Gift Card Management Software: Features and Benefits (+ Shopify Tools)

A gift card is prepaid value, where the buyer purchases it and the recipient redeems it for goods or services. It’s a go-to gift for many, and in some cases, used as incentives or rewards. 

In 2025, gift cards ranked as the second-most popular gift during the holiday season. For retailers, it’s upfront capital, often without the discounting, if the card’s redeemed. It’s also an opportunity to expand your customer base, with 64% of millennials, and 61% of Gen Z saying they’d try a new store if they had a gift card. 

Some gift cards, however, will never be used by recipients. The same study by TSG Payments and Bank of America found between 39% and 49% of consumers won’t redeem a gift card if their preferred shopping channel isn’t available. This creates what’s known as deferred revenue in accounting. 

Gift card management software tracks real-time balances and partial redemptions across both online and physical stores. This guide covers how to find the best option for your business. 

What is gift card management software?

Gift card management software is a platform that handles the full life cycle of gift cards, from the moment a customer buys it to the moment they fully redeem its balance. 

For retailers, that usually includes digital, physical, and store-issued gift cards. The system needs to generate or assign a secure gift card code, store the card value, track the remaining balance, and recognize the card as a payment option at checkout.

Shopify, for instance, supports gift cards as both products and payment methods. You can sell gift card products through Shopify checkout channels and manage created gift cards from the Shopify admin. 

What are the benefits of gift card management software?

Fortune Business Insights projects the global gift card market to grow to $2.22 trillion by 2034, with closed-loop cards. These are cards that can be used with a specific brand or network and account for the largest share of the market.

For you, gift cards can keep spending tied to the business. But you also need to make gift cards easy to buy, redeem, track, refund, and report on across every channel where your customers shop. 

That’s the job of gift card software.

Bring in new customers without relying only on discounts

In the 2026 TSG and Bank of America survey, 55% of US consumers said they would try a new business because of a gift card, up from 49% two years earlier.

Further, 44% of consumers typically spend more than the value of their gift card, while another 48% spend about the same amount. The report emphasizes that these findings underscore gift cards’ growing role as a brand discovery and loyalty tool. It says this is especially true for merchants looking to attract first‑time customers.

In Shopify, that starts with gift card products. You can sell digital or physical cards online and in-store, then let recipients redeem them across Shopify checkout and POS. 

When those recipients become customers, Shopify customer segments can help you group and re-engage them by creating campaigns for new customers or repeat buyers, for example.

Reduce fraud risk and protect gift card value

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported $35.4 million in fraud losses from gift card and reload card scams in Q4 2025. According to Riskified, fraudsters steal personal data from vulnerable targets, particularly those 60 and older and perhaps surprisingly, tech-savvy Gen Z consumers, then use it to purchase gift cards online and resell them on secondary markets.

Surprised to see Gen Z targeted? So were the researchers, who concluded that as digital natives, Gen Z consumers are sometimes so comfortable with technology, they underestimate the risks.

Riskified notes that online gift cards can be harder to review than physical goods because there may be no shipping address, and once a digital card is delivered, it can be redeemed swiftly.

Shopify gives you several ways to control gift card access and usage:

• Gift card numbers are encrypted, and because gift cards are treated as currency, only the customer can see the full gift card code after it’s created.
• In your Shopify admin, you can view only the last four characters of the code.
• You can also deactivate gift cards, limit staff permissions for viewing, creating, exporting, or deactivating cards, and manage gift card acceptance in Shopify POS.
• Checkout Blocks can add another layer of checkout control. Customize how payment methods appear in checkout by hiding, renaming, or reordering them based on rules. Shopify also includes “product type is gift card” as a supported rule for hiding payment methods.

Support both digital and physical gift cards

Gift cards continue to be the most widely used reward across North America and Europe, accounting for 30% and 34% of program allocations, respectively. 

But customer preferences vary by format. Brand-specific gift cards remain steady in use by 80% of North American programs and 68% of European programs, while gift card vouchers are especially popular in Europe, used by 68% of programs, and have grown by 7% in North America.

In Shopify, digital gift cards are fulfilled by email with unique checkout codes, while physical gift cards use pre-made cards with assigned codes that can be scanned in Shopify POS. And when you activate Apple Wallet Passes, customers can add gift cards directly to their wallet for frictionless redemption.

The key features to look for in gift card management software

The framework below draws on G2’s rewards and incentives category as a starting point, then adapts it for retail gift card management. That means looking at gift cards in two ways: as customer-facing rewards, and as stored value for retailers.

Each dimension below also contains a set of questions that you can workshop into a vendor evaluation checklist before signing a contract.

1. Omnichannel redemption

A gift card sold online must also work in-store. A partial redemption must leave the correct balance available for the next purchase, whether that’s online, mobile, or at a register. 

This dimension evaluates whether the software keeps those channels in sync.

• Can customers redeem gift cards across ecommerce and POS?
• Does each card maintain one balance across all channels?
• Are balances updated after purchases, redemptions, refunds, and deactivations?
• Does the system support partial redemption?
• Can customers redeem by code, POS scan, or digital wallet where supported?
• Can staff view redemption history by order, channel, or store location?
• What happens to gift card sales and redemptions if the POS goes offline?

For Shopify retailers, gift cards created in the Shopify admin and Shopify POS are interchangeable, so customers can buy a card in one channel and redeem it in another. Shopify gift cards can be redeemed through sales channels that use Shopify checkout, including the online store, Shopify POS, and the Shop app. 

In POS, associates can scan a gift card barcode or enter the code manually, and the receipt shows the remaining balance after redemption.

Slam Jam, for example, used Shopify POS to support an omnichannel retail strategy and saw a 15% increase in average daily orders after activating it in stores. 

They used this omnichannel setup to offer customers flexibility: buy a gift card online, redeem it in-store via a wallet app with a push notification reminder. 

2. Fraud prevention and security

A stolen credit card can be disputed, whereas a gift card balance drains in minutes. 

For example, in May 2026, authorities arrested nearly 20 criminals running a gift card operation that cost buyers hundreds of millions of dollars. The thieves opened physical Apple gift cards in retail stores, recorded the PINs, and returned the cards to shelves. When a customer bought and loaded one, the thieves received an alert and drained the balance instantly.

This dimension evaluates whether the software helps limit fraud exposure and respond when a card looks compromised.

• Does the system detect high-risk patterns in real time?
• How are gift card codes protected?
• Can you deactivate a card immediately?
• How does the system handle chargebacks?
• Are there any permission controls for staff?

Shopify reduces fraud exposure through encrypted gift card codes, and retailers can view only the last four characters of the code. The value limits are designed to reduce fraud and regulatory risk. For example, gift card product denominations can be set up to a maximum of $10,000, while gift cards created from the Shopify admin have a maximum value of $2,000. 

At checkout, customers cannot enter custom amounts for gift cards, as it comes with predetermined values known as denominations. 

3. Customer profile and retention workflow integration

A gift card, in addition to being a payment method, can also be a customer acquisition, retention, and marketing tool.

You can use them as loyalty rewards to avoid discounting, for birthday campaigns, lapsed customer reactivation, or VIP tier perks.

This dimension evaluates whether the software tracks customer profiles and can trigger gift card issuance based on behaviors or milestones.

• Can the system issue gift cards to customers automatically?
• Can you segment customers and target campaigns?
• Does it integrate with other loyalty platforms?
• Can staff create ad-hoc gift cards at POS?

In Shopify, unified customer profiles bring data from ecommerce, POS, marketing, and partner integrations into one view as a single source of truth. Plus, brands using unified customer profiles have seen up to a 20% increase in order value, on average.

And with that unified profile, you can issue store credit to customers as a goodwill gesture, a form of customer retention, a marketing campaign, or a reward—such as a loyalty or referral program. 

Shopify also allows you to create customer segments based on store credit balance and upcoming expiration dates, enabling targeted campaigns that remind customers about unused credit before it expires.

And with Shopify Flow, you can automate gift card workflows without code. You can retrieve gift card data and trigger actions based on that data. For example, retrieve all gift cards expiring in seven days, then use SendGrid or another email service to notify customers before they lose the balance.

Alternatively, use workflows to automatically issue gift cards when conditions are met, like when a customer reaches a loyalty tier or hasn’t purchased in 60 days, and send HTTP requests to external loyalty platforms to sync the issuance.

Milligram, a luxury stationery brand, avoided discounting and instead used gift cards as part of a “gift with purchase” strategy. When they relaunched their Friends for Life loyalty program integrated with Shopify POS, customers could collect and redeem points both in-store and online. This approach contributed to a 12% rise in average order value (AOV) from omnichannel shoppers.

“Finding the right POS system to integrate with our ecommerce system and loyalty program has been a big part of our journey improving as a physical retailer,” says founder Scott Druce.

4. App and API extensibility

You need to be able to connect gift cards to your tech stack, including loyalty platforms, accounting software, marketing automation, headless storefronts, and sometimes build custom logic.

This dimension evaluates whether the software provides APIs and third-party apps to extend functionality.

• What APIs does the platform expose?
• Are there webhooks for gift card events?
• How do multicurrency cards work?
• Can you build custom apps?
• What integrations already exist?

Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API allows developers to create gift cards programmatically using the giftCardCreate mutation. Then, developers can specify initial value, customer assignment, expiration date, and even schedule gift card notifications with personalized messages and preferred recipient names. 

For multicurrency operations, gift card values are set in the store’s default currency, but customers purchase and redeem them in their local currency. When a customer redeems a gift card in a different currency, the conversion uses the exchange rate at redemption time, and no currency conversion fees are applied.

For retailers without development resources, Shopify Flow uses the GraphQL Admin API to build automations and integrations that extend the Shopify admin. And for everything else, the Shopify App Store is home to more than 360 loyalty apps. 

Lola’s Cupcakes, a UK food retailer with more than 40 locations, integrated Shopify POS with the Built for Shopify–certified Smile.io app for their loyalty program. Their customer data works natively with smile.io, automatically creating loyalty accounts and managing customer wallets so customers can redeem points both online and in-store. This drove over 10,000 new customers to join Lola’s loyalty scheme.

5. Custom branding and personalization

A branded, personalized gift card can be a memorable brand moment. This dimension evaluates whether the software supports recipient personalization, branded designs, mobile wallet integration, and scheduling.

• Can customers personalize the gift card?
• Is the notification email branded?
• How customizable is the gift card design? 
• Can customers scan to redeem?
• Do you support mobile wallet passes?

Shopify themes can be customized to show recipient information fields on the gift card product page. Your customers can enter a recipient name, email, and custom message before purchase. They can also schedule the gift card to be sent on a specific date, with the system sending approximately between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. in the customer’s time zone. 

You can customize email notification templates using HTML, CSS, and Liquid. To replace the default gift card image in email notifications, upload a custom image to the files section of the Shopify admin. Further, customize how Apple Wallet Passes look to match your store by adjusting text, color, and image settings from the Gift cards settings page in the Shopify admin. 

For physical gift cards sold via Shopify POS, order customized physical gift cards from the Shopify Hardware Store in supported countries.

6. Reporting and analytics

A gift card’s outstanding balance is a deferred revenue liability you need to include in your balance sheet and monthly financial close. If there’s no tracking, you risk misclassifying gift card sales as immediate revenue or overstating profitability.

This dimension evaluates whether the software provides visibility into gift card sales, outstanding balances, and redemption patterns.

• How do you account for gift card liability?
• Can you export data?
• What filters and sorting are available?
• Does it integrate with accounting software?
• Can staff see transaction history?

Shopify gives you dedicated gift card finance reports. The Net sales from gift cards report displays net sales for each channel and date range, while the Outstanding gift card balance report displays the daily balance of all gift card transactions. 

You can also filter gift cards by status, balance, value range, date created, or issue method. Whenever you want, export gift card data to CSV, which includes details like gift card ID, last four characters, customer name, recipient name, date issued, send date, expiration date, initial balance, current balance, currency, and more.

Plus, when a customer uses a gift card to pay for a purchase and you issue a refund, the refund is automatically applied to the gift card balance, and the card balance updates automatically. This creates an auditable trail of all gift card transactions.

When to use native Shopify gift card tools

If you’re running a standard retail or ecommerce operation and gift cards are a secondary revenue stream, Shopify’s native tools can handle the full life cycle.

Shopify gift card management tools are usually enough when…

• You sell gift cards through both ecommerce and POS. Shopify gift cards can be redeemed on sales channels that use Shopify checkout, including Online Store, Shopify POS, and the Shop app. 
• You need basic gift card customization. Shopify lets you customize gift card product details, gift card pages, and gift card notification emails to match your brand. 
• You want Apple Wallet support. When Apple Wallet Passes are activated, Shopify gift card notification emails can include an Add to Apple Wallet button. The pass displays store information, the active balance, and a unique QR code that can be scanned in Shopify POS.
• Your reporting needs are met by standard finance reports. Shopify’s gift card finance reports can help track gift card product sales and account for gift card payments on orders.
• You want to automate gift card workflows without code. Shopify Flow can retrieve gift card data from your store and use it in workflows, such as finding gift cards that are expiring soon. Flow templates also support gift-card-related workflows, including tagging orders paid with gift cards and notifying customers about expiring gift cards.

Take Car Toys, the largest independent specialty car audio and mobile electronics retailer in the United States. When they migrated from Magento to Shopify, they used Shopify POS for a more “robust gift card program” that allows customers to buy and use gift cards online or in-store. 

You likely need a dedicated gift card system when…

• Your gifting program involves bulk sending or corporate gifting at scale. Shopify lets you create gift cards from the admin and sell gift card products, but large-scale issuance often calls for more specialized workflows.
• You need advanced personalization. Shopify supports recipient fields and customizable notification emails. But if you need, for example, video messages from the gift giver, dynamic design templates, or themed gift experiences, a specialized gifting platform is better suited to manage that complexity.
• You need specialized dashboards and attribution. Shopify’s finance reports can help track gift card activity, and merchants can export gift card data to review details such as outstanding balances. But if your team needs campaign-level reporting, bulk issuance logs, recipient tracking, redemption analysis, breakage dashboards, ROI by campaign, or accounting exports beyond standard reports, dedicated gift management software helps.