What Information to Seek from Bidders on a Gift Card and Rewards Platform RFP

Quick answer

Ask every bidder to explain exactly what reward types they support, where they can deliver them, how their APIs work, how funds move, what fraud controls are available, what service levels they commit to, how they protect data, what reporting you receive, how implementation works, and what every fee covers. Require evidence, sample files, API documentation, implementation plans, and contractual commitments wherever possible.

Key Execution Checkpoints Shown in This Diagram

• Connects your portal activity directly to CRM records
• Enforces automated hold and verification rules before payout
• Gives your finance and operations team a complete audit trail

As mapped in the operational loop above, tying reward ordering directly to verified system events and prefunded float gates protects your budget.

Gift card and rewards platforms often look similar in a presentation. The differences usually appear later, when teams start integrating APIs, funding reward orders, reconciling transactions, handling failed deliveries, investigating fraud, expanding internationally, or trying to understand what a fee actually covers.

That is why the RFP needs to go deeper than “Do you support digital rewards?” or “Do you have an API?”

The better question is: how does the platform operate under real program conditions?

This guide breaks down the information you should request from bidders so your team can compare platforms on operational fit, not sales language.

1. Start With the Reward Catalog, Not the Dashboard

The reward catalog determines what your program can actually offer participants. When reviewing a bidder’s catalog strategy, it also helps to understand how to build a strong rewards catalog around choice, relevance, and redemption behavior.

Ask bidders to provide a current catalog file and identify:

• digital gift cards
• physical gift cards
• open-loop versus closed-loop options
• country and currency availability
• minimum and maximum denomination rules
• fixed-value versus variable-value rewards
• delivery methods available by reward type
• catalog update frequency
• whether unavailable rewards can be substituted
• whether program-specific reward restrictions can be configured

2. Ask How Reward Ordering and Fulfillment Actually Work

A gift card software is not only a catalog. It is an operational fulfillment system.

Your RFP should ask bidders to document the complete order lifecycle:

3. Require Specific API Information

“We have APIs” is not enough for a technical evaluation.

Ask bidders to provide API documentation and answer questions such as:

• Which endpoints are available for catalog retrieval, ordering, order status, balance checks, cancellations, and reporting?
• What authentication method is used?
• Are API keys, OAuth flows, signed requests, IP restrictions, or other controls supported?
• Are webhooks available for order-status changes?
• What are the rate limits?
• How are retries and duplicate requests handled?
• Is idempotency supported for issuance calls?
• Is there a sandbox environment?
• How are API changes versioned and communicated?

For organizations building automated reward workflows, the gift card and rewards API layer is one of the most important areas to validate before vendor selection.

4. Ask Detailed Questions About Funding and Settlement

Many implementation problems are financial-process problems rather than software problems.

Your RFP should ask bidders to explain pre-funding requirements, minimum balances, supported funding methods, balance alerts, refunds, cancellations, settlement timing, reconciliation files, and how invoices tie back to transaction-level activity.

5. Evaluate Security Beyond a Checkbox

Reward issuance can involve valuable digital assets, customer information, funding accounts, and transaction credentials. Security controls therefore need to be evaluated as part of the platform.

Ask bidders to describe encryption, administrative access controls, multi-factor authentication, role-based permissions, audit logs, credential storage and rotation, IP restrictions, data retention, penetration testing, incident notification, and third-party risk management.

If cardholder data is in scope, ask the bidder to state exactly which PCI DSS responsibilities they own and which remain with your organization.

6. Ask How the Rewards Platform Prevents Fraud and Misuse

Fraud controls should be tested at the workflow level. Ask what happens if someone attempts an unusually large issuance, submits many orders in a short period, uses a new IP address, repeats the same request, changes delivery details immediately before issuance, or tries to access functions outside their role.

Request details on configurable thresholds, manual approvals, velocity rules, IP restrictions, order holds, audit visibility, and alerting. Also ask who absorbs losses under different fraud scenarios.

7. Understand Data Ownership and Privacy

Your RFP should clearly establish who owns participant, transaction, redemption, and reporting data, where that data is stored, whether data residency requirements can be supported, how data is exported at termination, how deletion requests are handled, and which subprocessors may have access.

8. Ask for Reporting That Finance and Operations Can Actually Use

A rewards dashboard may look good without solving reconciliation or program-management needs.

9. Make the Bidder Commit to Service Levels

Ask for proposed commitments covering platform uptime, API availability, issuance response times, support response times by severity, incident escalation, planned maintenance, business continuity, disaster recovery, recovery time objectives, and recovery point objectives.

Ask the bidder to attach the actual proposed SLA and explain what remedies apply when commitments are missed.

10. Ask Who Supports Your Team and Your Reward Recipients

Require bidders to distinguish between technical integration support, program administration support, finance and reconciliation support, fraud escalation, and participant support for delivery issues. Then ask who owns each area, what hours are covered, which channels are available, and what additional costs apply.

11. Request a Real Implementation Plan

A bidder should be able to explain how your organization moves from contract signature to live reward issuance.

12. Make Pricing Comparable Across Bidders

Use a standard pricing template that separates implementation fees, platform fees, API fees, transaction fees, issuance fees, reward face value, physical fulfillment, support, minimum commitments, currency conversion, international fees, and professional services.

A low initial platform fee does not necessarily mean the lowest total cost once issuance, transactions, support, and implementation are included.

13. Ask for References That Match Your Use Case

Ask for references that match your annual reward volume, number of countries, API usage, reward mix, security requirements, and reconciliation needs. The closer the reference matches your future operating model, the more useful the conversation will be.

A Practical Gift Card and Rewards Platform RFP Checklist

Gift Card and Rewards Platform RFP FAQ