It feels backwards. You knock 15% off a holiday order or throw in a free beanie, and somehow your average order gets bigger.
But that's exactly what the research shows. A good offer doesn't just trim your margin; it gives people a reason to buy now, add one more item, and come back next time.
The holidays are when that matters most. Your customers are already shopping, already comparing, and already looking for a deal. The question is whether your store gives them one they'll actually use.
Chipply Promotions and Gifting make that easy. Here's why offers work, what the tools do, and a few ways to put them to work in your stores this season.
The numbers: people spend more when you give them something
This isn't a hunch. Shoppers consistently spend past the value of what they're given.
A gift opens the door, and people walk right past it. 42% of U.S. consumers spend more than a gift card's value when they redeem it, according to Fiserv's Q4 2025 Gift Card Gauge. (Fiserv)
Deals push holiday spending up. In RetailMeNot's 2025 holiday survey, 54% of shoppers said deep discounts could lead them to spend more than they intended. (HomePage News)
Free items and "buy more, save more" both work. In Attentive's 2026 survey of U.S. holiday shoppers, 42% said a gift with purchase makes them more likely to buy from a brand. And among shoppers who overspent during last year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 43% said it was because they got a better deal by buying more. (Attentive)
But shoppers have to find the deal. A third of holiday shoppers (33%) named trouble finding discounts and promo codes as a source of holiday stress. (HomePage News) That last stat is where Gifting comes in.
Chipply Promotions: the offer, your way
Chipply gives you a few ways to put value in front of customers, and none of them need a developer or a workaround.
Custom promo codes. Create your own codes for a dollar or percent discount. Apply them to specific products or to an entire store. Run a 48-hour holiday flash sale, reward a loyal school, or give a corporate client a code for their team.
Personalized e-Certificates. Issue credits customers apply at checkout, in dollars or points. They're a natural fit for corporate programs and team allowances, like a $50 holiday credit for every employee.
Points-based pricing. Price products in points instead of dollars. Recipients pick what they want without ever seeing a price tag, which makes a holiday reward feel like a gift instead of a transaction.
Countdown clock. Pair any offer with a visible deadline. Shoppers see exactly when the store closes, and that urgency does a lot of the selling for you.
And if a customer forgets their code? You can apply it to their order after the fact in Order Manager and refund the difference straight to their card. It's a handy fix, but it's still a fix.
Chipply Gifting: the deal applies itself
Remember that forgotten code? That's the problem Gifting was built to solve. Promo codes work great in Chipply; the hard part is getting shoppers to use them. Some don't know the code exists, and some forget to type it in at checkout. Plenty of them never ask for a refund. They just pay full price, or they leave their cart behind.
With Gifting, there's nothing to remember. It's built right into Promotions: turn on a shareable link for any promo code, and shoppers who click it land in your store with the offer already applied. A "You've been given a gift" message greets them. No code to remember, no "wait, what was it again?" email to your inbox.
A gift can be:
- Free items. Choose how many items each shopper gets free. Chipply automatically makes the least expensive eligible items free, and you can limit the offer to selected products or set a separate count per category.
- A percent or dollar discount. "15% off everything" or "$20 off" just happens.
- A deal with a minimum spend. Add a Minimum Cart Total, like $100, and shoppers have a target to reach (and they'll reach for it).
Setting one up takes a few clicks:
- Go to Promotions > Promo Codes, then open an existing code or click + to create one.
- Under Amount, choose Item Count for free items, or Flat Amount or Percentage for a discount.
- Shape the offer: pick the products it's valid on, set a Minimum Cart Total, or turn on One Use Per Email so one link can go to a whole group.
- Turn on Allow Shareable URL and save.
- From the Share menu, copy the link for emails, texts, and social posts, or grab the QR code for flyers and printed cards.
When the promotion's over, turn the code off and the link stops working right away. And if a shopper abandons their cart, the gift stays available until they come back and check out.
Gifting is also the first step toward something bigger. Rostering and a full gifting platform are on the way, where each person on a roster gets their own unique link and a gift that applies only to them.
Six ways to use them this holiday season
1. The school spirit holiday pop-up. Launch a two-week holiday pop-up for a school or club. Create a gift code for one free item, valid only on the holiday beanie, and email families the link. Print the QR code on flyers for the winter concert, too. Add a countdown clock so nobody misses the deadline. The free beanie gets them in; the hoodie and the joggers fill the cart.
2. The "spend $100, save $20" push. Create a $20 Flat Amount code with a $100 Minimum Cart Total and share it as a gift link. A parent with $85 in their cart now has a reason to add one more item, which is exactly how threshold offers lift spending.
3. The corporate thank-you. A client wants to give every employee a holiday gift. Load each person with an e-Certificate, or set the store to points-based pricing, and let them choose their own jacket, mug, or blanket. Many will spend past their allowance on something they really want.
4. The Black Friday to Cyber Monday flash sale. Create a code for 20% off your entire catalog store and share the gift link everywhere on Black Friday. Tell shoppers it ends Monday at midnight. When the sale wraps, turn the code off and the link stops working immediately.
5. The loyal-customer reward. Your best accounts reorder every year. Send them a gift link with 15% off the cart as a thank-you. It feels personal, it costs you little, and it lands right when they're planning next season.
6. The hybrid store holiday drop. Already running a year-round store? Add a limited holiday collection and promote it with a gift link that includes a free item. Year-round shoppers get a reason to come back, and the free item makes the visit feel worth it.
Unwrap more sales this season
A well-placed offer isn't a giveaway. It's a nudge, and the numbers say people respond to it by spending more, not less.
With Chipply Promotions and Gifting, setting that nudge up takes minutes. Pick your offer, share your link, and let the deal apply itself while you focus on getting orders out the door.
Ready to build your holiday offer? Log in to Chipply and set up your first gift link today, or reach out to your Account Manager for ideas tailored to your stores. (And yes, a real person will answer the phone.)