Selling more gift vouchers is one way to grow revenue. Getting more out of every voucher you already sell is another, and it’s the one lots of businesses tend to walk straight past.
For hospitality and leisure brands, from restaurants and hotels to spas and pubs, gift vouchers are already pulling their weight. But the bigger opportunity is making each one worth more. There’s two things we think work well here – bonus gift vouchers and voucher bundles. Set up well, they turn a single sale into a bigger one, and sometimes into two with a clever bit of configuration.
That’s where Giftpro comes in. Our gift voucher platform is built for hospitality and leisure businesses that want to sell, manage and grow gift voucher revenue without taking on a second job’s worth of admin. Bonus vouchers and bundles are two of the easiest places to start.
Reward bigger spend with bonus gift vouchers
The logic behind a bonus gift voucher is refreshingly simple. Spend more now, get something to come back for later. A guest buying £100 of vouchers as a gift might receive a £25 bonus voucher to keep for themselves, redeemable in a quieter trading period. You bank the full £100 today and the customer gets a nice little reason to return.
And the numbers back this up. More than two-thirds of UK shoppers who redeemed a gift card ended up spending more than its value, with a sizeable chunk spending £30 or more on top (UK Gift Card & Voucher Association, State of the Nation 2024).
For restaurants and hotels, that’s worth serious consideration, and we’ve looked at in more detail in our pieces on restaurant gifting revenue and hotel gift voucher revenue.
If you can time a bonus voucher for January, or a Tuesday that could use the footfall, it lifts the value of the original sale, and fills seats or rooms exactly when you need them. Giftpro’s admin area lets you set the bonus gift voucher value, redemption window and exclusion dates in a few minutes.
Sell a bigger experience with gift voucher bundles
A bundle combines multiple gift vouchers into one purchase – a tasting menu with a dessert course, a spa treatment with lunch, or a room upgrade with breakfast. You’re selling the whole afternoon rather than one slice of it, and gifting is one of the few moments people are genuinely glad to spend a bit more than they strictly needed to.
Pairing a gift voucher with a bundle, rather than discounting the bundle itself, lifts the order’s perceived value without touching the margin on the core products. And this plays nicely into what hospitality businesses are already good at – making something feel like an occasion.
It also plants a seed for a future visit, since gift voucher bundles are often redeemed across more than one trip. More touchpoints mean more chances for someone to spend beyond the voucher once they’re back through the door.
Why average order value matters more than gift voucher volume
It’s tempting to judge gift voucher success purely on how many you shift. But two businesses selling the same number of vouchers can end up with very different revenue, depending on what each one was actually worth.
That matters even more heading into peak periods. Offering bonus gift voucher promotions during high-demand windows gives customers a reason to choose long-term value over a short-term discount, protecting your margin while still giving shoppers something that feels like a win.
Rather than slugging it out on price every Black Friday, Christmas or Valentine’s, bonus gift vouchers and bundles let you compete on value instead. That’s a far easier game to keep winning once the promotional dust settles and your customers keep coming back.
Put it into practice with Giftpro
Bonus gift vouchers and bundles aren’t complicated to set up, but they’re worth a bit of thought. You’ll need to think about the right bonus gift voucher value, the right redemption window, and the right pairing of gifts or experiences.
If you’re already using Giftpro and fancy getting stuck into gift voucher bundles or bonus voucher offers, speak to your account manager.
If you’re exploring Giftpro for the first time and want to see how these features could work for your business, get in touch and we’ll talk you through it.
