You can create a gift card yourself in Gift cards › All gift cards › Issue gift card, without putting a sale through your POS or online store. Wrapped creates the card, adds it to every connected sales channel, and emails it to the recipient if you enter an email address. Use it for donations, staff rewards, prizes, goodwill credit, or to load value onto a physical card you've already printed.
Only Owners and Admins can issue gift cards. Members and Read-only users don't see the button.
Issue a gift card
- Go to Gift cards › All gift cards and click Issue gift card.
- Under Gift card, check the Code. Wrapped fills in a new code using your code format. You can replace it with your own, for example the code printed on a physical card.
- Enter the Value.
- Choose a Reason: Purchased, Refund, Compensation, Reward, Transfer, Employee, Donation, Campaign or Other.
- Under Recipient, enter the customer's Email if you want Wrapped to send them the gift card. Leave it empty if you'll hand the code over yourself.
- Optionally add Private notes. Only your team can see them.
- On the right, check Expiry, Settings and Email (see below).
- Click Issue gift card.
The new card appears at the top of All gift cards. Open it to see its activity, including when it was created in each sales channel.
The fields and options
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Code (required) | The code customers enter or scan. Wrapped generates one from your code format in Settings › Gift card rules. If you type your own, it must meet the rules of every sales channel you use. See Gift card code format and each platform's rules. |
| Value (required) | The starting balance, in your account currency. |
| Reason | Records why the card was issued. You can filter the gift card list by reason. |
| Web store product | Only shown if you have web store products. Links the card to a product so it uses that product's value options and email. Choosing a voucher product issues a voucher instead of a gift card. See Issue a complimentary voucher. |
| Where the gift card email is sent. Required when you choose a web store product. | |
| Private notes | Internal notes, shown on the card's page. |
| Expiry | No expiry date or Expires on a date. The default comes from your expiry setting in Settings › Gift card rules. Check the gift card laws in your country before setting an expiry. |
| Promotional | Marks the card as used for promotions rather than sold. Promotional cards are counted separately in reports, and you can let expired promotional cards keep working in your gift card rules. |
| Balance alerts | Emails an address of your choice (your own, by default) whenever this card's balance changes. |
| Email card | Shows which email design the card uses. Depending on your account you can Change subject or Customise email for this card only, and Reset to default. To change the wording for every card, use Branding › Emails. |
What happens after you click Issue gift card
- Wrapped saves the card and records "gift card created from dashboard" in its activity.
- In the background, Wrapped creates the card in each connected sales channel, such as Shopify or Lightspeed. This usually takes a few moments.
- Once the card has been created in your sales channels, Wrapped emails the recipient (if you entered an email and your gift card emails are turned on) and updates any wallet pass.
If you issue a card with a value of 0, Wrapped saves it but doesn't create it in your sales channels or send an email. Most channels can't hold a gift card with no value. It's synced and becomes active the first time value is added. See Generate gift card codes for a printer.
Loading a physical card
To load value onto a printed card that already exists in Wrapped with no balance (for example a card from a $0 batch):
- Click Issue gift card.
- Replace the generated Code with the code printed on the card. Check it carefully: it must match the card exactly so the card can be scanned and redeemed.
- Enter the Value and the rest of the details, then click Issue gift card.
Wrapped finds the existing $0 card, loads the value onto it and syncs it to your sales channels. If the code already belongs to a card that still has a balance, the card isn't issued and you'll see "We couldn't issue this gift card. Check the code isn't already in use and your account is active."
Common questions
Does an issued gift card count toward my plan?
Yes. A card counts once, in the billing period it's first activated with a balance. A $0 card doesn't count until value is added. See How the monthly gift card allowance works.
Does the card work in all my sales channels?
Yes, once Wrapped has created it in each connected channel. If a channel refuses the card (for example because the code is too short for that channel), the card shows a sync error. See Fixing gift card sync errors.
The customer didn't get the email
Open the card and check its activity for an "email sent" line, then use Email activity to see whether it was delivered. You can resend it from Send email. See Check whether a gift card email was sent and delivered.
I got "We couldn't issue this gift card"
Either the code is already used by a card with a balance, or your account isn't active (for example the subscription was cancelled). Generate a new code or pick a different one. If your account is active and the code is new, contact support.
Can I issue a gift card in a different currency?
No. Cards issued from the dashboard use your account currency. See Currencies and gift cards.
Can I issue many cards at once?
Yes. Use Gift cards › Batches to generate many cards with the same value, or import a CSV file. See Batches: create many gift cards at once.