Build vs Buy: Evaluating Global Rewards Fulfillment for Incentive and Loyalty Programs

This article is for incentive, recognition, loyalty and related firms debating whether to develop and manage their own reward fulfillment services or contract them out to third parties.

By Jason Etter, Vice President, Growth, Online Rewards

Specific Considerations
Hidden Costs of Building Your Own Catalog
Benefits of Partnering with a Fulfillment API
Vendor Landscape: Best Incentive Management Software
In‑House vs Subcontracting: A Comparative Table
Supporting Considerations for Enterprise Buyers

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Before debating whether to build your own rewards fulfillment engine or partner with a third-party provider, it is helpful to clarify your needs. Some organizations simply need the ability to send employees a single type of reward, such as an e-card, a prepaid debit card, or a charitable donation. Others require a sophisticated catalog featuring local products, experiences, merchandise, and localized rewards for multiple countries and currencies.

Your decision should be grounded in the scope of your incentive or loyalty program and the geographic footprint of your workforce or customer base. If your program requires custom catalogs in multiple regions with various currencies, languages, and reward types, the issues and complexity escalate exponentially.

Another critical question to consider is whether procuring and selling rewards is a core component of your business model and value proposition. If your value proposition lies in your technology, industry expertise, user enablement, or channel management, then managing a rewards fulfillment service may simply be a distraction from your company’s core strengths and services.

For many Incentive and loyalty marketing companies, their services include: program design, behavior change, communication and engagement, reporting and analytics, and not rewards fulfillment. The core technology and business operations required to deliver a global rewards offering are consequential - this article provides a high-level SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis on the options and implications.

Specific Considerations

What does your catalogue need to accomplish? If your goal is simply to distribute gift cards or prepaid vouchers in a single country, you may not need a complex system. However, if you anticipate sending rewards across multiple countries and currencies, or offering a mix of physical goods, experiences, merchandise, donations, and digital codes, the complexity increases.
Are you equipped to handle multi‑currency and multi‑region requirements? Multi-currency wallets, translation, and localization add layers of complexity. A program that appears seamless to participants requires a behind-the-scenes engine that updates exchange rates, calculates localized taxes, and updates availability to deliver a great reward redemption experience.
Do you have the resources to manage suppliers and compliance? Building your own engine involves sourcing and contracting with suppliers worldwide, managing order processing, billing and invoicing, inventory, and product selection, all while ensuring compliance with localized tax and data privacy rules.
How will you support participants? Customer service for rewards involves tracking shipments, handling returns, liaising with suppliers, and troubleshooting redemption issues. If this isn’t your core competency, support inquiries can quickly consume your team.

Hidden Costs of Building Your Own Catalog

There are eight distinct layers of complexity when it comes to global reward fulfillment. These layers include supply‑chain diversity, tax and duty compliance, payment processing, data privacy, logistics and returns, fraud prevention, cultural relevance, and eco‑impact. Each layer requires ongoing investment in contracts, technology, legal expertise, and customer support.

Building a custom catalog means identifying and contracting with hundreds of suppliers, negotiating pricing and data feeds, and developing integration with each vendor’s inventory and order systems. For example, managing VAT (value-added taxes), sales tax, and customs duties across dozens of jurisdictions require expertise and automated compliance processes to ensure seamless operations. Without significant economies of scale, a company that buys directly from suppliers rarely receives better pricing; volume discounts accrue to providers who aggregate demand from multiple clients. Finally, the total cost of ownership includes the maintenance of data exchanges, software updates, customer service, and fraud monitoring.

Benefits of Partnering with a Fulfillment API

Instead of building a bespoke solution, companies can work with providers such as Online Rewards, powered by Catalog API, that specialize in global rewards. (See the chart below for a full list of suppliers.) Catalog API offers a single contract covering millions of SKUs, local procurement in 170 countries, real-time tax calculations, and built-in compliance and fraud protection. The platform can be customized with a logo, color scheme, often updated within hours, with support for multiple languages where necessary. When clients need to award points, the integration is straightforward: the partner sends an API call to deposit points, and the provider maintains the point accounts; participants then redeem from their local catalog. The entire platform is API-driven, offering options for single sign-on, curated catalog packages (e.g., Catalog A, Catalog B, or country-specific collections), and white-label support. Because the provider aggregates purchasing across many clients, they can negotiate lower wholesale pricing than most organizations could achieve on their own.

Economically, using a single API reduces administrative overhead. Instead of managing dozens of vendors, finance teams receive one consolidated invoice and pay for rewards only when they are redeemed. Service-level agreements often guarantee 99.99% uptime and include tiered support, where the vendor handles order processing, customer inquiries, warranties, and claims.

Some procurement teams argue that buying directly from suppliers might save money. In practice, true savings only materialize when you have sufficient volume to qualify for the best wholesale pricing, and operating a full-service internal fulfillment team incurs consequential overheads. A fulfillment provider pools the purchase power of hundreds of programs, giving you access to pricing and availability that would otherwise be out of reach. When you factor in the opportunity cost of negotiating and maintaining dozens of vendor relationships, as well as the overhead of integrating and supporting each one, the total cost of ownership is always lower with a specialized partner. In other words, volume matters, and scale comes from aggregation.

Vendor Landscape: Best Incentive Management Software

If you decide that partnering is the right approach, the next step is selecting a provider. The incentive and loyalty market is crowded with vendors ranging from pure e‑gift platforms to full‑stack reward engines. Research compiled by Online Rewards highlights the differences in delivery models and reward coverage among leading solutions. Some platforms only support digital gift cards and payouts, while others offer physical merchandise, custom items, and branded swag. The table below summarizes the significant options and their key capabilities, allowing you to identify partners that align with your program needs. (Note: these summaries are based on information found on the web sites.)

Vendor	Core positioning		Delivery model	Gift cards / e‑gifts	Merchand-ise	Custom items	Brand-ed swag	Website
Catalog API	Broad catalog fulfillment (digital + physical). Only US Patented platform for delivering custom catalogs.	API		✅	✅	✅	✅	catalogapi.com
CarltonOne	Comprehensive catalog and fulfillment in 190 countries	API		✅	✅	❌	❌	carltonone.com
Tremendous	Digital gift cards & payouts	API		✅	❌	❌	❌	tremendous.com
Giftbit	Digital incentives & gift cards	API		✅	❌	❌	❌	giftbit.com
Runa	Global digital rewards	API		✅	❌	❌	❌	runa.io
BHN (Blackhawk Network)	Gift card network & branded payment	API		✅	❌	❌	❌	blackhawknetwork.com
Xoxoday	Rewards & engagement platform	API / SaaS		✅	✅	✅	✅	xoxoday.com
Stamped	Loyalty & referral engine	API / SaaS		❓ (limited)	❌	❌	❌	stamped.io
Open Loyalty	API‑first loyalty engine	API		❌ (plug‑in required)	❌	❌	❌	openloyalty.io
Partners for Incentives	Full service incentive company selling only through third parties.	API		✅	✅	✅	✅	pfi-awards.com
Reloadly	Global digital rewards & gift cards	API		✅	❌	❌	❌	reloadly.com
Square Developer	Loyalty & payments infrastructure	API		❓ (points/discounts only)	❌	❌	❌	developer.squareup.com

In‑House vs Subcontracting: A Comparative Table

Factor	Build in‑house	Partner with OnlineRewards/CatalogAPI/or other full-service provider
Contracting & Suppliers	Must identify and contract with each global supplier; manage multiple tax forms, invoices, and data feeds.	A single contract covers all suppliers and SKUs; the provider maintains vendor relationships and integrates data feeds to ensure seamless operations.
Integration & Uptime	Custom integration for every supplier; internal team maintains point balances, catalogs, translations, and UX.	One API with standardized endpoints and 99.999% uptime; the provider stores point accounts and offers localized catalogs.
Cost of Ownership	High: development, testing, compliance, support, and ongoing updates. Little economies of scale, especially at modest volume.	Lower: Pay per redemption and subscription fees; volume discounts are passed through, and the provider absorbs development and maintenance costs.
Compliance & Tax	Internal responsibility to manage VAT, GST, customs duties, RoHS, data privacy laws, and anti‑bribery regulations across jurisdictions.	Automated tax engine and compliance built into the API; provider updates rules as laws change.
Customer Support	Must handle customer questions, returns, damage claims, and supplier disputes; requires internal support staff and processes.	Dedicated support team manages orders, returns, and warranties; white‑label ticketing can route inquiries through your interface.
Catalog Depth & Relevance	Limited by your resources and knowledge of local preferences, risk of sending inappropriate rewards; must refresh inventory continually.	Millions of SKUs across categories, curated by local market experts, ensure cultural relevance and seasonal appropriateness.
Speed to Market	Slow: building from scratch can take years and millions of dollars.	Fast: The program can be configured in days, including branding, SSO, and curated catalogs.

Supporting Considerations for Enterprise Buyers

Large enterprises, especially those that have grown through acquisition or manage multiple brands and franchises, often support thousands of employees across dozens of regions. For such organizations, the overhead of managing, maintaining, and auditing an in-house reward engine is prohibitive. A fulfillment partner reduces operational expenditure by consolidating sourcing, shipping, and customer service under one roof. This leaves companies free to focus on the areas that truly drive results: program design, communications, and analytics. Building fulfillment internally may seem attractive on paper, but as volumes scale, the hidden costs of compliance, support, and technology become consequential.

Moreover, a mature partner can tailor solutions to your audience. Simple e-card programs suit organizations that prioritize speed and scale, while curated catalogs with experiences, charitable donations, and eco-friendly options serve those seeking cultural relevance and ESG alignment. The provider’s volume enables them to secure better pricing and offer innovative reward options that enhance engagement and retention.

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