Some people consider that giving gift cards has very little personal value and would still prefer to give personal gifts. This is one concern that the gift card industry has been facing despite the fact that gift cards belong to the top choices for consumers as proven by several studies.

In order to manage this issue, gift card issuers have made several and unique adjustments. One of which is to allow buyers to personalize the gift cards. From a recipient perspective, such personalized gift cards are much appreciated especially if it matches their likes and interests.

How to Personalize a Gift Card?

Generally, there are four items in the gift card that can be personalized. Gift card issuers provide different mechanism to capture this information but eventually, they will be reflected in the card.

Personal Message
Personal messages are usually short phrases that can be printed on the card. The text area in the gift card has limitations so the message needs to be concise. Typical messages are Thank You, Congratulations, and greetings such as Happy Birthday, Happy Mother’s Day or Merry Christmas.

Recipient’s Name
To properly address the recipient, most gift card providers that allow personalization lets you specify the name of the recipient. This is usually paired with the gift card message that was earlier stated.

Gift Card Design
This is perhaps one of the things that most buyers look for when personalizing a gift card. Most of gift card providers offer a wide variety of design templates that buyers can choose from. These designs usually match an event or an occasion, a certain person such as mother or father, a specific product or promotion, and other unique designs.

As part of the design, some gift card issuers allow buyers to include a photo as form of personalization. The personalized photo gift card makes the design more unique.

Where to Buy Personalized Gift Cards?

Here are some sites where you can buy personalized gift cards:

Bank of America Visa Gift Cards
This is a bank gift card that can be personalized. There are more than twenty designs to choose from. Buyers are allowed to design their own cards and insert a company’s logo.

MasterCard Gift Card
MasterCard Gift Cards are offered by its associates, and most of them provide personalized gift cards. The MasterCard Gift Card can be personalized with your a personal message, photos and name of the recipient depending on the associate that offers the gift card.

Cardways
Cardways permits personalization of gift cards with photo, design, name and personal message. It offers a ‘design your own’ gift card feature wherein you are in charge of creating a design for your gift card. In addition, you are also given the option to add a personalized greeting card.

Apple, iPhone and iTunes Gift Cards
These are three personalized gift cards offered by Apple.

Wal-Mart Gift Cards
Wal-Mart announced this in their site, stating a “perfect holiday gift for anyone who likes the ease of a gift card and also wants to give a unique present – a gift card that can be personalized with your photo, favorite phrase, or business card.”

Best Buy Gift Cards
Best Buy offers several designs options that give gift card buyers wide selection and better personalization.

Several studies have proven that gift cards are top choice for consumers. However, there are some who still believe that such kind of gift has no or very little personal value. They still prefer to give traditional gifts.

To address this issue, gift card providers made adjustments to allow customers to personalize their gift cards. This can be done by providing the recipients name and writing a short personal message. These two elements are printed on the card. For, some gift card providers, the message is written on a separate card. In the case of e-gift cards, the message is written as part of the email sent to the recipient. All of these data are captured prior to the purchase of the gift card.

Another thing that can also be personalized is the gift card design. Most gift card vendors will let you choose from a variety of designs. You will then have to select the best design that suits your recipient, and match it with the name and your personal message.

To add more personalization to the gift card design, some companies allows a customer to personalize the gift card with a photo. Two of the businesses that provide personalized photo gift cards are Cardways and Walmart.

To do this at Cardways, you will have to first select a retailer of your choice. After which, you will be directed to the ‘select a gift card’ page, where you will be asked to type in the amount or denomination of the gift card you want to purchase. You are also given a choice to choose from ready made designs, or to ‘design your own’ gift card. At the bottom of the page, you are also given the option to add a personalized greeting card.

After the ‘select a gift card page’, you will then need to personalize your gift card, assuming that you opted to do so. You have the option to upload your own image or to select from the pre-set backgrounds available. Next, you need to write a message that will also be printed in the card. Note that the layout and the design of the message can also be personalized, meaning that you get to design the location of the message in the card, the color and the size of the font.

Once you click continue, you will need to select the greeting card if you chose to include this in the earlier step. Again, the greeting card can also be personalized.

After all the steps, a preview of the gift card and the greeting card will be shown for you to confirm their designs. Then, you need to provide shipping information, then you’ll be taken to the usual shopping process.

At Walmart.com, personalized gift card can be purchased and personalized with recipient’s name and message. Buyers are allowed to upload a personal photo. The card can then picked up the card at the local Wal-Mart an hour later, all through its Digital Photo Center.

Other merchants that allow personalized photo gift cards are Borders, Lowe’s, Edwin Watts Golf, Lids, Omaha Steaks, Regis Salon, Shoe Buy.com, Logan’s Roadhouse, Claim Jumper. All of these are affiliated to Cardways.

In general, personalized gift cards requires additional charge, but this is in exchange of a less impersonal kind of gift.