler for them to receive an email confirming the successful delivery of the gift card to the recipient.
An idea to consider could be adding a final post-purchase or post-spend step, pushing additional e-gift card offers or products to encourage repeat purchases.
Spending the e-gift card
Simple registration on their account
Registering the gift card is quick and easy, just a few clicks on the website or app. Amazon guides the recipient through the process to completion.This is actually the only method to register the gift card. It can’t be downloaded on PC or smartphone. Normally, this wouldn't be ideal, as the benefit of the e-gift card is to have it accessible anywhere, whether on the website or in-store. But in Amazon’s case, it’s not an issue since the gift card is only valid on Amazon's website.We could also mention the possibility of adding the card to the mobile wallet for personalized push notifications, but in this case, Amazon's app can take over.
A quick spend
Once the gift card is registered, it will automatically be pre-selected as a payment method during the order validation step. This is a real time-saver for the recipient, as they don’t have to enter the code manually. The experience is smooth, and the purchase almost instantaneous.
Of course, Amazon accounts for complementary payments when the gift card amount is exceeded. The recipient is free to choose an additional payment method to complete the transaction.
For checking the balance — i.e., the remaining amount on the gift card — Amazon is not very clear when the card is received by email. However, if the recipient wants to know the procedure, there is a dedicated page on the Help Center.
Other Amazon gift card services
Amazon Incentives, a comprehensive B2B service
With Amazon Incentives, the e-commerce giant targets all companies wanting to reward their employees, partners, or end customers (contests, surveys, email campaigns, etc.) with an Amazon gift card.The service is very complete: bulk orders for e-gift cards or physical gift cards with personalization, sending code files, or integrating the API. The brand adapts to all use cases.This is not surprising, as Amazon was a pioneer in using gift cards in B2B. This innovative choice at the time and its notoriety have allowed its gift card to often be used as a reward in contests, co-marketing operations, or loyalty programs.An additional visibility point for its B2C gift card service, and for the Amazon brand.
The multi-distribution of its gift card across a broad network
Amazon is also a pioneer in the multi-distribution of its gift card to resellers and third-party distributors. It massively distributes its gift cards in addition to direct B2C and B2B sales. Who hasn’t already encountered an Amazon gift card on a gift card marketplace or in a loyalty program?The e-commerce giant opts for ultra-openness. Whether it’s cashback programs, loyalty programs, employee incentives, or even cryptocurrency programs, Amazon is everywhere.However, be cautious, as Amazon's distribution strategy may not suit all brands. Brand image is an important point to watch, and controlling resale channels helps avoid mismanagement.
Conclusion: Amazon's gift card program is a model to follow
Amazon has one of the best gift card programs in the world. The brand is one of the pioneers in this acquisition channel. It built everything in-house and has not hesitated to test numerous uses both physically, digitally, and with businesses.Amazon’s success in its gift card program comes down to three points: brand recognition, a large product catalog, and its B2B strategy.Nevertheless, we’ve identified some areas for improvement to bring more fluidity and personalization.A gift card buyer wants it to be quick, clear, and efficient. A gift card holder wants the spending process to be as simple as possible without necessarily needing to log in.It’s crucial not to overlook the experiential and emotional aspect of giving, which is reflected in the email received by the recipient. Amazon could improve certain aspects in this regard.However, the brand remains a model to follow and earns an impressive score of 17/20. Amazon certainly has all the cards to implement a branded currency strategy, and we look forward to seeing what it will do in the future.
