Wrapped holds the master record of every gift card: its code, its balance and every change ever made to it. Each connected sales channel has its own copy of the card, a native gift card that Wrapped creates with the same code. That's why the card can be sold and redeemed there like any other gift card. When a card is sold, used or refunded in one channel, the order reaches Wrapped, usually within seconds. Wrapped records the change and pushes the new balance to your other connected channels.
The master record in Wrapped
Every gift card in Gift cards › All gift cards has:
- its code, balance, currency and expiry
- the customer and recipient details
- a timeline of every change: the sale, each redemption, refunds, top-ups, manual adjustments, voids and expiry
- the sync status of its copy in each connected channel
A card's timeline in the dashboard updates as soon as Wrapped records a change. The Reports pages come from a separate reporting database and catch up within about 2 hours. See How often reports update.
How each channel holds the card
Channels work in one of two ways.
| How the channel works | Examples | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The channel has its own gift cards | Shopify, Lightspeed Retail X-Series (formerly Vend), Lightspeed Retail R-Series with native gift cards, BigCommerce, Square, Heartland Retail, Hike, Lightspeed eCom | Wrapped creates a native gift card with the same code and keeps its balance matched. Customers pay with it like any other gift card in that system, and the platform's own checkout rules apply. |
| Staff redeem through Wrapped inside the POS | Lightspeed Restaurant K-Series, L-Series and O-Series (formerly Kounta), Lightspeed Retail R-Series with the web extension | There's no separate gift card stored in the POS. Staff look the card up through a Wrapped payment method or screen in the POS, and Wrapped checks and updates the balance at the moment of sale. |
WooCommerce can work either way, depending on how you connect it. See Connect WooCommerce. The Wrapped web store and the Redeem app work directly on the master record in Wrapped.
What happens when a gift card is sold or used
- A customer buys a gift card, or pays with one, in a connected channel.
- The channel tells Wrapped about the order. For Lightspeed Retail R-Series, Wrapped checks for new sales every 2 minutes instead.
- Wrapped records it: a new gift card for a purchase, or an adjustment for a redemption, refund or top-up. It sends the gift card email if one applies.
- Wrapped pushes the card and its new balance to every other connected channel.
This usually takes a few seconds. If a channel is busy or briefly unavailable, Wrapped retries automatically, which can take a few minutes. For Lightspeed Retail X-Series, a daily catch-up also picks up sales whose notification never arrived.
When you create or change a card in Wrapped (from the dashboard, a batch, an automation, the web store or the Wrapped API), Wrapped pushes it to every connected channel straight away.
What syncs and what doesn't
| Change | Syncs? |
|---|---|
| A gift card sold in a connected channel | Yes |
| A gift card used as payment in a connected channel | Yes |
| A refund to a gift card or a top-up made in an order or sale | Yes |
| A gift card sale voided at the POS | Yes. Wrapped brings the card to $0 and disables it. The gift card list still shows the original sale amount. |
| Adjust balance on the gift card in Wrapped, or an adjustment through the Wrapped API | Yes. The new balance is pushed to every connected channel. |
A balance changed directly in a channel's admin, such as editing a gift card in Shopify admin or using Shopify's giftCardDebit / giftCardCredit API | No. Only changes that belong to an order or sale sync. Correct balances in Wrapped instead. |
| Orders placed before the channel was connected to Wrapped | No |
| Orders placed while the channel is turned off in Settings › Sales channels, or while your gift card program isn't live | No |
| Gift cards that already existed in a channel before you connected it | Not automatically. Import them. See Bring existing Shopify gift cards into Wrapped or Import existing gift cards from a CSV file. |
If you change a balance directly in Shopify admin or another channel's back office, Wrapped doesn't see it. Your channels then disagree. Use Adjust balance on the gift card in Wrapped, or the Wrapped API, so every channel gets the same balance. See Adjust a gift card's balance.
Exceptions to "every channel gets the card"
- Cards with no value yet are added to your channels once they have a balance, because most platforms can't hold a $0 gift card.
- Web store vouchers are never created in your sales channels. They're redeemed through Wrapped. See Redeeming vouchers.
- Some automations can be limited to selected sales channels. The cards they issue sync only to those channels.
- Turned-off or disconnected channels don't receive updates.
When a channel rejects an update
If a channel refuses to create or update a card (for example, because the code breaks that platform's format rules), the card shows a sync error. The rest of your channels still update. To push the card again, open it and choose Re-sync balance to sales channels from the More actions (…) menu. See Fixing gift card sync errors.
Connecting a new channel later
When you connect a new channel, Wrapped doesn't copy all your existing gift cards into it in one go. An existing card is added to the new channel the next time Wrapped syncs it, for example after it's used, adjusted or re-synced. If you need every existing card available in a new channel straight away, contact the Wrapped team before you launch the channel.
Common questions
How long does it take for a balance to update in my other channels?
Usually a few seconds after the sale is completed. Lightspeed Retail R-Series sales can take up to about 2 minutes to reach Wrapped. Retries after a platform error can add a few minutes.
I edited a gift card balance in Shopify admin. Why didn't Wrapped update?
Wrapped only picks up balance changes that come from an order or sale. Changes made directly in Shopify admin, or through Shopify's Admin API, aren't picked up. Set the correct balance with Adjust balance in Wrapped, and Wrapped pushes it to every channel.
Does Wrapped replace my channel's own gift cards?
No. Where a channel has its own gift cards, Wrapped uses them, so your staff and customers use gift cards the way they already do in that system.
A card shows a different balance in one channel. What should I do?
Open the card in Wrapped and check for a sync error. Fix the cause if there is one, then choose Re-sync balance to sales channels. If the balance in Wrapped itself is wrong, use Adjust balance.
What if a card is used in two places at the same time?
Each redemption is recorded separately, so the balance can go negative. See What happens if a card is used in two places at the same time.
What happens to syncing if my subscription ends?
Gift cards already created in your channels stay there and keep working, but Wrapped stops keeping their balances in sync. See Cancelling Wrapped: what happens to your gift cards.