Enable Retail POS's gift card feature to offer your customers the option to purchase gift cards for themselves or for others. These gift cards can be redeemed at your store.

Setting up gift cards

If you integrate with Xero, you must map the correct account code to your gift card payment type. If you use QuickBooks Online, you must also map your liabilities account in Retail POS-QuickBooks Online mappings page.

Enabling gift cards

Before you start selling your gift cards, you'll need to enable the gift card feature in your Retail POS store and acquire some gift cards to issue to your customers.

To activate gift cards:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Gift cards,
2. Click the toggle next to Enable gift cards so that it displays a purple tick.

   

Only admin users can view the setup screen to enable Retail POS gift cards.

Once enabled, a product called "Gift Card" is added to your store. A gift card payment option is also added to the payment screen. This payment option will be used when a customer redeems their gift card.

Enable gift card expiry

To enable gift card expiration:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Gift cards and scroll down to the Expiry section.
2. Click the box next to Allow gift cards to expire.
3. The Expires in section will appear with a text field and a drop-down menu you can use to enable and customize your gift card expiry dates.

   If you have a Xero or QuickBooks Online account connected to Retail POS, you will need to set up your store so that revenue posts to Xero/QuickBooks Online when gift cards expire.

Getting your gift cards

After you've enabled the feature, you'll need to purchase or create your gift cards. You can purchase these from a gift card supplier or print out your own with unique codes. We recommend you use code 128 barcodes with unique alphanumeric codes between 6-16 characters. We also recommend you use non-sequential codes. This will reduce risks associated with fake gift cards and help prevent people from guessing the next sequence.

To sync Lightspeed gift cards to your eCommerce platform so they can be accepted online, you can use Wrapped gift cards. For more information, visit Wrapped.

Import existing gift card balances

To import existing gift card balances into Retail POS, refer to our Import existing gift card balances guide.

Selling gift cards

Now that you've enabled gift cards you're ready to start selling. You do not need to pre-populate Retail POS with your gift card codes. You can input your unique gift card codes when you come to sell the gift card to your customer.

To sell a gift card:

1. Go to the sell screen and bring up the Gift card product in the search. If you are using the Retail POS (X-Series) iPad app and think you'll sell gift cards often, you can set up a quick key for easy access. To learn how to create quick keys, refer to our Setting up Retail POS (X-Series) on iPad guide.
2. Once you select the Gift card product, a verification box will appear. This box will prompt you to input or scan the unique code on your physical gift card and verify this number.

   

   If you scan in a gift card code that's already been activated you will receive a notification letting you know the current active balance of this card and an option to scan in a new code.

3. Once the code has been verified, enter the gift card value and click Add to sale.

   

4. The gift card is now added to the sale. You can finish this sale as per usual to complete the process.

   Tax will not be charged on the gift card until the value is redeemed.

Redeeming gift cards

When a customer comes in to redeem their gift card, add their chosen products to the sale as you normally would.

1. Once the customer is happy with their selection, click pay. This will take you to the payment screen. To accept payment using a gift card, select the Gift card payment type.

   

   This will prompt you to scan or input the gift card's unique code. You can use this process to check the balance of a customer's gift card.

2. After the code has been successfully entered, you can click Pay with gift card to complete the sale.

   

Getting a message that says "Gift card not activated? Try scanning the card again or entering it in manually, and check that the code on the screen matches the one on the customer's card. If the error occurs again, then the gift card is not yet activated.

If a customer's sale total is greater than the balance on their gift card, you'll need to confirm the removal of their full balance and process the outstanding balance using another payment method.

If the customer only wants to spend part of their gift card, adjust the amount tendered balance in the payment screen before selecting the gift card payment type.

Check a gift card balance

To check a customer's gift card balance:

1. Navigate to the sell screen and search for the Gift card product.
2. Select the Gift card product and input or scan the customer's physical gift card code. If this gift card has been activated, it is current balance will be displayed here.
3. Click Cancel to return to the sell screen or scan again to check another gift card.

Voiding a gift card sale

Voiding a gift card sale is irreversible.

If a gift card has been issued, or a sale using a gift card as a payment method made, and needs to be reversed, you can use the Sales history to void the sale. Voiding sales where a gift card has been used as a payment method will re-credit the amount to the gift card. By voiding a sale of a gift card, the sale will be voided, the gift card balance removed and the gift card number can be used again.

It is important that you do not reissue a gift card using the same code if the original gift card that used this code is still in circulation. This is to prevent two gift cards having the ability to redeem the same amount.

1. Navigate to Sell > Sales history and locate the sale in which the gift card was sold/used.
2. Click on the sale to expand and click Void.
3. Then, click Void sale.

Reporting on gift cards

Retail POS's gift card reporting feature gives you a breakdown of your gift card totals for a quick overview of your gift card sales. It also contains a list of all gift cards sold, allowing you to bring up a single gift card to view its current balance and redemption status.

To access gift card reporting, head to the reporting tab in the sidebar and select Gift card reports.

The gift card report will only show you the last 1000 gift cards you have created.

Register closures

In your register closure report, you will see a table titled gift cards. Here you can view your total sold gift cards for the period as well the amounts redeemed.

Disabling gift cards

You can disable gift cards if you no longer wish to use them in your store.

1. Navigate to Catalog > Gift cards
2. Click the toggle next to Enable gift cards in my store so that it turns white.

   

3. Once you've done this, gift cards will be disabled and you will no longer be able to issue gift cards from Retail POS.
4. You will still be able to redeem existing gift cards and view reports on gift cards sold before you disabled this feature.

Tips

• Retail POS gift cards will not work with third-party apps or eCommerce providers such as Shopify or WooCommerce. However, BigCommerce gift certificates can be redeemed in-store.
• All users can sell or redeem gift cards, but only admin users may view the gift card setup screen and enable Retail POS gift cards.
• Once you enable gift cards, a product and payment option will be created. This gift card product is tax exclusive, but tax will be applied at the time of redemption.
• If you are using loyalty, it will be earned by the customer who is redeeming the gift card at the point of redemption and not at the point of purchase.

Attachments

• gift_card_import.csv15 Bytes