Corporate Gifts for Clients

Corporate gift giving is the practice of a company giving a gift to a client, an employee or a partner to mark a working relationship. In my view a company should give a client a gift for one reason: to thank a person for trust they have already shown.

I would not treat a client gift as marketing. A gift sent to win work asks for something, and I think the client can tell. A gift sent after the work is done asks for nothing. To my mind that decides whether the gift is welcome and whether it is proper, which is why this page deals with gift policy before it deals with budget.

We advise leaving your logo off the outside of all of these.

Give a new client something small that their whole office can share, and send it after the first piece of work is delivered. By then you have done something for them, and the gift thanks them for the start.

I would keep it modest, because a costly gift in the first months can feel out of proportion to a relationship that is still new. Coffee, tea or a hamper for the office kitchen suits this stage. Address it to your contact and name the team in the card, so the people who did the daily work with you are included. Do not send anything before the contract is signed.

A long-standing client should receive one item chosen for that person, based on something you know about them. After three years or more you should know what they read or which team they follow, and the gift should show it.

Keep a note through the year of what your contact mentions: a book they want, a restaurant, a hobby, a child starting university. In my view the worth of the gift lies in that attention more than in the amount spent. I would also avoid sending the same gift two years running, which is one reason to keep a record.

If your contact has changed since the account began, treat the new person as a new client and the company as an old one. Send a personal card to the company’s leader and a small gift to the new contact.

Give a client you nearly lost nothing until the problem is fixed, and then send a modest gift with a card that names what went wrong and what you changed.

A gift sent while the complaint is still open can read as an attempt to buy the matter closed. I would follow this order: apologise in person or by telephone, fix the fault, confirm in writing what has changed, and only then send something. Keep it small. I think a large gift after a failure draws attention to the failure. The card matters more than the gift here, and it should come from the most senior person involved.

Thank a client for a referral in the same week, with a card that names the person they sent you and a gift of modest value.

Send it when the introduction is made, whether or not it becomes business. I would not tie the gift to the size of the deal, because a gift that rises with the value of the work begins to resemble a commission. If you want to pay commission for referrals, set that up openly as a written arrangement and keep it separate from gifts. Tell the client afterwards how the introduction went. I think that report is worth as much to them as the gift.

Searches for corporate gifts for clients rose to 170 in November 2025, against 20 in March 2026.

Send a client’s whole team one gift they can share in the office, on a day when they are together.

A shared gift suits a team because nobody is left out. It is also the safer choice where the client’s gift policy sets a limit for each person. I would choose food or drink that keeps for a few days, in a quantity that matches the number of people, and I would ask the contact’s assistant about dietary requirements first. Lunch delivered at the close of a project is another choice. Name the team, or its members, in the card. If the team works across two offices, send to both on the same day.

Give a client who has just started a business something useful for the new office and, if you can, an introduction to someone they need to meet.

A plant for the reception, good coffee for the first months or a book by a founder in their field all suit the moment. I think the introduction is worth more than any of them, because a new business is still looking for clients and suppliers, and a name passed on with a personal note costs you nothing. Send the gift in the opening week, with a card that wishes the business well by name.

Do this before you choose anything. Under regulation 13(h) of the Public Service Regulations, as amended with effect from 1 November 2023, an employee in the public service may not accept gifts in the course of their work worth more than R500 in total in a year without approval. If your client is a municipality, a state-owned company, a university or a private company, ask for its own gift policy.

• Ask your contact, or their assistant, what they may accept.
• If there is a limit, stay under it, or send something the whole office shares.
• Do not send a gift while that client is deciding on a tender or a contract with you.

A gift that breaks the policy may have to be declined or handed back.

Set a figure for each client before you look at a single product, and keep a higher figure for a few accounts. Then spend the budget on fewer people. I would rather send ten well-chosen gifts than two hundred branded diaries.

As a guide to the top tier, our leather belts cost between R3,500 and R5,000 and our leather backpacks between R14,150 and R22,150. For a client in the public service, the working limit is R500 in a year.

Under R500 suits a card with a book, or coffee for the office, and each band above it suits a closer relationship, up to one made-to-order piece above R10,000. The bands describe what you plan to spend on one client, and the ideas are my suggestions. Ask for quotes before you fix a figure.

Delivery, the card and the box come out of the same figure. Add up what one client receives across the year as well, because the public service limit counts gifts over a year and not one at a time.

I advise against December, when your client is most likely to receive other gifts. I prefer one of these moments:

• The anniversary of the day they signed with you.
• The week a project closes.
• Late January, when the working year begins.

If you do send at year end, send in the last week of November. Our article on year-end corporate gifts has the order dates.

The occasions that call for a client gift are a signed deal, a milestone in the work, a milestone of the client’s own, a referral, an apology and the year end. I would choose one or two of these for each client and not all six.

A referral and an apology each have their own section earlier on this page. Our article on year-end corporate gifts has the planning timeline and the order dates.

Do not give a client cash, alcohol you are not sure they drink, anything personal in nature, or any gift that could look like payment for a decision.

• Cash. I would never send money. I think it is the gift most easily read as an inducement.
• Alcohol, unless you know. Send wine or spirits only to a person you know drinks them, and never as the default for a whole list.
• Personal items. I would leave out perfume, jewellery and clothing in a guessed size. To my mind they belong to private life.
• A gift during a decision. The policy section covers tenders and contracts. I would take the same care during a renewal or a price negotiation.
• A gift that is too large. If the client would be uncomfortable telling a colleague or their manager about it, it is too much.
• Food sent without asking. Check dietary requirements, and check that the office is open.
• An advertisement. I count an item covered in your logo as promotional stock. Do not present it as a gift.

No. I would leave your logo off the gift itself and put your name on the card and, if you wish, on the box.

A gift is for the person who receives it. In my view an object that carries your logo is used less freely, because it advertises you each time it is seen. If the gift is to be personalised, use the client’s initials and not your company’s mark.

Branded items have a place at an event or in a welcome pack. Budget for them as marketing, and keep them apart from the gifts you send to thank someone. Where your company requires a mark, keep it small and put it inside.

Write a short, handwritten note that names the work you did together and thanks the person, and leave out anything that sells.

• Address the client by the name you use when you speak to them.
• Name one project, decision or moment from your work together.
• Say thank you once, in plain words.
• Do not mention new services, prices or a meeting you want.
• Do not enclose a business card or a brochure.
• Have it signed by the person who holds the relationship, and by the head of your company for your most important accounts.

Deliver a client gift by hand when you can, and by courier to the client’s office, addressed to a named person, when you cannot.

I would hand it over at the end of a meeting, never at the start, so the meeting is not about the gift. For a courier delivery, ask the client’s assistant which day the person is in the office and who will sign for the parcel. Send to a home address only if the client has offered it.

Before the courier collects, confirm that your contact still works there, and check the spelling of their name and their company’s name against their own email signature.

Afterwards, do not telephone to ask whether the gift arrived and then raise business in the same call. Check the courier’s tracking. For gifts going to several cities at once, our year-end article sets out the steps.

Keep a record of client gifts in one spreadsheet, with a row for every gift and one person responsible for it. Each row needs six entries.

• The client company and the person who received the gift.
• The date and the occasion.
• What was sent, and what it cost with delivery.
• Who in your company sent it and who approved it.
• The client’s gift limit, if they have told you one.
• Whether it was accepted, declined or returned.

The record stops you sending the same gift twice, and it shows the total given to one person in a year, which matters where a yearly limit applies. It also gives your accountant what they need. Ask them how client gifts should be treated in your books before the first one goes out.

For a small number of clients we make leather backpacks, belts and shoes to order. Each piece arrives in its own gift box, with a card.

Our pieces take two months from the day you approve the order. See our corporate gifting page for prices and how to order.

• Corporate Gift Ideas
• Year-End Corporate Gifts