Shopify gift cards: setup, denominations, and expiry rules

Gift cards are the highest margin product you will ever set up, but the details matter: denominations, physical versus digital, expiry law, and what happens at checkout. A plain setup guide.

Turning gift cards on

Gift cards are a built in Shopify product type rather than an app. In the admin, head to Products and then Gift cards to create your first one. You set an initial set of denominations, choose whether the card is digital, physical, or both if your plan and hardware support it, and write the product description as you would for any product, because it gets a product page shoppers will actually read.

Digital cards are delivered by email to the buyer, who forwards them or prints them for the recipient. Decide the sender experience deliberately: the delivery email carries your branding, and a card bought at midnight for a birthday the next morning lives or dies on how presentable that email and its printable version look. Preview both before you promote the product.

Choosing denominations that sell

Offer a ladder that brackets your average order value: one card just under it for the cautious giver, one at it, and one or two above it for generous occasions. Round numbers outperform odd ones for gifts. Most stores also enable a custom amount with sensible minimums and maximums, which catches the giver who knows exactly what the recipient wants to buy.

Treat the gift card page like the product page it is. Say what the cards can buy, note that they work online and in store if that is true for you, and answer the delivery question plainly: how fast the email arrives and what to do if it does not. Gift card pages get read anxiously by people buying at the last minute; clarity is the conversion feature.

Expiry and the law

Expiry is where good intentions meet consumer law. In the United States, federal rules set a floor: gift cards generally cannot expire for at least five years, and many states go further or ban expiry entirely. Shopify lets you set an expiry date or none. The conservative merchant choice is no expiry at all, which sidesteps every jurisdiction's rules and matches what shoppers expect from a store they like.

Fees follow the same pattern: dormancy and service fees are restricted and rarely worth the ill will. Also plan the accounting honestly. A gift card sale is a liability, not revenue, until it is redeemed, and unredeemed balances sit on your books for years. Your bookkeeper will thank you for clean denominations and no exotic fee schemes.

Gift cards at checkout and after

At checkout a gift card is a payment method: the shopper enters the code, the balance applies, and any remainder stays on the card for next time while the rest of the bill goes to another payment method. Partial balances are handled automatically. Staff should know the two failure questions by heart: where is my email, answered by checking spam and resending from the admin, and what is my balance, which the customer can check from their original delivery link.

Promote the card where givers actually look: a link in the footer, a mention in the header during gift seasons, and a line in post purchase emails when the purchased item is a common gift. The best selling gift card programs are boring in the best way: easy to find, easy to send, impossible to lose value from, and redeemable without a support ticket.

Frequently asked questions

Do Shopify gift cards expire by default?

No. Expiry is optional and off unless you set it. Given that federal law restricts expiry to no sooner than five years and many states prohibit it outright, most stores should leave expiry off entirely. Cards that never expire are also simpler to support and better received.

Can a customer use a gift card and a discount code together?

Generally yes, because the gift card functions as payment rather than as a discount. The discount code reduces the order total and the gift card pays toward what remains. Exact behavior can interact with specific discount types, so test your common promotions with a small test card before a big gift season.

What happens if the delivery email never arrives?

The card exists in your admin regardless of the email. Find it under Products and Gift cards, verify the buyer's email address, and resend. Most missing cards are spam folder or typo cases. The recipient needs only the code, so staff can also read it out or reissue it through your support process after verifying the purchase.

Are gift card sales taxed and counted as revenue at purchase?

In most jurisdictions the sale of a gift card is not taxed or booked as revenue at purchase; tax applies when the card is redeemed for goods. Rules vary by location and your accountant owns the final answer, but plan on the liability model: money held, not money earned, until redemption.