Gift Card Q&A: Ask our product team anything about Square Gift Cards

[Tom]

👋 Hello Seller Community!

With the holiday season in the rearview mirror, our Square Gift Cards joined our forums to address all of your post-holiday gift card questions. Thank you to everyone who participated and stay tuned for a recap of the main themes that were brought up!

A few example questions:

• Gift Cards were a large portion of my sales during this holiday season, what are the best practices for managing redemptions?
• I'm new to Square, what do I need to know to get started with Gift Cards?
• If I could do "_______" with Square Gift Cards, it would make a big difference for my business.

[aarontw]

Wow - love your websites, your product seems really, really cool 😄 

[SuN33]

• It would be hugely beneficial to allow clients & customers to redeem gift cards online when booking appointments. 
• It would be amazing to have the ability to take a valid e-mail address or phone number of the recipient when someone purchases a physical card. Will purchasers always have that info? No. But for those who do, this would help. If there is any possible way of tracking recipients of physical cards, I'd love to know.
• For gift cards purchased online, it would really help if business managers could e-mail recipients, to nudge them to come in and redeem their gifts.
• If there is a reason a business is not allowed the privilege of e-mail access of the recipient, perhaps the issuer (Square/eCard Systems) could send out occasional reminders to redeem?

Cheers!

[Hawkspirit]

-When they do to pay for the service they can use the gift card.
-If you put in their email/phone number (or them online) when they purchase a gift card (under add customer) then you will have their contact info. 

*at least in my POS system

[lornaz]

Hi @SuN33! Thank you for these questions and the feedback

1. Thank you for the feedback here. We’ll share the feedback with our Appointments team and work with them to try and prioritize adding this functionality.
   
   
2. We definitely understand the value in knowing who the recipient of your physical gift cards are. If the recipient is an existing customer in your directory, you can add the gift card as a Card on File to their customer profile and keep track that way. Learn more about our Card on File functionality here
   
   
3. Thank you for the feedback here. This is something we have heard and are looking into but do not have any concrete plans or updates yet.
   
   
4. Thank you for the suggestion. When it comes to emailing buyers, we are restricted by privacy and spam laws, but we will brainstorm ways to do this legally.  

[PawsUp]

I have both paper gift certificates and the plastic Square gift cards.  I would like instructions on how to redeem a paper gift certificate as it has been an extremely frustrating process.  The plastic gift cards took a very long time to arrive so during the 4th quarter I had to offer paper certificates.  Redeeming them in the system has been a challenge.  Please provide step by step instructions on redeeming paper certificates.

Thank you,

Tracey

[Hawkspirit]

I would like an answer to this as well.  The only work around I have had is putting the monies aside for the paper certificates and when used then adding it to my till/balance.
If you "charge" for a paper one, you receive the monies right away, then when they go to redeem it and you choose "gift certificate/other in checkout, they assume you are receiving cash again, which makes your numbers off.

Most processors what you to use gift cards because the money received goes into an escrow account (not to you), and when the customer uses the gift card then it comes out and goes to you.  A lot of processor companies make tons of money because if the person does not use a gift card after a certain amount of time they keep the money/make interest off the escrow account.  Then there is you with a loss of $ for purchasing the gift card/it not being used.

[Wendyct]

Hi Tracey! I am so sorry to hear that your plastic cards didn't arrive in time. I will be sure to give that feedback to our gift card partner who prints the cards. 

If you have issued paper gift certificates, you can use Square to track their use along with cash payments, checks, and gift cards from third-party services using the Other Tender payment type . If your customer would like to pay with their paper gift certificate, just choose "Other Gift Card or Certificate" as their tender type on the payment screen at checkout. This will allow you to check the customer out and record the payment. When you accept other tender types, Square doesn’t process any funds and functions only as an organizational tool. 

[YCP]

Why are we limited to only one company in which to purchase gift cards from? I ordered pre-designed GC almost 3 weeks in advance for my opening and of course they didn't arrive in time. I had to call and then they expedited after they told me in takes at least 2 weeks. Once they realized it ha been over 3 weeks they expedited. They are super expensive for a new business who isn't ordering 500. I wish we had other options.

[Wendyct]

Hey @YCP. I am really sorry to hear about your experience with ordering gift cards for the opening of your business. Depending on what type of cards you ordered, the production + shipping time can definitely vary and can take up to 20 business days (4 full weeks) to receive an order of fully customized cards. Other card types, like our pre printed Starter Packs cards can be fulfilled in just 5 days since there is no production time. That being said, this is a lot to plan for and you are right to think that the overall production time should be shorter. We will share this feedback with our partners to see if there is any way to bring down production and shipping time for gift cards in the future, especially as supply chain issues and labor shortages ease up. 

Regarding gift card pricing, I can understand that the cards may feel expensive. We strive to offer a variety of pack sizes to get businesses started, but of course as you noticed, the smaller the order, the more each individual card costs. Our gift cards are priced this way so that we can continue to allow Square sellers to run gift card programs at no additional cost besides the cost of the cards themselves. Other credit card processors and gift card software programs will charge additional "setup fees" or monthly subscription fees on top of buying the cards just to let you use them. So while paying for the gift cards up front may be a stretch, there are no additional fees to offer gift cards and you can stop offering gift cards or reorder them at any time. To cut down costs, you can also reuse individual gift cards from one customer to the next or encourage customers to buy free, digital eGift Cards instead of plastic ones.

[phillylobster]

• Can a physical gift card be re-used? In other words, if a gift card is fully depleted by a customer, can I resell that "used" gift card to another customer with a reloaded balance? This would help eliminate waste and obviously cost. 
• Can a physical gift card be deactivated? If a customer claims they lost it, could I somehow identify that particular gift card, transfer the balance to a new gift card, then deactivate the previous one? (Is this even a good idea?)

[artizansty]

Yes @phillylobster @gift cards can be reused! Just be sure to reset it before giving it out for re-use. Another thing to keep in mind is to train staff to be careful when checking the history of a gift card (in case they try to validate past purchases if a customer claims to not have a receipt or something), as I don’t believe that gets wiped, so while the balance clears, the till will still show the full history of that card (customers won’t).

Here are steps on how to reset a card on POS (you can also look up the card on Dashboard and clear the balance):

1. Click the Gift Card section on the till.
2. Click the Gift Cards button.
3. Select Check Balance.
4. Swipe or type the gift card number and click Continue.
5. Click Clear Balance.
6. Click Reset Gift Card.

There is no “deactivate and transfer” feature but that would absolutely make sense! Instead just lookup the gift card by number in your Dashboard and you can clear the balance from there, then reissue a new one. We’ve developed our own terms and conditions for gift cards and put them on our website (and printed the address in the card - artizanjewels.co.uk/gift-cards) as it makes expectations clear at the start, for this very reason as it makes expectations clear at the start there is no way to “recover” that money if someone insists they lost it and we don’t have the number.

[Hawkspirit]

Clearing the balance would be the only way to make sure it doesn't get used.

[lornaz]

Hi @phillylobster! Thank you for the question and thank you @artizansty for the detailed answer :). Yes, physical gift cards can be reused. When the balance of a physical gift card goes to zero, we automatically unlink the gift card from the previous customer and we do not display past transaction history for physical gift cards on our check balance page so you should feel free to reuse your physical gift cards. 

If a customer loses a physical gift card, you can check if they have the gift card as a Card on File on their customer profile. You can then clear the balance of the gift card from your Dashboard in order to prevent someone else from redeeming it later. Right now, we do not have a “deactivate” or “transfer” feature but I will make a note of this request for future consideration.

[lgmbts]

1. If someone receives an e-gift card, can the funds be transferred to a physical gift card?

2. The instructions for redeeming an e-gift card have been confusing for the guest.  Instructions say that they can be redeemed by email or phone number, but when we try to use these methods, it doesn't work.  The only way we are able to redeem an e-gift card at the register is by using the actual card account number.  What are we missing?

[lornaz]

Hi @lgmbts! Thank you for your questions.

1. Although we do not currently have a transfer balance functionality, the recipient could “purchase” a physical gift card of the same amount using their e-gift card and that would essentially transfer the balance from the egift card to a physical card.
2. Thank you for the feedback on this. In order to use this functionality, you have to add the customer to the transaction prior to checking out. After you have added the customer to the transaction, at the checkout screen, select “Card on File” and you will be able to select their egift card as a card on file for redemption. Learn more about our Card on File functionality here. We understand this can be confusing and will look into ways we can improve this experience.

[jbcrumbs]

I am unable to give gift card balances to customers even their phone numbers or emails on file if they have lost their card or their eGift certificate.  Is there another way i am able to help them know how much is left prior to sale?

[Wendyct]

Hi @jbcrumbs! If your customer has their gift card or eGift Card or plastic gift card on hand, you can check the balance of the gift card on the Square Point of Sale app:

1. From the checkout screen, tap Library > Gift Cards
2. Swipe the gift card, take a photo of the gift card QR code with your device’s camera, scan the barcode with an attached scanner, or manually enter the 16-digit gift card number.
3. The gift card balance will display next to the last four digits of the gift card number.
4. You can then leave the screen or load an additional amount on this gift card, or tap Clear Balance to remove the remaining balance from the gift card. 

Unfortunately there is no way to check your customer's balance if they have misplaced their eGift Card. However, you should be able to look up the customer and their associated eGift Card by searching for their email in your Customer Directory from your Point of Sale app. As you are ringing them up, you can add that customer to the sale and charge their eGIft Card on file as payment. If their gift card balance doesn't cover the full payment, you can finish the sale by processing a Split Tender payment. 

[neutral]

• Customer lost physical gift card, but have a digital receipt of the gift card purchase that contains the link to the last 4 digit. How to redeem or transfer the funds to a new card?

[repopgifts]

Go to your square dashboard, under gift cards then overview you should be able to select the date the customer purchased the card and match the last 4 digits. From there you can clear the balance on that card then you could just reissue a new one for the same amount. 

Hope that solves the problem for you! 

[lornaz]

Hi! Thank you for the question and thank you @repopgifts for helping us out :). If you have the digital receipt and the date, you can go to your Gift Cards page on Square Dashboard and filter for their transaction using the transaction date and last 4 digits. You can then clear the balance of that gift card and issue the customer a new gift card.

[SweetThea]

"

I am currently having problems, like the one below.  Customers can purchase the cards on our Weebly website, they get an email confirmation receipt, but no barcode/QR code to facilitate the purchases.   I just hit 'resend' on both the purchases, but nothing.   What am I missing here?  

"My son sent me a Gift Card and he received his confirmation but no Gift Card came through to me.

I tested the system and purchased a $10.00 Gift Card for myself as well.
I also received the confirmation but no Gift Card.

I have attached the two confirmations."