How to send gift cards

Send a gift card to issue a one-time, prepaid credit directly to a customer without collecting a purchase or payment. The Send flow works only in Live Mode, and the card is delivered by email, SMS, PDF, or QR code for redemption on any checkout that accepts gift cards.

When to send a gift card

Use Send when you want to give credit without a transaction instead of collecting payment at checkout. Common use cases include:

• Loyalty and rewards — milestones, referrals, and premium plan renewals.

• Customer support compensation — a gift card instead of a manual credit or refund.

• Promotions — giveaways, holiday gifting, influencer campaigns, and targeted perks.

• Internal testing — verifying your gift card redemption flows.

• Bulk manual distribution — VIP customers or event attendees.

Prerequisites

Before you can send a gift card, the card product and the recipient must meet a few conditions.

• A Gift Card Product exists, and its status is Active, not Deactivated or Archived.

• The recipient has an email address or a phone number. Email, PDF, and QR code delivery need an email address; SMS delivery needs a phone number. Without either, no delivery method is available.

Send a gift card

Open the gift card you want to send, then choose the recipient, message, denomination, delivery method, and delivery date before you confirm.

1. Go to Payments > Gift Cards. Create a Gift Card or select an existing one from the All Gift Cards list, then click Send on the card.

2. Choose the recipient. Select an existing contact from your list or click Add a Contact, then click Continue.

3. Add a personal message. Write a custom greeting, special instructions, or note of appreciation, choose a pre-populated message, or generate one with Write with AI, then click Continue.

4. Select a denomination from the preset denominations configured for the gift card product.

5. Choose a delivery method. Email, SMS, QR Code (via email), and PDF (via email) are available; only the methods supported by the customer's email or phone number are enabled.

6. Choose a delivery date — Deliver immediately, tomorrow, after one week, or a Future Date — then click Continue.

7. Review the automatically generated email or SMS preview, which includes the gift card amount, your custom message, the expiry date, redemption instructions, and artwork, then click Send Gift Card.

The delivery date range is set by the card's expiry settings. With an expiry date, delivery must be between today and the expiry date. Without an expiry date, any future date works. A scheduled gift card is delivered at 12:00 AM (midnight) on the selected delivery date.

Delivery methods

Each delivery method suits a different recipient situation. Email is the recommended default.

• Email — the full visual gift card with artwork, including expiry, balance, and a redemption link. Recommended for most cases.

• SMS — a clean message with the gift card link. Artwork is not included because of SMS formatting.

• PDF (via email) — a downloadable, printable gift card, good for in-store gifting, physical wrapping, or events.

• QR Code (via email) — a scannable QR code that opens the gift card, useful for in-person gifting or events.

What happens after you send

After you send a gift card, it appears under Payments > Gift Cards > Gift Card Orders.

• The order details show the recipient, delivery method, delivery timestamp, denomination, expiry, remaining balance, and status (Scheduled, Active, or Inactive), plus a hidden gift card code.

• Sent cards do not appear under Payments > Orders. Because no payment occurred, there is no order and no transaction.

• Directly sent gift cards are fully redeemable everywhere gift cards are accepted, both fully and partially.

Key behaviors and limitations

• The Send flow works only in Live Mode. Test Mode support is planned for a future release.

• The Send flow issues one gift card to one customer at a time. Bulk sending is planned.

• No payment is collected in the Send flow.

• The customer's email address or phone number is required for delivery.

• Email and SMS templates are system-generated and cannot be edited. Customization is planned.

• Until the scheduled delivery time, the card stays in a Scheduled state but is still active and valid. If someone has the code and uses it at checkout before the delivery time, it works.

• Sending anonymously is not possible. The recipient always sees your organization's information as configured in the templates.

FAQ

Related articles

Getting started with Gift Cards, How to sell gift cards, Gift card performance metrics, and How to redeem gift cards for offline or off-session payments.