Ecommerce ops / Gifting
Setting Up Shopify Gift Cards, Step by Step
// built in, underused, and worth switching on properly
By Fracto Solutions
October 29, 2026
The short answer
Shopify includes gift cards as a native feature on paid plans. To set them up, create gift-card products with a few fixed denominations plus a custom amount, enable instant digital (emailed) delivery, make them easy to find in navigation and on the homepage, and promote them around gifting seasons. No third-party app is required to start.
Does Shopify include gift cards on every plan?
Yes. Gift cards are native to all Shopify plans and no third-party app is needed to start. Shopify stores the balance and redeems it at checkout. If you have read that gift cards require a paid or higher-tier plan, that information is out of date.
Shopify announced on April 5, 2020 that it was “enabling our gift cards feature on all Shopify plans indefinitely.” Before that there was a plan gate, which is why the claim still circulates, and why an earlier version of this page repeated it. You can activate gift cards on your store to sell gift card products, and issue individual cards directly from the Shopify admin.
Apps are for things the native feature does not do: multi-currency gift cards, scheduled reminder emails to recipients with unspent balances, or branded landing experiences. Start native, add an app when you have a specific gap.
How do I create and configure gift cards?
Create the gift-card product, add denomination variants, and then turn on the one setting that decides whether the card reaches the recipient or the buyer. That last step is the one most stores miss.
Denominations are product variants. Pick three or four that span your typical gift budgets and add a custom-amount variant if your theme supports it. More options is not better here: the buyer is often working quickly and a long list of amounts is another decision to make.
Now the important part, and a correction to how we described it before. There is no Shopify setting called “digital delivery”, and gift cards do not email the recipient by default. Gift-card orders fulfil automatically and the notification goes to the purchasing customer. To let a buyer send the card straight to the recipient, enable the recipient-information form in the theme editor under the Buy buttons block, where the option reads “Show recipient information form for gift card products”. That adds recipient email, recipient name, a message, and a “Send on” date, so the buyer can schedule the card to arrive on the day.
The form is native to Online Store 2.0 themes from version 9.0.0, which covers Dawn and Horizon. On a vintage theme it needs developer work, and that is worth knowing before you promise scheduled gifting in a campaign.
Setting
What to do
Why it matters
Plan
Nothing; gift cards are on all plans
No upgrade required (Shopify, April 2020)
Denominations
Three or four variants plus a custom amount
Covers typical gift budgets without stalling the decision
Recipient form
Enable it in the theme editor
Without it the card emails the buyer, not the recipient
Send-on date
Comes with the recipient form
Lets a buyer schedule delivery for the occasion
Expiry
Leave off unless you have checked local law
Expiry is unlawful in some markets; default is no expiry
The recipient form is the setting that turns a gift-card product into an actual gifting feature.
How do I make gift cards easy to find?
Treat placement as a seasonal campaign, not a permanent footer link. Gift cards sell in short, intense windows, so they need navigation and homepage presence when the occasion is live, and a cross-sell wherever shipping has become the problem.
We used to claim here that a link three clicks deep gets ignored. That is folklore; the three-click rule has been contradicted often enough in usability research that we should not lean on it. The narrower and more defensible point is about timing and context. Put gift cards in the main navigation and on the homepage through the gifting season, make sure they appear for the obvious search terms on your own site, and surface them on product pages for items that will not arrive in time.
About half of US holiday gift-card buyers chose a digital card in the 2024 season, which BHN put at 49%, up five points year on year. That is a substantial share but not an overwhelming one, so avoid designing as though digital is the only path. And remember the audience has shifted: BHN found self-purchase rising from 31% in 2025 to 56% in 2026, so a page written purely as gift copy is talking past a majority of the market.
What should I check before promoting them?
Three things: that the recipient form works end to end, that your expiry and fee policy matches the law in the markets you sell into, and that your bookkeeping treats the sale as a liability rather than revenue.
Test the full path yourself. Buy a card with a recipient email and a future send date, confirm the recipient receives it on the right day, redeem it at checkout, and check a partial redemption leaves the remaining balance usable. This takes fifteen minutes and catches the theme-version problem before a campaign does.
On the law, know the specifics for your markets rather than a general sense that rules exist. In the US, funds cannot expire earlier than the later of five years from issuance or five years from the last load, and inactivity or service fees require all of: a full year of no activity, clear and conspicuous disclosure on the card itself, and no more than one fee per calendar month (Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.20). California bars expiry and fees on most gift certificates and, since April 1, 2026, requires cash redemption of balances under $15, expressly including electronic cards. The EU and UK set no minimum validity, but an unfair expiry term is unenforceable. Shopify’s own default is no expiry, precisely because expiry is illegal in some countries. This is not legal advice; confirm it for each market.
Finally, tell whoever does your books before you launch. A gift-card sale is a contract liability under ASC 606, recognized as revenue on redemption, with unredeemed value handled as breakage and escheatable amounts recognized as a liability. A good gift-card December looks like a great month and is partly a deferred obligation.
We switch gift cards on properly and make them easy to find and send.
We set up gift-card products with sensible denominations and instant digital delivery, make them visible in navigation and seasonally on the homepage, test the full buy-and-redeem flow, and confirm the gifting experience is one that creates repeat customers.
It’s the same measurement-first approach behind our ecommerce operations work, where we rebuild the buying path and measure the result .
// we would rather show up in your reporting than in your inbox
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a paid Shopify plan for gift cards?
No. Shopify enabled gift cards on all Shopify plans in April 2020, indefinitely, and you can sell gift card products and issue cards from the admin with no third-party app. The paid-plan requirement is an old fact that still circulates widely.
How many denominations should I offer?
Three or four that span your typical gift budgets, plus a custom amount if your theme supports it. The buyer is usually deciding quickly, so a long list of amounts adds friction without adding sales.
How do I email the gift card to the recipient instead of the buyer?
Enable the recipient-information form in your theme editor, under the Buy buttons block, where the option reads “Show recipient information form for gift card products”. That adds recipient email, recipient name, a message and a send-on date. Without it, Shopify emails the card to the purchasing customer. The form is native to Online Store 2.0 themes from version 9.0.0.
Should I sell physical gift cards too?
Only if you have a reason to. Shopify physical gift cards are POS hardware cards, available in supported countries only, which is why most online-only stores sell digital. Start digital, and add physical if you have retail or a specific customer request.
Sources
Shopify, “Gift cards are now available on all Shopify plans,” April 5, 2020. States that Shopify is “enabling our gift cards feature on all Shopify plans indefinitely.” This supersedes any paid-plan requirement, which an earlier version of this page repeated. Shopify on gift cards for all plans
Shopify Help Center, “Gift card products.” Product documentation. Supports only the mechanics: that you “activate gift cards on your store to sell gift card products, as well as create gift cards directly from your Shopify admin,” with no third-party app, and that Shopify stores and redeems the balance at checkout. It carries no market, behavioral or accounting data, so we do not cite it for any. Shopify Help: gift card products
Shopify Help Center, “Add gift card recipient fields.” The actual recipient mechanic: the recipient email, recipient name, message and “Send on” date fields are enabled in the theme editor under the Buy buttons block (“Show recipient information form for gift card products”), and are native to Online Store 2.0 themes from version 9.0.0. Without it, the gift-card notification goes to the purchasing customer, not the recipient. Shopify Help: gift card recipient fields
Shopify Help Center, “Modify gift card settings.” “By default, gift cards don’t expire because it’s illegal in some countries for gift cards to expire”; if an expiry is set, the default is five years; and merchants should “verify that you’re following the rules and regulations for gift cards in your country.” Shopify Help: gift card settings
US federal: Credit CARD Act of 2009, Title IV; Electronic Fund Transfer Act §915 (15 U.S.C. §1693l-1); Regulation E, 12 CFR §1005.20. Funds must not expire earlier than the later of five years after issuance or five years after the last load (§1005.20(e)). Dormancy, inactivity or service fees are barred unless all three conditions hold: no activity for the one-year period ending on the fee date; the fee and its frequency disclosed clearly and conspicuously on the card itself; and not more than one such fee in any calendar month (§1005.20(d)). Exemptions at §1005.20(b) include loyalty, award and promotional cards, paper-only certificates, reloadable cards not marketed as gift cards, and venue-admission cards. Applies to cards sold on or after August 22, 2010 (§1005.20(g)). US Regulation E gift card rules
California: Civil Code §1749.5, as amended by SB 22, effective April 1, 2026. Raises the small-balance cash-redemption threshold from $10 (in place since 2008) to under $15: “a gift certificate with a cash value of less than fifteen dollars ($15) is redeemable in cash for its cash value.” The amended definition of “gift certificate” expressly includes electronic gift cards. California separately bars expiry dates and service fees on most gift certificates. Morgan Lewis on California gift card law
Revenue recognition: ASC 606-10-55-46 to 55-49 (breakage and unexercised rights). A gift-card sale is a contract liability, not revenue. Where the entity expects to be entitled to breakage, it is recognized in proportion to the pattern of rights exercised; where it does not, breakage is recognized only when further redemption becomes remote. Under 55-49, amounts that state escheat law requires to be remitted are recognized as a liability rather than revenue. RevenueHub on gift card breakage
Blackhawk Network (BHN), post-2024-holiday US survey (sample size not disclosed by BHN). 49% of consumers bought digital gift cards in the 2024 holiday season, up 5 points on 2023; 74% said gift cards helped them stick to their holiday budget; 22% needed to return a holiday gift, up from 16% in 2023, and about 8 in 10 of those wanted gift cards for returns. BHN research on gift card holiday demand
Blackhawk Network (BHN), gift card research published June 8, 2026 (n = 2,138 US adults 18+, fielded January 2026). Nearly 60% said they would spend beyond a card’s original value, by an average of $73; 77% planned to buy gift cards in 2026; and purchasing gift cards for their own use rose from 31% in 2025 to 56% in 2026. Self-reported survey data from a gift-card company. BHN research on gift card momentum