Gift Cards
Shopify Plus merchants can create bulk gift cards for customers with just a few clicks
Tip: Gift cards are convenient when migrating crowdfunding pre-orders or for low-stock backorders when the time of payment and order processing occur asynchronously. Gift cards are also an easy store credit alternative that deducts from all cart costs, including taxes and shipping fees
If you want to learn how to redeem store credit as a gift code, see Extend Store Credit with Gift Codes using our Shopify Plus Checkout extension
Create Gift Cards in bulk
To create gift cards for your customers, follow the steps outlined below. Open the app and click the icon labeled Settings when you hover over it using a desktop browser. Or simply navigate to the Settings page on a mobile device
Once you click Settings, scroll down and toggle on the Gift cards setting.
Keep in mind, you will need Shopify Plus to use this advanced feature and also install the Shopwaive Gift Cards extension. To learn more about Shopwaive's Gift Card business solutions or receive support on purchasing a license for this product, please contact us at support@shopwaive.com
Install the Shopwaive Gift Card extension
Before beginning, ensure you Enable the Gift card feature in the Shopify admin
Next, Shopify Plus brands install the Shopwaive Gift Card extension as a custom app following these steps. After installing the extension, a button appears labeled Create Gift Cards
After completing the prerequisite steps, create bulk gift cards using the guide below
Create Gift Cards — Step-by-step:
How do I issue gift cards? Whether you're migrating crowd-funded pledges to Shopify, or want the flexibility to cover all costs at checkout for your customers, gift cards are a convenient and easy way to accomplish this and so much more. To begin, follow these steps:
Go to Settings > Gift Cards and click the Create Gift Cards button
In the modal popup that appears, click the Get Template button to download a CSV file to your local drive. Open the file and enter the following information
The email field can include an existing customer or prospect customers' email, and will be assigned as recipient to the gift card, but this field is optional. Leave blank to create gift card codes that are not associated with email.
If the email field is left blank, the gift card code is created without assigning to a specific customer or email address. Note, you will be unable to send email notifications for this gift card unless you add an email later in the Shopify admin. If an email is added in the Shopify admin at a later time, the default Shopify gift card notification template will be used automatically
The code field can include a string between 8 - 20 characters in length, but is optional. Leave blank for an autogenerated code to be created.
The value field is required and must be greater than 0. It is equivalent to the value of the gift card code associated with your store's currency. Leave out currency symbols, this field accepts numeric values greater than zero only.
The type field must equal gift_card to successfully complete the import process.
The OncePerCustomer field is a boolean that accepts TRUE or FALSE.
If you set OncePerCustomer equal to FALSE the following will occur:
If an email is included for this row, the email address is attached to the internal notes section of the gift card for reference only. The note for this gift card can be viewed in the Shopify Admin, and if you choose, the email can be used to attach a customer at a later time to this gift card in the Shopify Admin, in which an email notification using Shopify's gift card template can be sent.
If an email is included for this row, the customer is not created or notified by email, only the gift card is created.
If an email is not included for this row, only the gift card is created, and the internal notes attached to this gift card is left blank
Set equal to FALSE to use Shopwaive's email campaign service. With this service you can create custom gift card templates and send email campaigns with the gift card code, balance, and a custom message with HTML editing capability. Conveniently, setting equal to FALSE only creates the gift card so you can send a custom email notifying customers at a later time that corresponds to your campaign timing. The templates include merge tags, so dynamic data such as balance and gift card code can be sent to thousands of your customers with just one-click.
If you set OncePerCustomer equal to TRUE the following will occur:
If an email is included for this row, the email address is attached to the internal notes section of the gift card. The note for this gift card can be viewed in the Shopify Admin
If an email is included for this row, the customer is also created and notified by email using Shopify's default gift card template. If a customer with this email already exists, they are automatically notified by email using Shopify's default gift card template.
If an email is not included for this row, only the gift card is created, and the internal notes attached to this gift card is left blank
After you upload your gift cards, you'll receive a success message indicating the upload was successful and you can complete the import by clicking the Import button. You can import hundreds or thousands of codes with just a few clicks.
After clicking Import you will receive a success message if the import was successful. Please contact support@shopwaive.com if you you have questions or need help troubleshooting.
Processing times for gift card codes may vary based on the size of your import and if you choose to automatically create customers if emails are provided and they do not already exist.
Less than 10 codes will take a minute or less.
Less than 100 codes can take up to 5 minutes.
Less than 1000 codes can take up to 30 minutes to process.
Gift card creation occurs at a rate of approximately 1 gift card code every 3 seconds
While these are just estimates, you can close the window while they finish processing in the background.
Email campaigns
With gift cards, you will have the added benefit of using Shopwaive's advanced TinyMCE Email editor, create saved HTML email templates, and include merge tags to send dynamic messages to your customers, including real-time gift card balances. Once a template is created, you can send balances to all customers with a gift card code with just a single click. With Shopwaive's campaign email tracking, you will have the option to resend to customers who previously received a notification, or only send gift cards that were newly created since the last time you sent out an email campaign, or who did not previously receive a successful notification due to failed attempts.
When emails are sent to customers that are recipients of the gift card, the internal notes section of the gift card is updated with the email timestamp, for event and communication tracking.
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