The Short Version
Gift cards are built into every Shopify plan. You don’t need an app to sell them, send them to a recipient with a message, schedule delivery, issue store credit, or check balances. Most of the gift card apps in the app store are selling you things Shopify already does.
Step 1: Create the gift card product
- In admin, go to Products > Gift cards and click Add a gift card product.
- Give it a title (“Gift Card” is fine), a short description, and an image. This is a normal product page as far as your customers are concerned, so treat it like one.
- Under Denominations, Shopify pre-fills a few amounts like 10, 25, 50 and 100. Delete the ones you don’t want and click Add denomination for others. Each denomination becomes a variant, and the amount you enter is both the label the customer sees and what they pay.
- Under Publishing, make sure Online Store is checked.
- Save.
Pick denominations that match your prices. If most of what you sell is $60 to $90, a $25 card is a card that can’t buy anything on its own.
Step 2: Turn on the recipient form
This is the part most people install an app for. In the theme editor, open the Default product template, switch the preview to your gift card product, click the Buy buttons block, and enable Show recipient information form for gift card products in most themes, though newer templates like Horizon it is found under the label Gift card form > Gift card products.
The buyer can now enter the recipient’s email, their name, a personal message, and a send date. Shopify emails the card to the recipient on that date. No app.
To show it on your home page, add it to a featured products section or similar on the homepage just like any other product.
Step 3: Know how to issue one by hand
Products > Gift cards > Create gift card lets you issue a card for any amount up to $2,000 without any payment. This is your store credit tool. Use it for refunds you’d rather keep in the store, goodwill after a shipping problem, or a thank-you to a loyal customer. You can attach it to a customer record so it shows up in their account.
The Mistake That Costs Real Money
Each denomination is a variant, and the denomination amount sets the variant’s price. If that price gets changed somewhere other than the Denominations section, for example in the bulk editor, a CSV import, or a pricing app, the label and the price can drift apart. I’ve seen a live store with a “$500” denomination priced at $50. Anyone who bought it paid $50 and got a $50 card labeled $500, or worse.
After any bulk price change on your store, open the gift card product and check that every denomination’s label matches its price. It takes ten seconds.
If you’d rather have someone check this on your store, get in touch.