Small business service providers can cash in on the holiday shopping season by selling online gift cards. In this guide, digital marketing expert Marcie Lord gives the 3-step plan for how small business service providers can create, offer, and promote online gift cards. Read it now so you can start putting the plan in motion.

Gift cards are a best seller during the holiday shopping season. According to a study conducted by TSG Payments and Bank of America in 2024, 87% of consumers had planned to purchase gift cards for the holidays, with 75% of consumers preferring to purchase a physical gift card. Studies conducted by Capital One and Fiserv reflected the same sentiment that gift cards have been and will continue to be popular for holiday gift-giving.

Most gift cards are purchased from restaurants, retailers, and coffee shops. I portend the reason for this is because these establishments promote gift card sales and make purchasing gift cards incredibly easy. Small business service providers need to do the same thing.

In this guide, I provide the steps small business service providers need to take if they want to start selling gift cards during the holidays. Read it now and start your strategy – Black Friday will be here soon.

Jump to:

Which type of service businesses can REALLY capitalize on gift card sales?

The businesses that can really make money on gift cards during the holidays are the ones in the self-care space, such as:

  • Residential cleaning services
  • Personal Trainers
  • Other fitness training (yoga, pilates)
  • Nutritionists
  • Massage services
  • MedSpas
  • Acupuncture
  • Hair and Nails

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but I wanted to give examples of which service providers can do well selling gift cards, since your HVAC technicians, electricians, and plumbers (all service providers) probably won’t find success with them.

Step 1: Figure out “what” you’re selling & its value as a gift

You could sell:

  • A specific type of service (one free hair style, a package of 5 fitness classes)
  • A fixed amount of money toward your services

To help you decide, you will have more success if you sell something that is:

  • Specific
  • Unique
  • Demonstrating in value
  • Aligned with your brand

How to make your gift card specific, unique, and valuable (examples):

One residential deep clean becomes “The Big Reset: $400.00 Toward One House Deep Cleaning”

3 Personal Fitness Training Sessions becomes

  • For women: “3-Session Glow-Up: Good for Three 1-Hour Fitness Training Sessions”
  • For men: “Triple Gains: Good for Three 1-Hour Fitness Training Sessions”

3 months of nutritionist services with customized meal planning and grocery ordering becomes

“The Flavor Fix – 90 Days to Nourish: Get 3 Months of Customized Meal Planning and Bi-Weekly Grocery Ordering from a Professional Nutritionist”

Aligning the name of this gift card with your brand is important, because it will feel more meaningful and valuable when the gift card matches the expectations of your customers.

Step 2: Implement an Online Method for Selling Your Gift Card

To earn real revenue from gift card sales, you have to be able to sell them online.

How you set up this capability depends on your marketing stack. Most likely, you have a website so I’m going to continue this guide with the assumption that you need a gift card tool that will integrate with your website.

Whatever CMS you use, you’ll want a payment processing system set-up so you can easily accept online payments. The most popular payment processors are:

There are so many content management systems in the world, each with their own way of setting-up gift card sales. I’ll link to articles for the top CMS’s here:

WORDPRESS WEBSITES

There are several different methods that you can use to set-up a gift card for sale on your WordPress website. The most popular include:

  • Woocommerce
  • Website forms integrated with your payment processor

WPBeginner has a great article – with videos and a written guide – that explains how to use either of these methods to add gift card sale capabilities to your WordPress site.

SQUARESPACE WEBSITES

This article explains how to set-up gift card sales on your Squarespace site.

WIX WEBSITES

This article explains how to set-up gift card sales on your WIX site.

Step 3: Promote the Gift Card using Word-of-Mouth, Email, Organic, and Paid Channels

After the gift card sale functionality is on your website, now you must promote it. You should start crafting these campaigns by October 1 (if not sooner). November 1st, your promotions should start.

  • November 1st: Get a post up on your website that announces the sale of the gift card, what it offers, and how to purchase it. Share this post to all your social platforms, including your Google Business Profile.
  • Also November 1st: Start verbally telling your network and clientele about the gift card.
  • Mid-November (13-18): Send a marketing email to your list of contacts about the gift card sale. It should detail the offer, its value, and include a link to your website so users can purchase it.
  • The week of Thanksgiving: Initiate your paid social campaign. It can be tricky to know what platform to focus on, but start with the ones where you have the most familiarity and followers. Without knowing your exact brand, offer, or competition, I can’t provide the exact right amount to invest in the ad spend, but to start, keep it around $500.00. If the campaign ends up having a positive ROI, then you can invest more as the holiday season continues.
  • Throughout December: Continue to make organic posts on social media about the gift card, linking users to the gift card page on your site. Two posts a week is good, and some of them should be video testimonials of your real-life clients whose lives have been improved by your service.
  • Mid-December: Send another email to your client list that promotes the gift cards.
  • December 20th-25th: Ramp up your social media gift card promotions to one a day, to capture last-minute shoppers. Also this week, send another email to your list.
  • Week after Christmas: Feel free to send one final email and post a final promotion on social media. People still buy gifts after Christmas is over, so there’s still opportunity for sales in the final week of the year.

Other tactics to keep in mind

  • Make all the promotions FESTIVE. According to OptinMonk, “The visual appeal of your website plays a significant role in influencing customer behavior, and a holiday-themed design can evoke the excitement and joy associated with the season.” So leverage visuals and turns of phrase that evoke the holiday spirit.
  • Get your gift card page in the main navigation of your website. Put it right there, front and center that makes it easy for people to find.
  • Pop-ups on your website can alert users to your gift cards for purchase (but use pop-ups sparingly).
  • Set-up a cart abandonment notification. These can be created as alerts on your website, and as emails that get sent to users who submitted their email address, but didn’t complete the purchase.
  • Physical gift cards are very appealing – according to a 2024 study done by TSG Payments, 75% of consumers said they would prefer to purchase a physical gift card. If you have the time to get physical gift cards created, it’s not a bad idea to do so.

Conclusion

Without knowing your specific service, geography, or price-point, I can’t give exact strategies for your gift card promotions. However, this guide should give you a foundation that you can run with. This article is now published in late September 2025, which is the perfect time to start planning your gift card sales and campaigns for your service-based business. If you need help, contact Digital Dynamo – we’re here to make your online gift card sale dreams come true.