How to sell gift cards on Shopify? Best way to Start a Gift Store

On the earlier of April 2020, in order to help small businesses in the Covid-19 pandemic, Shopify has decided to allow users from all plans to sell gift cards on Shopify. So why gift cards are important for stores, especially small ones?

At first, we need to know what are gift cards on Shopify?

Let’s begin with the common definition of gift card: 

“A gift card is a prepaid debit card that contains a specific amount of money available for use for a variety of purchases.” Source: Investopedia

And about Shopify’s ones, gift cards on Shopify can be easily understood as other types of digital gift cards when customers also can use them as payment toward future orders from your online stores. 

Particularly, with Shopify, you are able to sell gift cards like other types of products and also can share gift card links on social networks. Or just send a gift card to a customer for free as an incentive or a reward. 

So why Shopify gift cards?

The Covid-19 pandemic is creating a hard situation for all businesses, especially small ones. While store owners still have to pay for many types of expenses, they still have less cash coming in because of the social distancing. So offering gift cards is a good way to give customers an opportunity to easily support you today. 

*) Note: 

• You will receive money when customers purchase the gift cards, but you need to notice that a gift card is an advance on your future sales, so you won’t receive cash when your customers redeem their cards in the future. 
• And about the reports, gift card purchases won’t show in the Sales report until your customers use their cards, and you can see those purchases in the Finances Reports in the Liabilities section. 

How to sell gift cards on Shopify?

After starting your own Shopify store, here are 4 essential stages that help you sell gift cards on Shopify:

• Step 1: Create a new gift card
• Step 2: Customize your store
• Step 3: Launch your store
• Step 4: Manage your gift cards and gift card orders

Let’s go to the details of each stage:

#Step 1: Create a new gift card  

Now, you can create a digital gift card by following those steps Products > Gift cards > Sell gift cards. 

After that, you’ll be able to customize your gift cards with the categories below:

1. Title: What your gift card will be called. You should have the product title including your store name will be easier for customers to follow what they are purchasing. 
2. Description: Where you can describe more about your products and how it will help your business in the Covid-19 pandemic. We suggest you explain it in a clean and easy way. 
3. Media: You can choose images to represent your gift card here and also embed the Youtube video if you want. 
4. Denominations: Here you can choose the different amounts that customers can buy. Your customers can buy more than one gift card if they want. 
5. Product availability: This is where you’ll select sales channels. At the earlier of your store, “Online store” is enough. 
6. The remaining settings: You can add some information about product type, vendor, collections, and tags to help filter your gift cards easier.

When you’re finished, click the Save gift card product button and your gift card will be created.

#Step 2: Customize your store

When your gift card is already created, the next stage is making your store look great to attract your customers. 

On this topic, we’ll try to show essential steps to help you sell your gift cards as soon as possible, so maybe it can be simple. And of course, you can always design your Shopify store as you like. 

Firstly, follow those simple steps to pick your theme, go to Sales Channels > Online Store > Themes. At this stage, you can instantly use the default theme “Debut” or find other free themes by clicking “Explore free themes”. 

Check more information about free themes

After choosing the theme, click Customize to move to the editing page. On this page, you can customize the layout of different pages like a home page, product pages, collection pages, etc.

But we will guide you on how to sell your gift cards directly on the home page.

• Click on each section and remove by clicking a “Remove section” button and only maintain two sections that are Image with text overlay and Featured product. Or you can click on the eye icons to make sections invisible and show these later. 

• Click on the Image with text overlay to start customizing the section. The three most important parts are selecting an image, a heading, and texts. 

*) Note: This part needs to represent your store identity and have the message that you want to convey. 

• Move to the Featured product section and choose a gift card that has created. Make sure you turn on the Quantity selector to let your customers buy more than one if they want.

• Next, Click on Header to customize the top part of your store. The essential thing that you need to add is your brand logo. 

• Finally, click on Theme settings to customize other things of your store such as colors, typography, favicon, etc. Those settings are not required but these can make your website look more unique and professional. 

• All setting changes are previewed, so if you’re happy with the design, click Save and the Shopify logo in the top left corner to move back to the main dashboard.

#Step 3: Launch your store

Now just need a few clicks to publish your Shopify store. Click on Online Store > Preferences > turn of the Enable password and Save. 

So your website is now live!

#Step 4: Manage your gift cards and gift card orders

Until this step, probably you have set up and launched your store, the next move is showing where you can view your gift card list and your gift card sales. 
About the list of gift cards, head to Products > Gift cards. In this category, you’re able to see the customer’s information, purchasing time, their current balance. The gift cards will be redeemable through your store, even as you add new products that are available online or for pickup.

Turning to gift card orders, the details will show under Orders > All orders, and gift card sales are shown the same as other product sales.

*) Note: Follow the steps Settings > Payment Providers > Scroll down and select Automatically capture payment for orders > Save to make your orders automatically come in the Orders section.

Here are some tips for you to sell more gift cars on Shopify: 

• Create a custom photo that reflects your brand.
• Discount your cards to encourage customers to buy gift cards having bigger amounts.
• Embed your gift cards on other websites by using Shopify’s Buy Button feature.
• Advertise your online store on social media like Facebook and Instagram.
• Add other amazing products to your Shopify store. 

So let’s start to sell gift cards on Shopify today!

After this 4-step process, now you’re able to sell gift cards on Shopify and handle them easily. So don’t miss your chance to grow your business in the Covid-19 pandemic. 

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!

If you want to build a beautiful store to help you sell more products, check those blogs below:

• Shopify Store Launch checklist: 11 Things to Review Before You Go Live
• Shopify Tutorial 2020: How to quickly build a Shopify store?