Gift Cards For Cafes And Restaurants: Why Yours Probably Isn't Selling Them
Small Business
Digital Gift Cards
You run a cafe or a restaurant. You're brilliant at it. People love your coffee, your menu, your space.
Now answer this honestly: how would someone buy a gift card to your venue today?
If the answer is "they could come in and ask for one, and I'd write it on a slip of paper," or worse, "I don't think they can," you're missing a buying moment. And those moments add up.
The hospitality gift card problem in one sentence
People want to give your cafe or your restaurant as a gift. They just have no clean way to do it.
Birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, thank-you, congratulations, sympathy, new job, anniversary, housewarming. All of these are gifting moments. All of these are moments when someone might think "I'd love to give them lunch at that place they always rave about."
If that place is your venue, and there's no way to buy a gift card for it online, the moment passes. They give a supermarket gift card instead. You weren't even in the running.
Why digital gift cards suit hospitality
Hospitality has one feature that makes it especially gift-friendly: the gift is the experience. Unlike retail, where a $50 gift card buys a thing, a $50 hospitality gift card buys an afternoon. Brunch with a friend. A drink after work. Dinner on a Tuesday. The gift is the time spent, not the object.
That makes hospitality gift cards feel more personal than generic shopping vouchers. People know your customers will actually enjoy themselves.
The "but I don't have a website" problem
A lot of independent cafes don't have a website. Some have an Instagram. Some have a Google Maps listing. That's it.
The standard internet advice (use Shopify, plug in a gift card extension, configure your checkout) assumes you have time to learn three new platforms while running a venue. Which you don't. You're already short-staffed at the brunch rush.
A marketplace works differently. Instead of needing your own website, you get a storefront inside the Okuru app Customers searching for cafes in your area find you. They buy a gift card. The recipient gets it on their phone, walks in, shows you the card, you serve them.
Setup is easy. Businesses are typically live within 24 hours (once all necessary business information has been provided). No website required.
How it works at your venue, practically
You sign up at okuru.app/for-businesses We ask the basics: business info, venue name, address, contact person details, gift card denominations, and what redemption looks like on your end.
You go live.
When someone buys a gift card to your cafe, you get a notification. When the recipient comes in, they show you the card on their phone. You enter the amount they're redeeming. The system handles the balance, the expiry, the record-keeping, and the analytics.
No new POS hardware. No subscription you have to remember to cancel. No staff training beyond "if a customer shows you a gift card on their phone, here's how you redeem it."
What it costs
No setup fee. No monthly fee. 7.5% when you actually sell a card.
Compared to Uber Eats (around 30% in Australia), 7.5% is one of the more affordable platform fees in hospitality. And unlike delivery, this isn't taking from existing dine-in revenue: it's adding a new sales channel that wasn't there before.
The honest pitch
If you don't sell gift cards online, your venue is essentially invisible the moment someone wants to gift it.
This is fixable in about a day, with no website, no upfront cost. Apply at okuru.app/for-businesses. You'll typically be live within 24 hours (once all necessary business information has been provided). Then go back to running the brunch service.
