A gift card is a special type of product that customers can use as payment toward future orders in your store, alongside other payment methods like credit cards or cash. In this article, we will guide you through setting up gift cards as rewards, how they work in different loyalty features, and how to manage them.
🚀 Feature availability
Gift cards in Growave are available starting from the Growth plan.
Gift cards in loyalty programs
Gift cards are powerful rewards in loyalty programs. Because they act as a cash equivalent rather than a standard discount, gift cards can be applied on any purchase, making them a highly flexible payment option for your customers.
⚠️ Important: Notifications & Integrations
When a Gift card is selected as a reward type anywhere in the Rewards app (including VIP Tier entry rewards, Referral rewards, Birthday rewards, any other earning action, or when redeemed with points), Growave will not trigger its own reward notification. Furthermore, this reward event will not be sent to any third-party email integrations like Klaviyo or Omnisend. This logic is in place to prevent sending duplicate emails to your customers, because Shopify automatically processes and sends its own standard Gift card notification with the code details directly to the customer.
⚠️ Important: Shopify Policies
Gift cards are processed and managed by Shopify according to their policies. When using gift cards as rewards, please consider the following:
Redemption rules: Shopify allows multiple gift cards to be applied at checkout, with no fixed limit on how many can be used in a single order. Learn more
Gift card usage: A gift card is not exclusive to the customer ID. Anyone who has the gift card code can potentially use it to make a purchase.
Gift card settings overview
Depending on where you use a gift card in Growave, you have access to different configuration options. Use this quick reference guide to see which settings apply to each program:
Setting | Ways to Redeem | Ways to Earn | VIP Tiers | Referral Program |
Set reward lifetime (Expiration) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Available exclusively for customers with listed tags | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Limit redemptions per customer | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Setting an expiration for gift cards
You can control how long a gift card reward remains valid by using the Set reward lifetime option.
⚠️ Important
Avoid manual edits in Shopify admin. Once you have enabled Set reward lifetime for your gift cards in Growave, do not manually edit the expiration date within the Shopify admin panel.
If you change the date manually, Growave cannot retrieve that data back from Shopify.
As a result, the gift card will not expire and will remain valid infinitely.
While these infinite gift cards won't be visible on the storefront widgets anymore, customers can still apply the code from their Shopify email notification at checkout.
Gift card as a reward for actions
Gift cards can be offered as a reward for customers in various Growave features, including the Points program, VIP Tiers, and the Referral program. Customers can earn gift cards for performing certain actions, reaching specific VIP tiers, or referring new customers in exchange for a gift card.
Points program (Ways to earn)
Go to Rewards → Points tab → Ways to earn section and click Add ways to earn.
Choose one of the earning actions, e.g. Celebrate birthday, and select the Gift card as a reward type.
Enter the Gift card value.
Set reward lifetime: Insert a duration (in days) to define how long the gift card is valid after the customer earns it.
Available exclusively for customers with listed tags: Check this box and enter a tag you assigned to your customers in Shopify to restrict this reward to specific customer segments.
VIP Tiers
Go to Rewards → VIP Tiers tab and click Add tier, or edit the existing tier.
Select Gift card as the entry reward for reaching a specific tier and enter Gift card value.
Set reward lifetime: Insert a duration (in days) to define how long the gift card remains valid after the customer unlocks the tier.
📘 Note
The options to restrict the Gift card reward by customer tags or limit redemptions are not available in VIP Tiers. Eligibility is based on the Tier milestone and your global Rewards availability setting.
Referral Program
Go to Rewards → Referrals tab.
Click Edit to assign the Gift card as the reward for the Referring customer or the Referred friend.
Enter the Gift card value.
Set reward lifetime: Insert a duration (in days) to define how long the gift card remains valid after the referral is successful.
📘 Note
The options to restrict the Gift card reward by customer tags or limit redemptions are not available in the Referral program. Eligibility is based on the successful completion of the referral and your global Rewards availability setting.
Gift card as reward redeemable with points
To create a gift card that customers can "buy" using their accumulated points:
Go to Rewards → Points → Ways to redeem section and click the Add ways to redeem button.
Select the Gift card option from the list.
On the configuration page, assign the following:
Title: The reward title shown to customers.
Point value: The points price required to redeem it.
Gift card value: The monetary amount of the card.
Set reward lifetime: Insert a duration (in days) for reward validity.
Limit how many times each customer can redeem this reward: Set a repetition limit (e.g., once per lifetime) to prevent abuse.
Available exclusively for customers with listed tags: Restrict visibility to customers with certain tags.
Earning points when purchasing gift cards
In Shopify, you can create gift cards that serve as products in your store.
When a customer purchases a Gift card product, Growave treats this transaction as a standard order. The customer will earn points for this purchase based on your active transactional rules like Place order or Place XX orders and the Rewards program settings.
How to exclude gift card products from earning points
If you do not want customers to earn points when they buy a gift card, you can exclude these specific products using tags.
Step 1: Tag the product in Shopify
Go to your Shopify admin and navigate to Products.
Select the Gift card product you wish to exclude.
Add a specific tag (e.g.,
giftcard_exclusion) in the Tags section.Save the product.
Step 2: Update Growave settings
Open the Growave admin panel and navigate to Rewards → Settings.
Scroll to the Rewards availability section.
Select Specify products eligibility checkbox.
Select the option Forbid for products with listed tags.
Enter the exact tag you created in Step 1 (e.g.,
giftcard_exclusion).Click Save.
Earning points when paying with gift cards
When a customer uses a gift card to pay for an order (regardless of whether they bought it or earned it as a reward), you can control whether that payment amount generates points.
By default, points are calculated based on the order total. However, you may wish to prevent customers from "double-dipping" (earning points when buying a gift card, and earning points again when spending it).
How to exclude gift cards from point calculations
You can configure Growave to deduct the value of the gift card from the rewardable total of the order.
Navigate to Rewards → Settings.
Scroll to the Reward amount calculation section.
Check the box for Exclude gift cards.
Click Save.
✅ Example
If you exclude gift cards from the rewardable amount, a customer who placed a $100 order and applied a $30 gift card will earn points only on the remaining $70. If an order is paid entirely with a gift card, the customer will earn 0 points.
Managing gift cards
Once a gift card is issued as a reward for action or redeemed with points, Shopify automatically sends an email to the customer with the gift card details.
Customers can also use the Rewards widget to find available rewards, including gift cards.
You can track gift card usage and history in two places within the Growave admin panel:
Analytics: Check the Analytics → Rewards for an overview of all rewards activities, including Gift cards. 📖 Learn more about Growave Analytics
Customers: Navigate to a specific customer's profile and view their individual reward history under the Activity section. 📖 Learn more about the Customers section
Tips on setting up gift cards
Because gift cards act like cash and can be spent on any item in your store, the best way to protect your profit margins is to strategically configure how they are earned and redeemed.
Require high points thresholds: When offering a gift card in the Ways to redeem section, set a high Point value. This ensures that only customers who have demonstrated significant long-term loyalty can convert their points into a flexible gift card balance.
Reward high-value purchases: Reserve gift cards for the Spend X to get Y earning rule. By offering a gift card exclusively to customers who spend over a certain high-dollar amount in a single transaction, you encourage larger cart sizes and ensure the reward is financially sustainable.
Reserve for VIP Tier milestones: Use gift cards as an exclusive Entry reward within your VIP Tiers program. Instead of offering small gift cards to everyone, automatically grant a high-value gift card only when a customer reaches your highest milestone tier.
Target special promotions: Leverage gift cards as special incentives for targeted actions. Use the Buy X to get Y earning rule to promote specific high-margin products or collections.
Set Referral minimums: When offering a gift card as a reward for the Referring customer, protect your margins by Setting minimum order amount for referred friend to trigger referring customer reward. For example, offering a $10 gift card is much more sustainable if the referred friend is required to make a first purchase of $50 or higher.
If you have any questions or need assistance, contact us at [email protected] or use the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the Growave admin panel. We're here to help! 🤗