Cadeo is a choice-gift platform with no minimum order — also for SMEs with 5–50 employees. Setup in 15 minutes, 95% redemption rate, from €15 per recipient.
Choice Gift for Small Business — The Complete SME Guide [2026]
The Netherlands has 1.6 million SME businesses. Most don’t have an HR department, a procurement team, or the appetite for a three-week quote process for ten holiday boxes. Yet you still want to give your team something they’ll appreciate — and that fits within the WKR. This guide shows you how to arrange a choice gift as a small business: without hassle, without minimums, and without surprises on the invoice.
A choice gift is the smartest option for small businesses: your employees choose from 1,200+ products from local, impact-driven brands, you only pay for what is redeemed, and WKR administration is minimal. With Cadeo, you can arrange everything in 15 minutes — no minimum order, no contract, no hassle. Budget? From €15 per employee, fully WKR-compliant. Most SME businesses choose €35 to €50 per employee for Christmas.
Why standard holiday gift boxes don’t work for small teams
If you have a team of ten or twenty people, you run into problems that larger companies don’t have. Most holiday box suppliers require a minimum order of 25 to 50 units. That means that as a bakery with eight employees, you either order far more than you need or you have nowhere to go.
But it goes beyond quantities. In a small team, everyone knows each other. A generic holiday box with a bottle of wine and a jar of mustard feels extra impersonal — you know Mohammed doesn’t drink alcohol and Lisa is vegan. With a company of a thousand employees, that’s less noticeable. With ten people, it’s painfully obvious.
The minimum problem — 25 to 50 units required
Many suppliers require a minimum of 25–50 boxes. For a team of 8, that means ordering twice as many as you need — or looking for a more expensive alternative without a minimum. Cadeo has no minimum order: even one gift is possible.
“We’re only eight people. I couldn’t find anywhere that would let me order fewer than 25 units.”
The personalization problem — everyone gets the same thing
In a small team, every gift is visible. A wrong gift is not just wasted money, it’s a missed opportunity to show appreciation. A choice gift solves this: the recipient chooses from 1,200+ products — from Rituals and Le Creuset to gift cards from Bol.com and Dille & Kamille.
The logistics problem — no mailroom, no storage
Small business = no mailroom. Storing ten boxes until the Christmas dinner is quite an adventure when your office has three rooms. Digital gifts via Cadeo are delivered directly to the recipient’s home — without you needing any addresses. The recipient enters their own delivery address when choosing.
The solution is simple: let your employees choose for themselves. With Cadeo, there is no minimum order, everything is sent digitally, and your employees choose from one curated portal with 1,200+ products from local, impact-driven brands — refreshed by at least 30% every year. The redemption rate? 95% — compared with 50–80% for traditional boxes, where half end up in the cupboard.
What does a choice gift cost per employee at a small business?
SME businesses spend an average of €35 to €50 per employee on a year-end gift. But the real cost of a traditional holiday box is higher than the catalog price. Add in the hours spent searching, ordering, storing, and handing out the gifts — in a small business, the owner often does this themselves.
At Cadeo, you start from €15 per recipient and only pay for gifts that are actually redeemed. No platform fees, no handling fee, no shipping costs within the Netherlands. Unredeemed gifts are credited — you only pay for what was actually chosen.
| Cost item | Traditional box | Choice gift via Cadeo |
|---|---|---|
| Gift per person | €35–€50 | From €15 (you choose) |
| Minimum order | 25–50 units | None — even 1 unit |
| Shipping costs | €5–€10 per box | Included |
| Hours searching + ordering | 3–5 hours | 15-minute setup |
| Waste (unused) | 20–50% of products | 5% (95% redemption rate) |
| Contract required | Sometimes | No, per campaign |
Cadeo tip: example calculation for 15 employees
For a team of 15 employees with a budget of €40 per person, you pay €600 total. With Cadeo’s pay-on-redemption model, unredeemed budget is credited — at a 95% redemption rate, you save around €30 compared with paying upfront. Also see our guide to corporate gifting budgets for more benchmarks.
How do you arrange a choice gift without an HR department?
In most small businesses, there is no HR manager. The owner, the office manager, or “the person who always arranges the cake” is responsible for gifts. That means: it has to be fast, it has to be easy, and it cannot depend on a complicated platform or a quote process.
Cadeo is built with exactly this situation in mind. The entire process from creating an account to sending your first gift takes 15 minutes. No quote call, no demo call, no contract negotiation. You create an account, choose a budget per recipient, personalize the message, and send.
Create an account
Enter your company name and create an account. Takes 2 minutes.
Set up a campaign
Choose the budget per recipient, write a personal message, and upload your logo for a branded portal.
Add recipients
Enter names and email addresses — or upload a simple Excel file. No addresses needed.
Send
Click send. Every employee receives a link and chooses a gift from 1,200+ products.
The difference from traditional suppliers is the absence of a quote process. With many holiday box suppliers, you first fill out a form, wait for a quote, discuss the details, and sign an agreement. That makes sense for a company with 200 employees — for a team of 10, it’s overkill. Cadeo works like a webshop: choose, pay, and send. Invoice in the company name, net 30 days.
Do you already use an HRIS such as BambooHR, Personio, or HiBob? Then you can also connect Cadeo so gifts are triggered automatically for birthdays, anniversaries, or onboarding. But that’s optional — most SMEs start with a manual campaign and automate later.
WKR calculation for small payrolls — how much can you give tax-free?
The work-related costs scheme (WKR) sounds complicated, but for small businesses it’s actually quite straightforward. In 2026, you may spend 2% of the first €400,000 of payroll tax-free on reimbursements and benefits — including gifts for your employees. Above €400,000, a lower rate of 1.18% applies.
Most SME businesses are well below the €400,000 threshold. That means the simple 2% percentage applies to your entire payroll.
Example calculation — small business with 10 employees
Average salary: €3,500 gross/month × 10 employees = €420,000 payroll/year
Free space: 2% × €400,000 = €8,000 + 1.18% × €20,000 = €236
Total free space: €8,236
Choice gift €50 per employee × 10 = €500
Well within the free space — tax-free, invoiced.
Example calculation — very small business with 5 employees
Average salary: €3,000 gross/month × 5 employees = €180,000 payroll/year
Free space: 2% × €180,000 = €3,600
Choice gift €40 per employee × 5 = €200
Only 5.6% of your free space used. Enough left for birthdays, anniversaries, and a summer gift.
The great thing about the WKR for small businesses: your free space is relatively large compared with your gift budget. A gift of €40–€50 per employee always fits. With Cadeo, the WKR status is automatically shown on your invoice — you don’t need to do anything else. Read more in our in-depth WKR guide for gifts.
5 scenarios: from a 5-person bakery to a 50-person scale-up
Every small business is different. A hospitality business with 8 employees has different needs than a marketing agency with 30 people. Below are five recognizable scenarios with concrete solutions.
Scenario 1: The bakery — 5 employees
Print five QR cards and hand them out personally in the shop. Each employee scans the code and chooses a gift for themselves. No email address needed, no digital barrier. Cadeo can also deliver the cards as handwritten thank-you cards with QR codes.
Scenario 2: The architecture firm — 12 employees
Send the gift links by email to the office team and print QR cards for the employees on the construction site. €50 gives access to the full assortment — from Rituals and Le Creuset to gift cards from Bol.com and Dille & Kamille. Marie-Stella-Maris and Brabantia are popular at this budget.
Scenario 3: The marketing agency — 20 employees (50% remote)
Send digitally by email. Recipients choose for themselves and enter their own delivery address — you don’t have to collect addresses. The branded portal with your logo and a personal video message makes it feel personal despite the distance.
Scenario 4: The dental practice — 8 employees
One campaign for the whole team — including the part-timers. Choice gifts don’t distinguish between employment hours. The gesture matters, not the contract type. WKR-proof, invoiced. Brands like Boska, Forged, and Food for Skin are popular in this price range.
Scenario 5: The growing scale-up — 45 employees
Connect Cadeo to your HRIS (BambooHR, Personio, or HiBob) so new employees automatically receive a welcome gift. Combine Christmas with ongoing gifting: birthdays, anniversaries, and referral rewards. Read more about scaling gifting.
Recognizable scenario? Cadeo works for all of these situations
Whether you have 5 or 50 employees, there is no difference in platform, assortment, or price. The only thing that changes is the total amount. You can start with one gift today and scale up next year — without a new contract or a different plan.
Cadeo for small businesses — no minimum order, setup in 15 minutes
Cadeo is built for companies of any size — but the features larger customers appreciate are the same ones that make the difference for small teams. No minimum order means you can send a gift for even one employee. No contract means you order per campaign and never get locked in.
Setup in 15 minutes
Create an account, set up a campaign, send — live the same day.
No minimum order
Also for 1 employee. No minimum, no contract, no obligations.
Impact reports
40% of recipients leave a thank-you message — with AI analysis per campaign.
The assortment is the same as for larger companies: one curated portal with 1,200+ products from local, impact-driven brands — refreshed by at least 30% every year. Think Rituals, Marie-Stella-Maris, and Brabantia for wellness and lifestyle; Le Creuset, Boska, and Forged for the kitchen; and gift cards from Bol.com, Dille & Kamille, and Hema for maximum choice. Your employees can choose physical products, gift cards, experiences, and donations to charities through impact brands such as Treebytree and Sumthing. No tiers, no restrictions — the full assortment is available within any budget.
Afterwards, you receive an impact report: which products were chosen, what percentage was redeemed, and the thank-you messages your employees left. At Cadeo, 40% of recipients spontaneously leave a thank-you message — those are the moments small businesses cherish.
“We’re 14 people. I didn’t feel like dealing with yet another holiday-box site where you have to order at least 25 units. With Cadeo, I had it sorted in 15 minutes and everyone was happy.”
— Owner, marketing agency (14 employees)Smart combination: Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries in one platform
If you’re setting up a choice-gift platform for Christmas anyway, why use it only for Christmas? Most small businesses give gifts all year round: birthdays, work anniversaries, a welcome gift for a new colleague, or a summer gift as a thank-you for a busy period.
At Cadeo, you create a separate campaign for each occasion — with a different budget, a different message, and possibly different branding. You don’t have to go through a quote process again. You log in, set up the campaign, and send. That’s the Gifting as a Service model: you handle all your gifts from one place throughout the year.
| Occasion | Budget suggestion | Cadeo approach |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas / year-end | €35–€75 | Campaign with branded portal + personal message |
| Birthday | €15–€35 | Automatic via HRIS or manually per person |
| Anniversary | €50–€100 | Higher budget, personal video message |
| Onboarding | €25–€50 | Automatic trigger when a new employee is added in the HRIS |
| Summer / team appreciation | €15–€35 | Lighthearted gift as an in-between treat |
Pro tip: manage your entire appreciation policy from one place
If your team of 10 employees gets an average gift of €30 four times a year, that adds up to €1,200 per year. That fits comfortably within your WKR free space of €3,600–€8,000 (depending on payroll). You can run the entire appreciation policy through Cadeo — without an extra platform or extra costs.
The GaaS model (Gifting as a Service) works with a monthly consolidated invoice issued afterwards for all redeemed gifts. No upfront financing, no hassle with separate invoices per campaign if you don’t want that. For growing teams, this is ideal: you pay in line with what you actually give.
Frequently asked questions: choice gifts for small businesses
There is no minimum order at Cadeo. You can send a choice gift to one person or to a thousand — the platform works the same way. There is also no contract or long-term commitment. You order per campaign and only pay for gifts that are actually redeemed.
At Cadeo, prices start from €15 per recipient. You decide the budget per employee yourself. Most SME businesses choose €35 to €50 per employee for Christmas. You only pay for what is redeemed — unredeemed gifts are credited or do not appear on your invoice in the GaaS model.
Almost always. With a payroll of €200,000, you have €4,000 of free space. A gift of €50 per employee for a team of 10 costs €500 — well within the free space. The WKR free space in 2026 is 2% on the first €400,000 of payroll. Cadeo invoices in a WKR-compliant way under the company name.
Yes. You can send gift links by email, but also via a QR code on a printed card. That’s ideal for employees without a company email address, such as in construction, hospitality, or retail. The recipient scans the QR code with their phone and chooses a gift via the choice portal.
The full setup takes 15 minutes: create an account, set up a campaign, add recipients, and send. Your employees receive their gift link immediately. Digital gifts such as gift cards are available instantly; physical products are delivered to the recipient’s home within a few working days.
Cadeo is the choice-gift platform with the lowest barrier for SMEs: no minimum order, no contract, setup in 15 minutes, and invoicing in the company name. With 1,200+ products from local, impact-driven brands and a 95% redemption rate, it is especially well suited to small businesses that want to appreciate their team without hassle.
Absolutely. Most companies start with Christmas and then use Cadeo all year round: birthdays, anniversaries, welcome gifts for new employees, summer gifts, and appreciation moments in between. For each occasion you create a separate campaign with its own budget and message. With the GaaS model, you pay monthly in arrears.
