Black Friday and Cyber Monday can lift gift-card sales, while the same promotional period gives restaurants a chance to secure catering business for holiday events in the weeks ahead. Those opportunities arrive on different timelines, but they share the same risk: a promotion that looks successful at checkout can become expensive later if pricing, staffing, or kitchen capacity cannot keep up.
New holiday research found that 93% of budget-setting US shoppers plan to buy gift cards this season. Restaurant gift-card data from last Thanksgiving weekend also showed purchases shifting earlier, with Black Friday sales rising while Cyber Monday sales fell year over year. At the same time, Uber’s $2.3 billion agreement to acquire ezCater has put fresh attention on the scale of restaurant catering as operators prepare for year-end parties, office events, and other holiday orders.
Build the offer around the outcome
A gift-card promotion and a holiday catering push should not be treated as the same campaign. One is designed to bring in cash now and visits later; the other is meant to secure larger orders for specific dates in the weeks ahead.
Timing also deserves more thought than simply waiting for Thanksgiving week. McKinsey’s 2026 holiday research found that 45% of US consumers expected to begin shopping by the end of October, with another 24% starting in November before Black Friday. Restaurants can use that broader pattern alongside their own November gift-card sales, catering inquiries, deposits, and online-ordering traffic to decide when promotions should go live.
The offer itself does not have to hinge on the deepest discount. A defined holiday catering package, spend threshold, future-visit bonus, or low-cost add-on can create value without giving away margin across every order.
Price gift cards and catering on their own terms
Gift cards bring in cash immediately, but the cost arrives when customers redeem them. Before adding a bonus, calculate what the purchased and promotional value could cost once food, labor, packaging, payment fees, and channel expenses are factored in.
Holiday catering carries a different set of costs. An order booked during Cyber Week may not be fulfilled until later in November or December, so operators need to price each event with production labor, packaging, delivery, setup, staffing, and discounts in mind. Minimum orders, lead times, pickup or delivery windows, deposits, and daily event limits should be settled before the promotion starts.
Gift-card terms also deserve legal review. Federal gift-card rules generally require purchased gift-card funds to remain available for at least five years, while qualifying promotional cards are treated differently and carry specific disclosure requirements. State laws may impose additional rules, so expiration terms and disclosures should be checked before launch.
Protect the holiday calendar before it fills
Catering sold around Black Friday can put pressure on dates weeks later. Set realistic limits for events per day, orders per pickup window, package quantities, promotional redemptions, and available prep hours. Prior holiday staffing and production records can help establish those limits before the calendar becomes difficult to manage.
The buying experience deserves the same attention. Run the full customer journey on a phone, including gift-card delivery, catering forms, menu selection, promo codes, payment, pickup windows, confirmations, and redemption instructions. Managers should also know when and how to pause an offer once a date or service window reaches capacity.
The scale behind the Uber-ezCater deal shows why that discipline is worth having. ezCater reported more than $2.5 billion in trailing-12-month gross bookings across more than 140,000 restaurants, with average order values above $400.
Follow the revenue beyond Cyber Week
The first weekend of sales only tells part of the story. Over the next 30, 60, and 90 days, restaurants should watch gift-card redemptions, bonus value used, completed catering events, contribution per order, repeat visits, and repeat bookings.
A promotion can look strong in November and still disappoint once redemptions, labor, and fulfillment costs catch up with it. The better plan is one that wins holiday business now without creating a margin or capacity problem that follows the restaurant into the new year.
