Automate - Create and share gift cards?

[HannaBys]

Hi, seeking tips on apps to use to automate the creation and sharing of gift cards (not discount codes). Thank you in advance!

[tim]

Flow can do it.

Look at https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-flow-app/automatically-issue-digital-gift-card-post-purchase... just ignore the "invoice" nonsense -- Shopify will automatically send e-mail when Gift card is created.

[HannaBys]

Hi, thank you! The URL is broken, can you please resend? Cheers, Hanna

[tim]

oops, it glued the comma into the URL -- fixed the link above

[PaulNewton]

Careful there "create" is NOT the same as "share" when it comes to giftcards.

Creating new gift cards is a good way to create confusion, lose a lot of money, or create an accounting/legal issue.

[tim]

Yes, @PaulNewton, these are valid points.

However, the solution mentioned above is tested and works. Gift card code is automatically  e-mailed to the recipient (especially, since there is no buyer in this transaction).

Note that if you need to know the code, you can supply it to an API call rather then the system generate a random one for you.

Discount codes can also be created with API and they are a bit more "open", however, the benefit of Gift cards is that they are e-mailed automatically upon creation (talking about sharing!)

[PaulNewton]

Hi @HannaBys 👋 Generally you'll need an external service like Rise.ai to handle the gift card system.

Gift cards are treated like currency on shopify so come with built in unremovable road blocks to "share" gift cards.

Such as not being able to read the full gift-card as that is reserved only for the buyer/receiver of the gift card bought through shopify checkout.

https://community.shopify.com/c/technical-q-a/is-creating-gift-cards-via-api-the-only-way-to-get-ful...

Which means "sharing" of a normal gift cards can only be done by:

A) having the initial customer forward the email of the gift-card to whoever they want to share it with

B) 💣 unsupported workaround - change the email of the order and resend the order notification? then change the email back to the original buyer.