How do you offer gift certificate/gift cards?

[Dirtatwestfield]

My clients are asking about gift certificates. How do I create them in square? What needs to be done?

[pessosices · Accepted solution]

Hey @Dirtatwestfield, great question!

We started doing Paper Gift Certificates that we created pretty simply in a Word Document, and then just created some Discounts on our Square POS in the denominations of our Gift Certificates ($5, $10, $20) as well as smaller ones for when people have leftover money on them ($0.25, $0.50, $1, $2.50).

While it worked, it got annoying pretty quickly, and led to a lot of employee mistakes that led to us losing some money. Last year we switched over to the Square Gift Cards that we custom ordered, and things have been so much easier and smoother. No more mistakes or doing math, or figuring out what buttons to press, just swipe to load up, and swipe to use. Simple! 

We definitely recommend the Gift Card from Square over doing Paper Gift Certificates you can make yourself, but both work!

Hope this helps!

Pesso

[VanKalkerFarms]

@Dirtatwestfield, I 100% agree with @pessosices.  We too used to use paper gift certificates, but tracking them can be a huge hassle and in all honesty doesn't look very professional. 

Square Gift Cards https://squareup.com/gift-cards

one nice feature is that you will be able to re-use any card that has been redeemed and the customer doesn't want it to be reloaded.  We have reused 90% of the gift cards that have been redeemed.  another nice feature is that if a customer buys a gift card with cash there is no charge to load the gift card or when the card is redeemed.

[marcellafriel]

I want to jump in on this thread. I run a location-independent coaching service, I work from my home office, and my clients are all over the U.S. 

I would like to offer a holiday promotion whereby clients can purchase coaching sessions with me or purchase for their friends at a time-limited discount.

I want to offer this as a "gift certificate" but won't be offering physical gift cards or paper certificates because our transactions are not in person. 

I have a set dollar amount, so it's not a variety of gift certificates but rather just one that the client can purchase. 

I like the idea of a card that they can refill as needed. 

Can someone please advise re how to proceed? Many thanks.

[RHatch]

If you do e-cards you can sell them online (only option) and they can then be redeamed in person or online.  When purchased for someone they get sent to that person as part of the process. 

[rsklar]

But you still pay a % fee to load these cards, even for internal use, right?

[RHatch]

Yes, you pay a load fee on all eGift Cards.  Physical Gift Cards have no fees.  If they use a credit card to load the card then you pay the credit card fee like any sale.  eGift Cards are sold online only and not through the POS.  You cannot use these for internally use (sale bonus, giveaway, donation), I would use physical cards for that.  

[pessosices]

If you set up a 100% discount code on eGift Cards that only you know, then there is no fee. We use them for giveaways by entering our winner as the recipient, and for our staff too, and we don't pay anything.

[RHatch]

I never tried that I assumed you had to have the $1 min purchase amount like you do with the online store.

[pessosices]

@RHatch Luckily not - if you do a 100% discount code it doesnt even ask for credit card info! Pretty sweet stuff.

[EJ_]

Hi @marcellafriel

Great news for you, as we recently rolled the promotional/discount feature out for everyone using Gift Cards. 

Check out the Product Update thread about promotional Gift Cards here: 

Offer discounts and promo codes for eGift Cards

[LeeD-C]

How do you load a physical gift card that you are going to donate to a charity function?  So, if the business owner wants to make a donation to XZZ charity how would she load the gift card?  

Thanks!

Lee Davis-Clark

[RHatch]

You can either take a discount on the purchase like you do any other purchase or you can use Other type of payment and work it out on the accounting side.

[GoodFortuneSoap]

It is my understanding that physical gift cards can NOT be reloaded and NOT reused. Is this true or not true? Thank you!

[pessosices]

Hey @GoodFortuneSoap 

@You actually absolutely can reload & reuse square plastic gift cards! 

I just sanitize them, and they’re good to go to use again!

[GoodFortuneSoap]

Thank you! I was so mad, but now I'm glad 🙂 Yay for reusing...plus it makes it worth the cost per card!

[mettayosemite]

So there's no way to keep track of paper gift certificates? I'd rather not add to the plastic of the world by ordering plastic cards, but our customers want something physical to give as gifts. 

[JJ_]

Hey @metayosemite

Yeah at this time our eco-friendly offering would be to sell eGift Cards as your customers wouldn't even have to print them to be able to use them but they are able to if they need to.

Thank you for taking care of our precious planet.