Gift cards are a great way to give your customers more flexible buying options, encourage new and repeat business, and improve short-term cash flow. Once you’ve set up gift cards in your Retail POS account, you can start selling them in your store.

Understanding gift cards

You don’t need to pre-add gift card codes to Retail POS. At the point of purchase, you can input the unique gift card code and once purchased, it will be considered active and logged in your records.

By default, gift card sales are not included in revenue reports, as gift cards are counted as a liability until a product or service is redeemed using its value. Recording both the sale of the gift card and the sale where the value of the gift card was redeemed would inflate revenue numbers. You can choose to include gift cards in your reporting by clicking the Include gift card sales toggle in the Sales summary report.

If you have enabled 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.

Selling gift cards at the register

To sell a new gift card during a sale:

1. In Retail POS, navigate to the Sell screen.
2. Search for "gift card" and click the Gift Card product. 

   

3. Enter the gift card number or scan the unique code on the gift card and verify the number on the screen.
4. Click Find Gift Card.
5. The Add new gift card to sale window will display the gift card number with an Inactive badge and the expiry date, if applicable. Select or enter an amount to add to the gift card and click Add to sale.
6. Complete the sale to activate the gift card.

Reloading gift cards at the register

To add funds to an active gift card:

1. In Retail POS, navigate to the Sell screen.
2. Search for "gift card" and click the Gift Card product.

   

3. Enter the gift card number or scan the unique code on the gift card and verify the number on the screen.
4. Click Find Gift Card.
5. The Gift card (number) window will display the gift card number, current balance, and the expiry date, if applicable. Click Add Funds to Gift Card.

   

6. Enter an amount to add to the gift card and click Add to sale.
7. Complete the sale to add additional funds to the gift card.

Reusing gift cards

Reusing gift card codes is not recommended as it can increase the risk of fraudulent redemption.

Active gift cards can be reloaded with funds using the steps above. Canceled or expired gift cards can’t be reused. If a gift card is canceled or expired, it will display the warning message: "This card has been canceled/is expired and cannot be reloaded" in the gift card pop up window when scanned at the register. You’ll need to Find a Different Gift Card to input a new code and complete the sale.

Gift cards that are already assigned to a customer can’t be assigned to a new customer.

Redeeming gift cards during a sale

Customers can use their gift cards as a payment method and redeem varying amounts from their gift cards when checking out at the register.

1. Navigate to the Sell screen.
2. Add products to the cart and add the customer to the sale.
3. Click Pay.
4. If the customer only wants to spend a portion of their gift card, adjust the Amount to Pay to the desired amount.

   

5. Click the Gift card payment type.

   

6. Enter the gift card number or scan the unique code on the gift card and verify the number on the screen.

   If you get an error that says the gift card is not activated, scan or re-enter the code manually and verify that the on-screen code and the gift card code match. If the error persists, the gift code hasn’t been activated.

7. Click Find Gift Card.

   

8. Click Pay with gift card.

   

   Once a gift card has been added to a sale as a payment type, it can’t be adjusted or removed. You’ll need to temporarily put the sale On account, then navigate to the Sales history to void the sale and return the funds to the gift card.

9. If the gift card balance doesn’t cover the total, a warning message will let you know, "This card has insufficient funds to complete the sale. You may still use this gift card to make a partial payment."
   1. Click Make partial payment.

      

   2. Select a different payment method to pay for the remaining balance.
10. Complete the sale as usual.

Only BigCommerce gift certificates can be redeemed in-store. For customers on the new gift card experience, eCom (E-Series) gift cards can be redeemed in-store and online.

Checking a gift card balance

To check a customer's gift card balance:

1. Navigate to the Sell screen.
2. Search for "gift card" and click the Gift Card product. 
3. Input the gift card number or scan the unique code on the gift card and verify the number.
4. Click Find Gift Card.
5. The Gift card (number) window will display the gift card number, current balance, and the expiry date, if applicable.

   

6. Click X (Esc) to return to the cart.

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