Shopify Gift Cards Explained: A Detailed How-To Guide

Welcome to our detailed how-to guide that carefully explains Shopify gift cards. Gift cards are an essential element of most e-commerce websites. They tend to increase sales and attract new customers. But what’s the story behind gift cards in Shopify?

The following article explains everything you need to know about Shopify gift cards. How do gift cards work? What are their types? How to add gift cards to your catalog? How to sell them on a storefront? You will find the answers to these and many other answers below.

First of all, we explain what gift cards are and how they work on your website from the customer’s perspective. Next, you will learn how to manage cards in your Shopify admin. We demonstrate how to create a gift card product and find it in your administration. You will also discover how to activate the feature, add new gift card products, update the existing gift cards, change their expiry date, add discounts, etc. At the end, there is a short chapter that explains the nuances of Shopify gift card import and export.

What Are Shopify Gift Cards?

A Shopify gift card is a special type of product that holds value and can be used for future purchases on your e-commerce site or in a physical store.

Shopify gift cards can be utilized in any of the following ways:

• Selling them online through your storefront.
• Posting links to your gift card product pages on social media.
• Giving a consumer a gift card at no cost as a reward or additional engagement instrument.

For instance, you may add a Shopify gift card as a present to an already existing order while fulfilling it. A customer then receives an email containing a special gift card code that they may apply at checkout. The code is used to redeem the gift card value when they complete an order. Note that it is possible to use their gift cards both offline and online.

Shopify lets buyers redeem their gift cards on any of the following sales channels (if they are linked to Shopify’s checkout):

• Online storefront;
• Facebook Shop;
• Buy Button;
• Messenger;
• POS.

How Do Shopify Gift Cards Work?

Now, we’d like to explain how buyers use gift cards at Shopify stores. If the feature is enabled and there are active gift cards, a customer can redeem gift card value while purchasing at your e-commerce store. In this case, Shopify gift cards work as follows:

1. A gift card owner completes a purchase on your website;
2. They enter a gift card’s unique code in the appropriate field on the checkout page;
3. The discount is applied to the order.

Other useful facts to illustrate how Shopify gift cards work:

• A gift card balance is applied to the total order value, including taxes and shipping.
• A gift card balance can be spent on several orders.
• If a gift card balance is less than the order total, a customer should choose a second payment method to complete the purchase.
• To purchase Shopify gift cards for someone else, a customer needs to purchase a gift card and then forward the gift card email to the recipient.
• Gift card codes are case-insensitive.

Thats how gift cards work from the perspective of customers. But there is another side – all the processes that take place in your Shopify administration.

Basic Management Tips

Now, let’s look at how gift cards work on the admin side. As a store administrator, you can create new gift cards, view and manage the status of each gift card, and do lots of other duties in your Shopify admin.

Before you can start selling gift cards, activate Shopify gift cards as follows:

1. Go to the “Shopify Gift Cards” screen under Admin -> Products.
2. Click “Add gift card product”.

Congratulations! Your first Shopify gift card was created. Its status is still draft. We describe how to change that and configure your new gift card product in a while. Now, it is necessary to focus on other basic tasks associated with gift cards.

Viewing a gift card’s detailed information is another part of the workflow. You can proceed to the corresponding page by clicking the gift card code.

Here, you check facts about the gift card, such as its balance remaining, the order number connected to the gift card, the name of the client who ordered the gift card, and its expiration date.

By clicking the link under “Expiration date,” you can modify the expiration date of Shopify gift cards.

Previewing a gift card product in Shopify is another important step you need to master. Follow these steps to see how your customers see a gift card product page:

1. Open a gift card product details page for a gift card that you want to preview.
2. Click “Preview”.

Alternatively, you can use the preview icon on the Products page. Hover over your gift card product and hit the icon to preview it:

If you no longer need some of your Shopify gift cards, the platform lets you disable them. Note that this process is permanent. It means that disabled gift cards cannot be restored.

You can disable a Shopify gift card as follows:

1. Proceed to Products > Gift Cards in your admin.
2. Open the gift card details page by clicking on its code.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Disable”.

You can email an updated gift card to the original customer if they forget their gift card code or need to update their balance. Only the sum remaining on a partially used gift card is delivered to the customer. Let’s see how to use Shopify gift cards if you need to email them to a customer:

1. Go to the “Gift Cards” screen under Admin -> Products.
2. Open the gift card that you want to resend.
3. Click “Resend” on the right.

Alternatively, you can resend several Shopify gift cards in bulk:

1. On the “Gift Cards” page, check the gift cards you want to send.
2. Click “Actions”.
3. Select “Resend selected gift cards”.

That’s it. Now, your client will get a message with the remaining gift card balance.

3 Steps Before You Start Selling Gift Cards on Shopify

Now that you are familiar with the basic functionality associated with Shopify gift cards, we’d like to explain how to create gift card products in Shopify’s admin to be able to sell them. You will learn these three things:

• How to add gift cards to Shopify by creating a new gift card product;
• How to publish gift card products to specific sales channels;
• How to add gift cards to your Shopify store by adding them to the store’s navigation.

Let’s see how to sell gift cards on Shopify.

Add gift cards to your store

You can add Shopify gift cards to your store as follows:

1. Go to Shopify admin -> Products > Gift Cards.
2. Click “Add a gift card product”.
3. Specify the following information to add a gift card to Shopify:
   • Title – specify a gift card product name;
   • Description – specify a gift card product that appears on your storefront;
     
   • Media – upload a product image shown on the product page;
   • Denominations – these are product variants with a different balance. Add as many as you need;
     
   • Search engine listing preview – edit a gift card product page appearance in search engine results;
     
   • Sales channels and apps – here, you can change the status of your Shopify gift cards, select sales channels to publish your gift card product (check channels where you want your product to appear), and specify a publishing date (click Schedule availability and select a publish date);
   • Organization – add optional information about your new product here: the product type and vendor, collections, tags, etc.
4. Click “Save” when finished.

That’s how to add gift cards to Shopify. Click the gift card product name in the list of products to update an existing gift card product.

Publish them to specific sales channels

When learning how to sell Shopify gift cards, it’s crucial to remember that simply creating a new gift card product isn’t enough. By default, new gift cards are hidden from your active sales channels. To start selling them, you must publish the gift card to one or more of your active sales channels.

You can publish a Shopify  gift card product to sales channels in the availability settings on its details page as follows:

1. Proceed to Products -> Gift cards and click “View gift card products” or filter out the selection of items on the Products page to display gift cards.
2. Choose the gift card that you want to publish.
3. In the “Sales channels and apps” section, click “Manage”.
4. Make the gift card product available to one or more of your active sales channels by checking them.
   
5. Click “Save” when finished.

Add cards to the store’s navigation

Now that your gift card product is created, you need to add Shopify gift cards to your store’s navigation system. This procedure takes place outside the Gift Cards section. Follow these steps to add gift cards to your Shopify store:

1. Go to the “Navigation” page;
2. Click the name of the menu to add your gift card product.
   
3. Proceed to the “Menu items” section and click “Add menu item”.
   
4. Proceed to the “Name” field to add gift cards to the Shopify store. Specify your gift card product’s name that is displayed on the storefront.
5. Proceed to the “Link” list to add the product:
   • Choose “Products”;
   • Select the gift card product to add to your store’s navigation;
     
   • Hit “Add”.
6. Save your menu.

That’s it! Now, you know how to add Shopify gift cards to your store and its navigation. Still, there are a few aspects of gift card management to be discussed. Let’s see what other actions will help you sell gift cards on Shopify.

Advanced Management Tips & Tricks

Here, you’ll find additional tips for managing and selling Shopify gift cards. This chapter covers how to add new denominations to gift card products, place gift cards in collections, adjust expiry settings, configure fulfillment options, and apply discounts to gift cards. Let’s dive into setting up gift cards on Shopify.

How to add new product denominations

First, let’s see how to set different denominations on Shopify gift cards. In a nutshell, you need to create product variants for your gift card product. We’ve already described this process for common products here – how to add product variants on Shopify. However, a more in-depth instruction focused on gift cards is available below. Below, you will learn how to add new gift card product denominations on Shopify:

1. Go to your Shopify admin and proceed to “Products”.
2. Filter out your gift cards.
3. Click the gift card to add new gift card product denominations.
4. Proceed to the “Variants” section and click “Add variant”. Add as many variants as you need. Each variant is a new denomination.
5. Configure your new gift card product denominations by specifying their titles, prices, and images.
   • In the Variants section, click the trash can icon beside the variant that you want to remove.
6. Click “Save” to add new product denominations to Shopify gift cards.

How to add a gift card product to a collection

There are several ways to add gift card products to Shopify collections. It is another essential step in selling Shopify gift cards. You can display them in either manual collections or automated collections in the same manner as other products.

Here’s how to sell Shopify gift cards by adding them directly to an existing manual collection from the gift card’s product details page:

1. Find the gift card you want to edit on either the “Gift cards” page or the “Products” page.
2. Proceed to the “Collections” field in the “Product Organization” section.
3. Specify the name of an existing manual collection to add your gift card product.
4. Hit the collection name to add the gift card.
   
5. Save your gift card product.

Alternatively, you can add a gift card product from the collection’s page as follows:

1. Proceed to Collections.
2. Open a manual collection to add your gift card product.
3. Proceed to the collection’s Products section.
4. Browse for your gift card product and add it to the collection.
   
5. Save your manual collection with a gift card product.

Now, we’d like to describe how to sell Shopify gift cards by adding them to automated collections. The process differs from the previous methods a lot because automated collections involve a distinct approach to products. Follow these steps to add gift cards to automated Shopify collections:

1. Create a product tag for your gift card product;
2. Open an automated Shopify collection to add a gift card product.
3. In the collection conditions, add a new condition: click “Add another condition”.
4. Create a condition to add gift cards to the collection:
   • Choose a condition type (first drop-down) – “Product type” or “Product tag”;
   • Select how a product should match the condition to display in the collection (second drop-down) – “is equal to”;
   • Specify a condition value (third field) – type your product type (Gift Cards) or tag here. Note that you need to assign them to your product in advance;
     
   • Add more conditions if necessary by clicking “Add another condition”.
5. Click “Save”.

Note that if you select “any conditions”, all products available in the collection before will still be displayed. However, if you choose “all conditions”, the collection will contain only products with the specified tag that also follow the other conditions set before.

How to change expiry settings

Although there is no default expiration date or period for this kind of product, you can set Shopify gift cards to expire after a specific amount of time. When you activate this feature, all gift cards will automatically expire five years after their activation date. However, you can change the length of this period as follows:

1. Proceed to Settings -> Gift Cards.
2. Go to “Gift cards expire” and set the expiration details: specify either never or any custom date.
   
3. Click “Save”.

Also, you can change the expiration date for each specific gift card. For instance, you’ve already sold a gift card to a customer. Its value is still unused, but it will expire soon. You can prolong the gift card’s expiration date and inform a customer about that, motivating them to make a purchase.

This is how to regulate the expiration settings of already-sold Shopify gift cards:

1. Go to Products -> Gift Cards.
2. Choose a gift card to edit its expiration date.
3. Click the current expiration date (it is Never in our example).
4. Check “Set expiration date” and specify the new date in the “Expires on” field.
   
5. Save your gift card when finished.

It is extremely important to verify whether you follow the rules and regulations for gift cards in your country.

How to configure fulfillment settings

Shopify gift cards are fulfilled automatically when an order is paid. However, it is possible to change the fulfillment setting to manually fulfill all items in the order. This implies that gift cards are not fulfilled automatically. How to use gift cards in this case? You can change the default fulfillment settings for gift cards as follows:

1. Proceed to Settings -> Checkout and Accounts.
2. Scroll to the “Order Processing” section;
3. After an order has been paid, you can check one of the following options depending on your needs:
   • Automatically fulfill the order‘s line items – this one fulfills everything automatically;
   • Automatically fulfill only the gift cards of the order – this one fulfills only gift cards automatically;
   • Don’t fulfill any of the order’s line items automatically – this one doesn’t fulfill anything automatically;
     
4. Click “Save”.

How to add a discount

If you want to learn how to sell Shopify gift cards with a discount, you’ve come to the right place. Pay heed to the fact that gift cards included in a collection are not eligible for discounts that apply to collections. However, you can establish discount codes or automatic discounts that alter the gift card product price. The following methods can be used to sell gift cards on Shopify with a discount:

• A specific percentage, like 10% of the face value of the gift card.
• A specific sum, such as $10 off the face value of the gift card.

You can give the discount without requiring a minimum purchase, or you can demand a certain purchase before it takes effect, like with a Buy X Get Y deal, to sell gift cards on Shopify

However, the automatic discounts are subject to the following limitations:

• At any given time, there can only be one active automatic discount.
• Discount codes cannot be used concurrently, and automatic discounts take precedence over them.
• No more than one discount can be used on a single order by the customer.
• Customers with an automatic discount applied at checkout are not eligible for discount codes.

Before a discount is applied, customers must put each of the eligible goods in their shopping carts. This applies to the gift card item as well as any additional goods they must purchase to be eligible for the discount.

Discount for a percentage off a gift card

Shopify lets you create a discount for a percentage off of a specific gift card product or variant, which can be either a discount code or an automatic discount, as follows:

1. Go to the “Discounts” page in your admin.
2. Create a new discount for an amount off products:
   
   • Specify the percentage to discount the gift card in the “Discount value” field: to offer a $50 gift card for $25, enter 50%.
   • Choose the gift card product or variant in the “Applies to” section.
     
3. Configure other parameters and save your discount to apply to Shopify gift cards.

Buy X Get Y discount

Alternatively, it is possible to create a Buy X Get Y discount for a free gift card, such as “Spend X and get a free Y gift card”.

1. Go to the “Discounts” page in your admin
2. Create a Buy X Get Y discount:
   1. Add a minimum purchase amount in the “Customer spends” section.
   2. Select products or collections eligible for the discount.
   3. Select “Any items from” in the “Customer gets” section and add the gift card product or variant.
   4. Choose “Free” for the discount value.
   5. You can also check “Set the maximum number of uses per order” to apply a limit on the maximum number of times this discount can be applied to an order.
      
   6. Configure other parameters and save your discount.

Import & Export

Unfortunately, you can only export Shopify gift cards to a CSV file to review their information in a spreadsheet, such as outstanding balances. It is impossible to import a CSV file with gift card information back to Shopify to create gift card products unless you use a third-party app.

Let’s see the structure of an exported gift card CSV:

To get this information in a spreadsheet, export Shopify gift cards as follows:

1. Proceed to Products > Gift cards.
2. Click “Export”.
3. Select a range of gift cards that should be exported:
   • Current page – gift cards visible on the page;
   • All gift cards – all your gift cards;
   • Selected gift card – checked gift cards;
   • Current Search – a list of gift cards with a search or filter applied.
4. Choose “CSV for Excel, Numbers, and other spreadsheet programs” to be able to open your CSV file in Excel or another editor.
5. Click “Export Gift Cards”.
   

That’s it. What to do if you want to import Shopify gift cards? We recommend installing a third-party import tool, such as the Import & Export Tool for Shopify. See our Shopify Gift Card Import guide for further information.

Conclusion

Using Shopify gift cards is incredibly straightforward. You don’t need any extra skills or tools to enable the corresponding functionality and start selling them on Shopify. As a store administrator, you will find setting up gift cards in Shopify to be both intuitive and hassle-free. You can easily create gift card products, add them to collections, send gift card codes to customers, apply discounts to gift cards, and do other things associated with this entity in a matter of a few clicks. Managing these processes is seamless, allowing you to enhance your store’s offerings without any complications. This makes Shopify’s built-in gift card functionality an excellent addition to boost customer satisfaction and drive sales.

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