How To: Create a Gift Card product
Last updated
Last updated
Virtual gift cards are a great way to easily add additional product to your store, and reach new audiences through your customers. With this feature your customers can purchase one or more gift cards as part of their cart, optionally alongside other products and send them to a recipient of their choice. They can select to send at a later date, can optionally add a Gift Message and much more. Read on for how you can implement gift cards on your site.
Prerequisites:
You must have authentication enabled, so that recipients can activate their gift card credit and log in prior to checkout.
Visit the demo store in Contentful for an example on how to configure your products to be a gift card.
See the API documentation for implementing gift cards within your custom design. Here’s an example from our demo store
Email Order Confirmation An Order Confirmation email is sent to the Customer (Buyer) stating the Recipient’s email, the Amount sent, and the Delivery Date. See our demo in Contentful for a sample template to use.
The recipient clicks the link and upon activation, you may show the recipient a banner with the gift amount remaining:
Redeeming a Gift Card
Note on how we apply store credit: support for store credit in Stripe Checkout is still pending from Stripe, so we utilize a solution that avoids charging and refunding the customer the entire amount of store credit and avoids incurring excess Stripe fees:
We prorate the store credit equally onto the items and shipment and add a 10% buffer in advance to cover any taxes that may arise. We then request Stripe to refund the customer the difference once Stripe informs us of the actual tax rate.
The amounts will show correctly on the order confirmation page, the OMS and the Stripe dashboard once the order is complete.
When a customer places an order containing a Gift Card, you will be able to track the necessary information in the OMS.
Click Edit Details Identifier = "Unique identification code for the gift card"
Deactivate = You can deactivate a gift card - doing so will remove the given Store Credit, refund the purchaser and the status will be marked as Deactivated.
Resend = This will resend the email notification to the Recipient immediately, ignoring the send date.
We strongly encourage stores that implement gift cards to update their privacy policy to address the collection of recipient email information as provided by the purchasing customer.
Can my customers buy multiple Gift Cards? Yes, your customers can select to buy multiple Gift Cards alongside other products too. Before checkout, your customers will be able to provide each email addresses for purchased each Gift Cards
Can my customers use Store Credit to buy a Gift Card? Yes, Store Credit is a valid form of payment and be used to buy Gift Cards
Can my customers select a different amount other than what’s displaying for a Gift Card? You can create variants in Contentful to reflect the amount(s) you want your customers to select. For phase 1 there will be no ability for a customer to select their own amount.
Is there a limit in the Gift Message i can send? While we support storing nearly any length of messages, we encourage you to set your own character limit when rendering the form on your website.
Can my customers select a later date to send my Gift Card? Yes, customers can choose to send their Gift Card along with the notification (email) at a later date of their choice
Are there any taxes on a Gift Card? No, there aren’t any taxes associated with the purchase of a Gift Card.
Are there any shipping fees on a Gift Card? No, there aren’t any shipping fees associated with the purchase of a Gift Card.
How can I pay with a gift card?Gift cards work like store credit. Once your customers have been gifted, the credit will be applied to their associated email address to redeem. The amount will automatically apply to their next purchase. If they do not have enough store credit in their account to complete the purchase, they can pay the remaining balance with their credit card.
Why do I have to enter my Credit Card info to purchase with my Gift Card?You will have to enter a valid credit card during the payment step of checkout to complete the process, but don’t worry! Before placing your order, you will see your adjusted total with the credit applied
What happens if my customer enters an invalid email address? An error message will display letting your customers know that the email provided is not valid
What happens if my customers provide a valid but incorrect email address? Option 1 - In the OMS you can update the email address on the Gift Card and resend the email. (The recipient will still need to create an account if they don't have one) Option 2- You can use the identifier to create the store credit in the OMS in the Users section: (An account can be created by the admin for the user if the user does not exist as yet) How can my customers redeem a gift card?Your customers will follow these steps below to redeem their digital gift card:
Open the gift card confirmation email (You Have a Gift!). Scroll to the ‘Redeem’ link. It’s the blue bar at the bottom of the page!
Customers will be directed to your site and see a Banner with the amount of their Gift Card
Customers log in
When they are ready to make a purchase, the credit will automatically deduct during the last step of checkout before selecting “Submit”
Please note: gift card credit will not apply when shopping in guest checkout, and they must use the email associated with the Gift that was sent to them.
Do the Gift Cards expire? No, since the Gift Card is a Store Credit it will not expire
Email Confirmation: The Recipient receives an email notifying them they received a Gift Card. See our demo Contentful for a sample template to use.
