Behind every corporate gift is a network of suppliers whose businesses can be affected by decisions made long before the finished product reaches its recipient.
According to sales data from a major South African gifting supplier, corporate gifting revenue increased by 45% during the 2025 year-end period compared with average sales for the rest of the year. Behind that seasonal surge are businesses whose livelihoods can be shaped by the decisions buyers make.
A substantial order can give a small supplier cash flow certainty, allow them to buy materials in bigger quantities, bring in extra people or invest in equipment. It can create opportunities to increase production and take on work they otherwise could not.
But the same order can expose a small business to financial risk when timelines are tight, requirements keep changing or a client decides not to proceed.
For Vicki Scheffel, founder of social impact gifting company GeSkenk, this is an important part of the industry that seldom gets the attention it deserves.
An order can have a huge value chain behind it, with consequences reaching businesses and people far beyond the company supplying the finished gift.
The businesses behind a single gift
Consider what goes into producing 300 gifts. There may be the original maker, raw material suppliers, printers, engravers, packaging suppliers and fulfilment teams. If it’s something bespoke, the chain can include seamstresses, woodworkers, illustrators and community organisations.
Then there is the work involved in ideation and sourcing, supplier management, artwork, quality control, assembly and getting everything to the right place on time.
Often, those involved are buying from or outsourcing to other small businesses too, so the chain goes even further than the client can see.
Scheffel believes most companies would be genuinely surprised by how far one gifting budget can travel through the local economy before the gift even reaches its recipient.
When the risk moves down the supply chain
Timing and budget are probably the biggest pressures during the year-end season, but there are lots of knock-on effects.
Suppliers may need to secure materials well in advance, and certain products can only be made at particular times because of factory production schedules or year-end shutdowns.
If approvals come late, a business can suddenly lose access to a material or a production slot, or even another supplier altogether.
At year-end, everyone is also competing for the same printers, packaging companies, factories and couriers. A delay that feels small on the client side can create a much bigger problem further down the chain.
Smaller businesses often absorb upfront material costs, labour, wastage and transport, along with the risk of late changes or cancellations, long before the client sees the finished order.
Scheffel recently experienced an example of how these pressures can play out.
A large corporate client led GeSkenk to believe that a substantial year-end order was going ahead. With timelines already tight, several suppliers started preparing and, in some cases, actually making products.
The client kept changing the brief and quantities, along with other requirements. Everyone continued adapting around them. Then the client simply disappeared and stopped responding.
From the client’s side, it may have looked like an order they decided not to proceed with. Behind the scenes, small suppliers had already committed time and materials, as well as production capacity.
Those commitments don’t disappear when a client does.
What an order can make possible
One order can also create opportunities throughout a supplier’s own network. A business may spend with printers, packers, couriers, fabricators or freelancers to get the work out the door. If substantial orders turn into repeat business, suppliers can actually plan ahead.
According to Scheffel, the biggest difference is usually whether an order is treated as a once-off transaction or the start of a relationship.
Fair pricing and decent lead times, particularly when accompanied by repeat work, can give a small business the confidence to grow rather than just survive the job.
A decision made in a boardroom can create work and income for people the decision-maker will probably never meet.
A responsibility that starts before the purchase order
Scheffel notes that clients don’t always realise how early suppliers need to make commitments to fulfil an order.
Procurement decisions tend to focus on budgets and quantities, deadlines and the finished product. Yet the way an order is managed has consequences for every business involved in delivering it.
Supporting sustainable small businesses requires an understanding of the commercial realities they operate within. That includes being realistic about lead times and recognising the impact of changing requirements when suppliers are already carrying upfront costs and production risks.
As companies finalise their year-end gifting decisions, there is an opportunity to consider the people and businesses involved long before the gifts are handed over.
A corporate gifting budget may look like a single line item on a spreadsheet. For the businesses behind it, the decisions made around that budget can shape their ability to grow, plan for the future or even survive.