Gift Card Management

There are two ways to provide gift cards to your customers: manually sending them or offering gift card products for purchase. In both cases, gift card information is sent to customers via email or SMS. Customers can use the remaining balance on their gift cards to reduce the total amount of their orders when shopping at your store.

In this guide, you'll learn how to create, distribute, manage, and track gift cards within your SHOPLINE store, ensuring a smooth gifting experience for both you and your customers.

Creating Gift Card Products

1. In your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Products > Gift cards and click Create a gift card.
   
2. On the gift card creation page, define the gift card product details: 

• Set Product Information: Provide the product details for your gift card, including title, description, images, price, shipping details, and weight.
  

• Set Face Value: The system offers pre-set face values of USD 10, USD 25, USD 50, and USD 100. You can add, delete, or modify these values. The face value becomes the product style and price that customers see when browsing and buying.
  

  Important: Different regions may have different legal regulations on gift card face values. Check your local regulations before setting the face value to avoid penalties.

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  • Delete Face Value: If you want to remove a face value, click the minus icon next to the value you want to delete.
    
     
  • Categorize Your Gift Card: Similar to other products, you can categorize your gift card using a pre-created collection or smart categorization. Click Add new next to Collections to assign a collection to your gift card.
    
     
  • Publish Your Gift Card: Once you've finished defining your gift card, remember to select its sales channels by clicking Manage and enable the Activate switch to make it visible to customers. 
    

3. After creating your gift card, view it by going to the Products section, locating the created gift card product, and clicking the eye icon. This will direct you to the product details page.
   

Viewing and Editing Gift Card Products

You can view and edit your gift card products through two ways:

• Filter in the Products Page: In the Products page, click More filters and select Gift card to filter and view only your gift card products.
  
   
• View from the Gift Cards Section: Alternatively, go directly to the Gift cards section and click View gift card products to see all your gift cards.
  

Creating and Sending Gift Cards

In your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Products > Gift cards and click Create gift card. Then, configure the following details:

1. Customize the gift card details for the specific customer:
   • Gift Card Code: It is suggested to personalize the gift card code using the customer's name or a relevant holiday theme (e.g., "happynewyear"). Currently, a gift card code can consist of 8 to 20 characters, supporting only numbers and lowercase alphabets.
   • Face Value: Set the gift card amount. Customers can use it to offset the corresponding amount of their order total. Remember to check your local regulations to avoid penalties for violations.

   • Expiry Date: Set an expiration date if needed. The gift card will expire on the day after the specified date (based on your store's time zone). 

     Important: Ensure you comply with your region's legal requirements for gift card expiry.

2. In the Select or add a buyer section, choose the customer to whom you want to send the gift card.

3. To send the gift card to a recipient on the customer’s behalf, fill in the Send as a gift section:

   • Recipient: The recipient’s email address. Required to enable recipient delivery. It must be a valid address, no longer than 50 characters. 
   • Recipient display name: The recipient's preferred name displayed in the notification email (optional; up to 255 characters).
   • Gift message: A personalized note to include in the recipient’s gift card email (optional, up to 255 characters). 
   • Send time: The date and time to deliver the gift card to the recipient (optional). You can schedule delivery up to 90 days from today. Dates beyond 90 days are automatically adjusted to the 90th day.

   Note: If the recipient email is missing or invalid, the gift card will be sent to the customer immediately instead. You can edit recipient details before the gift card email has been sent to them. Once the email is delivered, recipient information cannot be modified, and the recipient cannot be removed.

4. Optionally add a note. 
5. Click Add to send the gift card.

Viewing Distributed Gift Cards

1. In your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Products > Gift cards and click on a specific gift card to view its information.
2. In the gift card page, you can view the following details:

• Balance 
• Creation date 
• Expiry date
• Remarks (added by you)
• Recipient information (if a recipient was set), including email, nickname, personal message, and scheduled send date
• Usage history 

Managing Gift Cards

You can manage all your gift cards in the Products > Gift cards section of your SHOPLINE admin panel. Here's what you can do:

• Search: Enter the full code (without spaces) or customer name in the search bar and click the search icon to search for gift cards.
  
• Filter: Filter gift cards by various criteria like Status (enabled, expired soon, disabled, expired), Balance (unused, partially used, fully used), Value, Distribution Date, and Distribution Method (distributed, purchased, generated).
  
• Sort: Sorting is a useful method when you’re trying to find a gift card that matches specific criteria. Sort gift cards on the Gift cards section by various criteria, such as total balance and expiry date. 
  
• View Details: Click a gift card code to view its details, including balance, linked order number, customer name, expiry date, and recipient information (if applicable).
  

• Send Notifications: You can send the gift card to the customer or to the recipient from the gift card details page.

  • Send to Customer: Sends the gift card email to the purchasing customer.
  • Send to Recipient: Sends the gift card email to the recipient. If a scheduled send date has been set and not yet reached, this button is grayed out and shows the scheduled delivery time.

  To resend in bulk from the gift card list, select the gift cards you want to resend, click Resend, then choose:

  • To buyers: Resends to gift cards with a valid customer email.
  • To recipients: Resends to gift cards with a valid recipient email where the scheduled send time has already passed.

  

  Note: Each gift card can be sent a maximum of 10 times per day (counted separately for customer sends and recipient sends). If the limit is reached, you’ll see an error: “Gift card (ending with [code]) has reached the daily limit of 10 sends. Further sending is not allowed.” Disabled gift cards cannot be sent.

• Disable: Disable gift cards in bulk by selecting them on the Gift cards section and clicking Disable gift card, or disable them individually from their details page.
  
  

• Export: Export gift card details (unspent balance, etc.) as a .csv file for spreadsheet viewing by clicking Export on the Gift cards section.
  

  Note: Importing a .csv file to create gift cards is not currently supported.

Configuring General Settings for Gift Cards

You can configure default settings for all gift cards from Settings > Gift cards, including expiration rules, gift card display options, and notification preferences.

Setting Gift Card Expiration

You can configure whether gift cards expire automatically after a specified period.

• Doesn't expire: Gift cards remain valid indefinitely.
• Set expiry date: Gift cards automatically expire after the configured validity period.

Configuring Gift Card Display Options

You can choose whether gift cards include a QR code or barcode for redemption.

• QR code: Displays a QR code on the gift card.
• Barcode (Code-128): Displays a Code-128 barcode on the gift card.
• Do not display: No QR code or barcode is displayed on the gift card.

Configuring Gift Card Notifications

You can control how gift card notifications are sent after a gift card is created.

• Automatically send customers a notification when a gift card Is created: When enabled, SHOPLINE automatically sends a gift card notification to the customer through email or SMS based on the customer's available contact information. Disable this option if you prefer to send gift card notifications manually.
• Automatically notify the recipient when a gift card Is created: When a recipient is specified for the gift card, SHOPLINE automatically sends the gift card notification to the recipient at the scheduled delivery time, or immediately if no delivery schedule is configured. This option is enabled by default. Disable it if you prefer to send the gift card manually from the gift card details page.

How Customers Use Gift Cards

Customers can use the balance of their valid gift cards during checkout by entering the code in the designated field on the shopping page and clicking Apply. The gift card balance will then be deducted from their order total. Customers can combine the balance of multiple gift cards for a single purchase.