How to sell gift cards on your website.

Start with the system you already have

If you run a salon, a spa, a restaurant or a shop, the software you use to take bookings or payments probably sells gift cards already. Using it is nearly always better than adding a separate gift card tool to your website, for one reason: a card bought online has to be accepted at your till, and the system that sold it is the one that can check its balance.

So the job is usually small. Switch the feature on in your booking or till system, set the amounts, the design and the terms, then add a link to its gift card page from your website. A customer taps "Gift cards" in your menu, buys one on the provider's page, and the recipient gets it, usually by email.

Two parts need real thought: the expiry date, because the software does not check the law for you, and the wording on the card. Both are covered below.

What common systems offer

Check your own system first. A few examples, from each provider's own pages:

• Square sells eGift cards online and physical cards in person, with an eGift card ordering page for your business. Cards can be redeemed at Square Point of Sale or on a Square Online site. Square lists a load fee and a processing fee on gift card sales, and no fee for redeeming a card.
• Toast's Gift Card module sells physical cards and eGift cards, and its support pages describe a "Buy eGift Cards" link you can put on your website and social accounts. Toast says the look of that ordering page cannot be customised.
• Fresha lets a salon sell gift cards through its Fresha profile. Selling online needs Fresha's own payment processing switched on, which its help centre says is available in select countries.
• Shopify sells gift cards as products in your store. Its help page says cards do not expire by default, because expiring gift cards are illegal in some countries, and that if you set an expiry date the default is five years.
• WooCommerce needs an extension. Woo's own Gift Cards extension is a paid yearly extension that emails the recipient a code and lets you set how long a card stays valid.

Features and fees change, so read your provider's current gift card page before you switch anything on. If you are still choosing a booking tool, gift cards are one of the things to compare: see salon booking software compared.

The card has to work where it is spent

The most common mistake is selling cards in one system and redeeming them in another. A restaurant adds a gift card plugin to its website while the till runs on something else. Now the till cannot read the codes, so staff look each one up in a spreadsheet, mark it as used by hand and hope nobody spends it twice.

Before you switch anything on, answer these:

• Where will the card be spent: at the till, in online booking, in the online shop, or all of them?
• Which system takes that payment today?
• Can that system sell a card online and accept it everywhere you listed?

If the answer to the last question is yes, use it, even if its gift card page is plainer than you would like. If it is no, ask the provider whether it is planned before you look elsewhere.

For a salon or spa whose booking tool also takes payment, the card belongs in the booking tool. For a restaurant, it belongs in the till system, because that is where the bill is paid.

Put it on your website

The provider sells and delivers the card. Your website's job is to make it easy to find, and to answer the questions people have before they buy one:

• A "Gift cards" link in the main menu and the footer, and a button on the home page in the weeks before the dates people buy them, such as Christmas and Mother's Day.
• A short page or section that says what the card can be spent on, how it arrives, whether the buyer can choose the delivery date, how long it is valid and how to check a balance.
• The button to the provider's gift card page, with the same wording as the rest of your site.
• A line for people who want something to hand over: "Printed cards in a gift envelope are available at reception."

A spa might write: "Give a treatment. Choose an amount, add a message, and we email the gift card to you or straight to the recipient, now or on a date you pick. It can be spent on any treatment or product at the spa, in person or when booking online, and it is valid for [period] from the day you buy it."

Before you announce it, buy one yourself and look at what arrives: the email, the design, the code and the terms. That email is what your customer's friend will see, so it should look like your business and say how to book.

Amounts or experiences

Most systems sell cards for an amount of money, which is the simplest kind to run. The recipient spends it on anything, and if they spend less, the balance stays on the card.

A card for a named experience, such as afternoon tea for two or a sixty-minute massage, makes a better present and raises one question later: what happens when the price changes? Decide before you sell, and say it on the card. Either it covers that experience whatever the price on the day, or it is worth the amount paid and the customer pays any difference.

In Europe, the kind of card can also decide when VAT is due, as the section on Europe explains. Ask your accountant before you sell experience cards for the first time.

For a hotel or guesthouse, an experience card such as a night with breakfast needs a line on dates too: whether it can be used at weekends and in the busiest months, and how far ahead to book.

The rules in the US

Federal rules in Regulation E cover gift certificates and store gift cards sold to the public. In plain words:

• The money on a card cannot expire until at least five years after the card was sold, or after money was last added to a reloadable card. The card itself can carry an earlier date, but then the card must say that the money does not expire with it and that the customer can ask for a replacement.
• Dormancy, inactivity or service fees are allowed only after a year with no use, at most one in any calendar month, and only if the card clearly states the fee, how often it can be charged and that it is charged for inactivity.
• Cards given away under a loyalty, award or promotional programme are excluded from those limits, but they must say that they are promotional.

Many states go further. California, for example, generally does not allow expiry dates on gift cards at all. Check your state's rules before you set any expiry date or fee. The simplest choice is often no expiry date and no fees, which also keeps the wording on the card short.

This is general information. For your own business, ask your accountant or a lawyer who knows your state.

The rules in Europe

There is no single EU rule on gift card expiry. Each country has its own consumer rules. Ireland, for example, has the Consumer Protection (Gift Vouchers) Act 2019: its consumer agency says vouchers for a single shop or chain must be valid for at least five years, and any expiry date must be stated in writing. In other countries, national consumer law decides what expiry periods are fair, so ask an adviser where you trade.

VAT on vouchers follows EU-wide rules, which distinguish two kinds:

• A single-purpose voucher is one where the place of supply and the VAT due are known when it is sold, such as a card for one treatment at one salon. VAT is charged when you sell it, and not again when it is spent.
• A multi-purpose voucher is any other voucher, such as a money card that can be spent on things taxed at different rates. VAT is due when it is spent, not when it is sold.

Your accountant will know which kind yours are and how to record them.

Gift card settings let you choose almost any expiry date, and some marketing advice suggests short ones to bring customers in sooner. The software does not check whether that date is legal where you trade. Decide the expiry from the rules that apply to you, then set it in the system and print it on the card.

What to write on the card and the page

Keep the terms short and put them in three places: on the gift card page, on the card or in its email, and in your full terms. Cover:

• The expiry date, or "no expiry".
• What it can be spent on: everything, only treatments, only food and drink.
• Where it can be used: in person, online, at every branch.
• Whether it can be spent over several visits, with the balance kept.
• Whether it can be exchanged for cash. Check your local rules before you say no, because some places require cash back for small balances.
• What happens if it is lost, and how to check a balance.
• Who to contact with a problem.

Plain words are enough: "Valid for [period] from the date of purchase. Use it for any treatment or product, in person or online, over as many visits as you like. To check your balance, ask at reception or reply to your gift card email."

Free and bonus cards are different

"Buy a gift card and get a bonus card free" is a common offer before Christmas. The card the customer pays for follows the rules above. The bonus card is promotional, and in the US it sits outside the federal limits as long as it says it is promotional.

Give a bonus card its own expiry, written on it, its own spending rules if it has any, and a design that looks different from a bought card, so staff and customers can tell them apart at the till.

Discounted gift cards, sold for less than their value, cost you the difference on every one. If you run them, run them for a short, fixed period, and decide beforehand which services they can be spent on.

Vouchers you donate to a school raffle or a charity auction deserve the same clear wording: what it covers, until when, and how to book.

Watch for fraud and mistakes at the till

Gift cards are easy to resell, which makes them attractive to people paying with stolen card details. When the real cardholder disputes the payment, the money is taken back from your account, and the gift card may already have been spent.

Orders worth a second look:

• A large order, or many cards in one order, from a first-time buyer.
• Cards sent to several email addresses that have nothing to do with the buyer.
• A rush of small online orders in a short time.
• A caller asking for a card code to be read out over the phone.

Check whether your provider lets you limit the amount per card or per order, and hold a suspicious order until you have spoken to the buyer.

At the till, staff should check each card in the system before the customer leaves, scan or type the code rather than trust a screenshot, and note any card that does not work instead of honouring it from memory.

Keep track of what you owe

A gift card sold is money taken for work you have not done yet. Your accountant will want to know how much is outstanding, and most gift card systems have a report of cards sold, spent and still open. Run it every month and check it against your sales records.

In the US, ask your accountant how unspent balances are treated in your state, including under its unclaimed property rules. In Europe, ask how the VAT on the cards you sell should be recorded, using the voucher rules above.

If you ever change booking or till systems, plan the gift cards first. Ask the new provider whether it can import open balances, and keep the old system readable until every old card has been spent or has lawfully expired.

When a separate gift card tool makes sense

A separate tool is worth it when your till or booking system has no gift cards at all, or sells them only in person. Standalone gift card services and store extensions can sell cards on your website and email them. The cost comes at redemption: unless the tool connects to your till, staff check and mark each card by hand, so write the process down and keep it simple.

If you sell products online as well, the store platform can carry the cards, and the choice of platform matters more: Shopify or WooCommerce compares the two for a small shop, and online stores covers the questions customers ask.

For most small businesses the website part is a small job: a page and a link. On a site we build, it goes in with the other pages, linked to the gift card page of the system you already use. Anything more, such as showing balances inside your own site, depends on what that system's API allows, and we check before promising it. See websites.