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June 3, 2025

Giftnote vs Zest, Yakk & Giftship: The Only Gifting Platform Built to Scale and Personalize on Shopify

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Corporate Gifting Should Be a Growth Lever...Not a Logistics Nightmare

If you manage ecommerce, operations, or B2B sales for a Shopify brand, you’ve likely tried turning corporate gifting into a scalable channel. And like many, you’ve probably hit the same wall:

  • Endless CSVs and address errors
  • Manual invoice creation
  • No recipient conversion tracking
  • No Shopify or Klaviyo integration
  • Long onboarding timelines
  • Tools built for enterprises, not ecommerce

You're not alone. Even leading ecommerce tech vendors like Attentive and Okendo are gifting clients and merchants year-round—but still feel the pain of inefficient workflows or clunky corporate tools.

As Nik Sharma noted on the Limited Supply podcast:
“Brands are gifting clients all the time, monthly, quarterly, and it’s still not easy. Everyone’s hacking together manual solutions or expensive software just to get it done.”
— Nik Sharma, Limited Supply, Episode S8 E7

We built Giftnote Multi Gift for exactly that reason: to remove the manual effort, give brands full control, and make gifting a performance channel,not a support ticket.

Where Other Platforms Fall Short

We’ve spoken with dozens of Shopify brands who’ve used or tested Zest, Giftship, and Yakk. Here’s what they experienced:

🟠 Zest: Built for Enterprise, Misaligned with Shopify Workflows

Zest is designed for enterprise gifting use cases and does not offer native integration with Shopify or Klaviyo.

What brands told us:

  • “Locked into expensive annual contracts even though 70% of gifting happens in Q4.”
  • “No native Shopify or Klaviyo integration.”
  • "Reporting is siloed, difficult to centralise or align with Shopify analytics"
  • “No visibility into what recipients actually do after receiving the gift.”

The takeaway: Zest runs gifting as a standalone channel, making it difficult for Shopify teams to execute, track, and scale gifting within their core stack.

⚫ Giftship: Clunky UX and Backend Issues

Giftship relies on theme-level customizations that can complicate your Shopify storefront and backend workflows.

Common feedback:

  • “The UI felt clunky and bloated inside our theme. Our team avoided using it unless absolutely necessary.”
  • “It created issues in the backend—orders weren’t syncing properly, and fulfillment became harder to manage.”
  • “We couldn’t track results, and there was no bulk or automation support.”
  • “There was little to no support when we hit roadblocks.”

The takeaway: Giftship’s setup can interfere with core Shopify workflows and doesn’t offer the tools or infrastructure needed for scalable corporate gifting.

⚪ Yakk: Shut Down. No Support.

Yakk was once a lightweight solution but the founder joined Shopify and the product was sunset abruptly

No support. No updates. No future.

Why Shopify Brands Choose Giftnote

Giftnote is built specifically for ecommerce brands that want to scale corporate gifting without blowing up operations or needing engineering help.

✅ Native to Shopify

  • Self service portal with CSV upload, fully integrated with Shopiify
  • Payment through Shopify checkout - programatic creation of individual orders for easy fulfillment in Shopify
  • Real-time inventory syncing and address validation
  • Self-serve portal for internal teams, sales reps, and B2B clients
  • Klaviyo integration for lifecycle and post-gifting automations
  • Accurate integrated Shipping and Taxes
  • Built in customisations for gift orders.

✅ Predictable, Scalable Pricing

  • Flat $1/recipient, no commissions or take rates
  • No lock-in contracts, scale when it makes sense for your business
  • Easy to offset with a simple handling fee

✅ Real Marketing ROI

  • Capture recipient emails at checkout
  • Convert them into subscribers and customers
  • Our average is 5% conversion over 1000 brands with Giftnote installed, but some average closer to 20% conversion rate (gift recipients turning into first time customers)

✅ Access to Giftnote’s Corporate Gifting Marketplace

  • Get discovered by HR, sales, and marketing teams searching for DTC gifting vendors
  • We drive qualified traffic, you fulfill, you own the customer
Bonus: 1:1 Gifting That Feels Personal (and Scales)

While corporate gifting is the core, Giftnote also powers delightful 1:1 gifting flows for surprise-and-delight, loyalty, influencer seeding, or VIP moments.

  • Add post-purchase gifting to your store
  • Let customers send personalized notes and messages
  • Re-engage recipients via Klaviyo and turn them into loyal shoppers

All from the same platform. All Shopify-native.

What Your Peers Say
“Multi-order gifting had been on our roadmap for years, but with a small team, it always felt out of reach. When Nick from Giftnote reached out, the demo made it an instant yes. For something so complex, it was surprisingly easy to set up. It replaced hours of CSV juggling with a simple, scalable solution—especially during peak seasons. If your customers need to place multi-address or bulk orders, this is a no-brainer.”
Erin Bishop - Cutter & Squidge
Ready to Scale Corporate Gifting Without the Overhead?

Zest locks you in. Giftship breaks under pressure. Yakk is gone.

Giftnote gives your team the flexibility to scale corporate gifting, track ROI, and grow your business without adding manual work.

👉 Book a demo

Need a one-pager or slide deck version of this for agency pitches or internal approvals? Just say the word.

Ready to get started?

Install Giftnote today and build your gifting revenue channel.

find it on the
Shopify App Store
Automated gifting
Paperless & branded
New revenue stream
or, book a demo with our team.