How to link physical gift card codes to specific order values?

[AllTheEvos]

I ordered physical gift cards from shopify to sell to clients. I can not figure out how to tie the gift card code on the back to an order with a $ denomination. Ive read over the faq and instructions many times and dont see the options it has listed. Please help. I added them as a product to my store and did a test sale but I dont see anywhere to tie a specific card number to the order sale.

[Summer]

Hey, @AllTheEvos!

I'd love to help you with this gift card concern. Our physical gift cards are actually not designed to be sold online, they're mainly for selling in person through our Point of Sale channel, but they can be sold using a workaround. Before I explain the workaround, please bear in mind that this affects your sales reports. The sale of this gift card will be counted twice: once when the physical gift card product is sold, and once when the physical gift card is redeemed. 

These are the steps for selling physical gift cards online:

1. Create a new regular product (not a gift card product). For example, a product called Physical Gift Card.
2. Create variants on this product for the amounts (value) you want the customers to choose from (e.g. $10.00, $20.00, $50.00, $100.00)
3. When a customer purchases a physical gift card, take a new card from your stack of physical gift cards and go to Products > Gift Cards in your Shopify admin.
4. Click Create Gift Card.
5. Enter the 16 digit code from the back of the physical gift card. This is how the physical gift card is activated.
6. Enter the amount (value) that the customer paid for.
7. Do not attach a customer. Only do this when you wish to email a customer a digital gift card.
8. Click Save to create the gift card.
9. Mail the customer the physical gift card.
10. The customer will be able to enter the 16 digit code from the back of the physical gift card into the checkout field when purchasing from the merchants online store.

I understand the duplication of sales in the sales report is not ideal so I'll make sure to let our platform development team know you would like a native feature for selling physical gift cards online. Should we introduce this feature in the future, we'll publish it in the changelog.

[Isha_B]

Thanks Summer!  In our store, associates don't have access to the Shopify Admin.  What's the easiest way to set this up for physical gift cards on Shopify POS? I don't think our current procedure is the best.....Thanks

[Summer]

Hey, @Isha_B! Welcome to Shopify Community!

I'd love to explain how the process of selling physical gift cards on Shopify POS works. To set this up, you'll need to access your admin and create a gift card product. However, this setup step only needs to be done once and is not required every time a physical gift card is sold. Please feel free to refer to the step-by-step guide below.

GETTING READY TO SELL

1. Log into your Shopify admin.
2. Add a gift card product.
3. Log into the Shopify POS app on your mobile device.
4. In the Shopify POS app, tap More > Settings > Products > Gift Cards.
5. Select Issue digital or physical gift cards.
   • If you don't see this option, please try logging out and into the Shopify POS app.

SELLING A GIFT CARD

1. In the Shopify POS app, tap the search bar at the top and search for the gift card product. 
2. Tap the gift card product.
3. Tap Physical gift card.
4. Select the appropriate denomination.
5. The camera will open. Scan the QR code at the back of the physical gift card.

Once the physical gift card is scanned, the gift card is automatically added to the cart and is ready for checkout. You can proceed with the rest of the steps in processing a sale.

While I'm here I thought I'd ask, is your store prepared for the holidays? It's the busiest time of the year for everyone. Shopping activity will be at its peak, so businesses will be competing to grab shoppers' attention. I wanted to make sure you have a strategy to stand out and utilize this season to make more sales. If you haven't thought of this yet and are in need of ideas to drive sales to your store during the holidays, feel free to take note of the suggestions from this blog post: Holiday Marketing: 10 Tips To Drive Sales in 2023.

Happy holidays! 

[Kelley_Pittman]

Hi, I have physical gift cards to sell via pos but when I click gift card to sell one and scan the gift card code it says gift card not recognized??? 

It’s a new gift card. We are trying to sell and we have to manually type in a code leaving a lot of room for error. Why will it not scan the new code to sell the gift card? 

[Elias]

Hi, @Kelley_Pittman.

Thank you for joining the thread and bringing this to our attention.

If you're looking to sell physical gift cards via Shopify POS, then there may be some actions that needs to be done in order for the gift cards to be scannable. We'd recommend taking a look at our guide, Gift cards on Shopify POS overview, and following the steps to enable the gift card feature in the Shopify admin as well as activating gift cards as a payment method on the Shopify POS. Just to confirm, was the physical gift cards purchased from a Shopify Hardware Store?

That being said, if the physical gift cards were purchased from the Shopify Hardware Store and you're still experiencing issues with scanning the gift cards, then it looks like we'll need to access your account in order to get a closer look at the problem. While we're unable to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community, we'd be happy to further assist you through live chats. Simply visit the Shopify Help Center and login to your account to create a support request.

If you have any other questions on this topic, then don't hesitate to let me know.

[Kelley_Pittman]

Hi - all the steps are set up properly. We can redeem gift cards by scanning them but we cannot scan them to sell them - we have to use the enter code feature  and manually type the number into the sale. These are gift cards we had purchased for our previous POS system. 

[Elias]

Hi, @Kelley_Pittman.

Thank you for following up and sharing the additional context.

Since the physical gift cards are from a different POS System and they can be scanned for redemption, then I'm not sure why they can't be scanned for purchases. However, we'd be happy to access your account in order to loop in our Retail team about your gift cards. While we're unable to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community, we'd be happy to further assist you through live chats. Simply visit the Shopify Help Center and login to your account to connect with a Support advisor.

If you have any other questions on this topic, then don't hesitate to let me know!

[unplugged]

Having this exact same issue. Was this solved? If so, does anybody have the solution? Thx

[connorcriquet]

Hi Summer - is there an app that accomplishes sending out physical gift cards to customers without having to double book/manual issue gift cards?

[Elias]

Hi, @connorcriquet.

Thank you for joining the thread!

If you're looking for an app that can help with selling physical gift cards on the Online store as opposed to the Shopify POS, then there are some third-party options that you can consider, such as Gift Card Hero or 99mind Gift Card. However, these are the only two third-party apps that indicates support for physical gift cards, and there are definitely more options available for digital gift cards as they may be more convenient and environmentally friendly. If you'd like to explore some options for digital gift cards, then feel free to take a look at our list of gift card apps.

That being said, if you need to get help with third-party apps, then the app developers are always available to assist you. Simply reach out to the developers using the contact information found at the bottom of their app pages. 

If you have any other questions about this topic, then don't hesitate to let us know!