Install and switch on the app

  1. In the menu, under Configuration, click Plugins, find Gift Cards in the App Store and click Install.
  2. Open the app’s settings. If your payment set-up cannot sell gift cards, a message at the top says why and what to change.
  3. Under Selling, tick Sell gift cards on my marketplace.
  4. Save. Your storefront now has a /gift-cards page: open it with See the page from the list of cards.

Choose the amounts and the validity

  • Amounts offered: the amounts buyers pick from, in your marketplace’s currency, separated by commas. Without any, 25, 50 and 100 are offered.
  • Let buyers choose their own amount: buyers may also type an amount, from 5 to 1,000.
  • Valid for (months, from the purchase): from 1 to 36, 12 by default. The date is printed on the card and in the e-mails.

Under Look, set the Card colour, a Card picture (optional) and the Headline of the gift card page.

How the money works

  1. When a card is bought, the buyer pays on Stripe, on your marketplace’s own Stripe account. The full amount reaches your Stripe balance, then your bank with your other takings. Stripe’s usual fee applies, as on any payment you take.
  2. Until it is spent, the card is a debt of your marketplace to its holder. The list shows it as Still to be spent.
  3. At checkout, the card’s balance is set aside as soon as the payment page opens, so it cannot be spent twice. Stripe charges only what is left to pay; when the cards cover everything, the order is placed without a payment page. If the buyer gives up, the balance comes back when the payment page expires, an hour later.
  4. When the seller accepts the order, their earnings are paid as for any order: first from what the bank card paid, the rest from the gift card’s payment. Your commission and the order’s figures do not change.
  5. When an order is declined or cancelled, the bank card gets back what it paid and the gift card the rest, on its balance. If the seller was already paid, their transfers are taken back.

Follow the cards sold

In the app’s settings, click See the cards sold. The list shows the Cards sold, the Amount sold and what is Still to be spent, then every card with its buyer, its recipient, its delivery and its balance. Filter by status: Active, Spent, Cancelled, Awaiting payment.

  • Send again e-mails the card to its recipient once more.
  • Cancel shows on a card nobody has spent from yet. The card can no longer be spent; its money is still on your Stripe balance, so refund the buyer from your Stripe dashboard if needed.

The two e-mails, Gift card received (to the recipient) and Gift card bought (the buyer’s copy), are edited like your other notifications, in Settings › Notifications.

What your users see

  • Buyers choose a card on your storefront’s /gift-cards page: the amount, the recipient’s name and e-mail, a message and the day it should arrive. They pay on Stripe, with a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
  • Recipients receive the card by e-mail on that day, with its code and its expiry date. The buyer gets a copy when the card is for someone else.
  • At checkout, before paying, buyers see Do you have a gift card?: they type the code, see what is left to pay, and continue. Up to three cards per order; what is not spent stays on the card for next time.
  • Sellers see nothing different: their orders and earnings are the same as for an order paid by bank card.

Edge cases and limits

  • Stripe Connect only, on the Stripe-hosted payment page: the embedded card form, Stripe Standard accounts and other payment providers cannot take gift cards.
  • One currency: your Stripe account must settle in the currency your marketplace sells in, or sellers cannot be paid their card-funded share.
  • Expired cards: their unspent balance stays with your marketplace. Whether you refund or extend it is your decision, to state in your terms of sale. A refund onto an expired card restores its balance, not its validity.
  • Stripe’s minimum: when a card would leave less than 0.50 to pay by bank card, it pays a little less so that Stripe can charge the rest.
  • Wrong codes: after 10 wrong codes in an hour, the checkout step stops accepting new ones for a while.
  • Codes: nobody in the admin panel can read a full code, only its last four characters. Only the recipient receives it.