Gift cards considerations and overview

You can activate gift cards on your store to sell gift card products and create gift cards directly from your Shopify admin at no cost to the recipient. You can sell gift cards online and in person with Shopify POS.

You can create gift cards in the following ways:

If you sell gift card products, then a gift card is created when you fulfill an order with a gift card product.
You can create a gift card directly from your Shopify admin for any eligible value without receiving any payment and at no cost to the gift card recipient.

When you fulfill an order with a gift card product, the customer or gift card recipient receives a digital gift card with a unique code. This code can be used at checkout to redeem the gift card's value.

Considerations for using gift cards

Before you use gift cards, review the following considerations:

Gift cards are available on all Shopify subscription plans.
By using gift cards, you agree to Shopify's gift cards Terms of Service.
A gift card purchased from your store has been prepaid for the equivalent value by a customer. Gift cards that you create from your Shopify admin don't require any payment by the customer or recipient.
Laws and regulations about gift cards vary based on region. To determine any regulations that apply to you, such as whether to charge tax or for how long a gift card must stay valid, consult a local tax or legal expert.
Gift cards are considered currency, so only the customer or recipient can access the full gift card code. You can view only the last four characters of the gift card code.
The value of a gift card and the gift card redemption code can't be customized from your theme.

Considerations for gift card value limits

Certain regulatory obligations and risks require limitations on the maximum values of gift cards. Different ways of providing gift cards come with different levels of fraud and regulatory risk. Shopify’s goal is to provide you with the maximum possible flexibility within legal constraints, and help to reduce the risk of fraud.

Review the following gift card values considerations:

The value of a gift card is always set to a monetary amount.
A gift card must have an initial value greater than zero.
Gift card products have preset values known as denominations. A customer can't input a custom amount for a gift card product denomination from your online storefront.
Gift card values have the following limits:
- The value of a gift card product denomination can be set to any amount greater than zero, up to a maximum of $10,000 USD or equivalent in your local currency.
- The value of a gift card you create from the Shopify admin can be set to any amount greater than zero, up to a maximum of $2000 USD or equivalent in your local currency.

Gift card compatible sales channels

Customers can redeem their gift cards on any of your sales channels that use Shopify checkout:

Online store
Buy Button
Facebook Shop
Messenger
Shopify POS
Shop app

Point of Sale gift cards

If you use the Point of Sale (POS) channel to sell in person, then you can create gift cards and sell gift card products in the POS app.

Gift cards and gift card products that you create in your Shopify admin and in the POS app are interchangeable. For example, a customer can purchase a gift card in person, and then redeem its value towards a purchase on your online storefront. You can find all your gift cards in Products > Gift cards of your Shopify admin.

Learn more about using gift cards on Shopify POS.

Gift card notifications

When you fulfill an order with a gift card, the customer or gift card recipient receives an email that contains a digital gift card with a unique code that they can use at checkout to redeem its value.

The following gift card notifications are available:

New gift card: Sent to the customer or recipient when the gift card product in an order is fulfilled, or when you send a created gift card.
Gift card receipt: Sent to the recipient when your theme supports adding a gift card receipient, and your customer adds a recipient to a gift card product purchase.

Gift card analytics

You can use the gift card sales report to help track your gift card product sales and to account for gift card payments on orders.