3. Upsell Giftnote at Checkout

On Shopify Plus, you can charge shoppers a small fee when they add a gift message at checkout, like paying for gift wrap in a shop. Giftnote adds a hidden "Gift Message" product to their order as the fee.

Before you start: you need Shopify Plus, because Shopify only lets apps add blocks to checkout on Plus. Not on Plus? See Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup).

Step 1: Create a digital product for the fee

This product is the fee that gets added to the order.

• Go to Shopify Admin → Products → Add Product
• Name it something like Gift Message or Gift Wrap Fee
• Give it a vendor (brand) or tag you'll recognise, so you can hide it from your theme, packing slips and emails later. Giftnote doesn't need a particular one
• Uncheck "This is a physical product"
• Set your price (e.g. $1.99 or $2.99)
• Make it active, but hide it from your storefront. Pre-Launch Checklist: Giftnote Surcharge Product (Gift Message Fee) shows how

Step 2: Add the Giftnote checkout block

Giftnote has one checkout block, Gift Message. There's no separate block for the fee.

• Go to Shopify → Settings → Checkout, click Customize
• Add the Gift Message block. Don't pick "[DEPRECATED] Gift Message", which is the old block (once called "Checkout Message")
• If you use Shop Pay: In the checkout editor, select the Gift Message block and, under Checkout behavior, make sure Include block in Shop Pay is on. Test a Shop Pay checkout in Step 4
• Drag and drop the block where you want it to appear

Step 3: Link your surcharge product

You pick the fee product once, in the Giftnote app:

• In the Giftnote app, go to Settings → Gift Orders and click Advanced settings
• In the Surcharge & visibility card, select the product you created in Step 1 (pick its variant) as the surcharge product
• Save if a save bar appears

When a customer adds a gift message, the Gift Message checkout block adds one marked surcharge line to the order. If they remove the message, the line is removed.

Step 4: Test the checkout

• Add a product to your cart, go through checkout and add a gift message
• Confirm the surcharge product appears as one line item
• Remove the gift message and confirm the surcharge line is removed
• If you use Shop Pay, repeat the test with Shop Pay

If all of that works, the fee is set up.

Step 5 (optional): tell shoppers about the fee

Update the checkout widget's wording so shoppers know there's a charge, for example "Add a personal gift message for $2.99":

• Go to Settings → Gift Orders, click Configure, open the design chosen for Checkout widget, select the Checkout tab and edit the label/copy fields there
• Save your changes

Next, hide the fee product from your storefront, packing slips and Klaviyo emails. See Pre-Launch Checklist: Giftnote Surcharge Product (Gift Message Fee).

Final go-live checklist

• The surcharge product is hidden from your storefront and collections
• Checkout only works with at least one real product in the cart
• The product is excluded from packing slips, Klaviyo emails and (optionally) total item counts
• Automatic fulfilment of the surcharge item is turned on in Settings → Gift Orders → Advanced settings. Marking the product digital does not auto-fulfil it on its own.
• Gift messages appear in a Shop Pay checkout, if you use Shop Pay (manual check)
• The upsell appears cleanly at checkout

Related articles

• Next: Upselling and Charging for Giftnote at Checkout on Shopify Plus
• Pre-Launch Checklist: Giftnote Surcharge Product (Gift Message Fee)
• Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup)
• Add Checkout & Post-Purchase Extensions