Before you start charging for gift messages

When you charge for a gift message, the fee is a real product in your Shopify store (the surcharge product). Unless you hide it, shoppers can find it in your store, and it shows up on packing slips and in emails. Work through this checklist before you start charging.

On Shopify Plus, the Giftnote Gift Message checkout block adds one surcharge line when a shopper adds a message, and removes it if they remove the message. It uses the product variant you picked in Settings > Gift Orders > Advanced settings > Surcharge & visibility. See Upsell Giftnote at Checkout for that setup.

Some steps use short code snippets. Pass them to whoever looks after your theme or emails if you don't edit code yourself.

1. Product settings (in Shopify)

In Shopify, go to Products, open your surcharge product and check these settings. Giftnote doesn't need a particular vendor (the brand field). The snippets below look for the vendor Giftnote Surcharge, so if yours is different, change it in every snippet, or filter on the tag instead.

• Vendor: a value you'll use in your filters (these examples use Giftnote Surcharge)
• Product type: Digital Gift Message (optional)
• Requires shipping: Unchecked
• Tags: giftnote-digital

2. Hide it from the storefront

Shoppers shouldn't find this product in search, collections or menus.

Option A – Without code

• Go to Products > Collections
• Create a new collection with this condition:
  Product vendor is not equal to Giftnote Surcharge
• Update your main navigation to point to this collection

Option B – With code
If your team manages theme code, they can filter it out like this:

{% unless product.vendor == 'Giftnote Surcharge' %} <!-- show product --> {% endunless %}

This is an example. If your team isn't sure how to add it, ask Shopify support, or chat with us and we'll suggest a developer.

3. Stop customers from checking out with only a gift message

A shopper could end up with only the gift message fee in their cart. Your theme can catch that and stop checkout. Example:

{% if cart.item_count == 1 and cart.items[0].product.vendor == 'Giftnote Surcharge' %} <script> alert("Please add a product to go with your gift message."); window.location.href = "/collections/all"; </script> {% endif %}

Giftnote doesn't add this for you. Your developer adds it if you want it.

4. Remove it from packing slips

Shopify prints the fee product on packing slips like any other item, even though there's nothing to pack. To stop that:

• Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Packing slips
• Edit the template and replace your product loop with:

{% for line_item in line_items %} {% unless line_item.product.vendor == "Giftnote Surcharge" %} <!-- your current layout --> {% endunless %} {% endfor %}

If a 3PL (an outside warehouse) packs your orders, ask them to ignore any products with the vendor Giftnote Surcharge or tag giftnote-digital.

5. Exclude it from Klaviyo emails

The fee product can show up in your Klaviyo order confirmation and gift emails unless your product blocks filter it out. Example for whoever builds your Klaviyo emails:

{% if item.Product.Vendor != "Giftnote Surcharge" %} <!-- show product --> {% endif %}

Not sure where this goes? Ask your Klaviyo agency, or chat with us and we'll suggest someone.

6. Optional: adjust packing slip item counts

If your packing slip shows "Total items: X", it counts the fee product too unless you exclude it:

{% assign totalProductsOrdered = 0 %} {% for line_item in line_items %} {% unless line_item.product.vendor == "Giftnote Surcharge" %} {% assign totalProductsOrdered = totalProductsOrdered | plus: line_item.quantity %} {% endunless %} {% endfor %} Total items: {{ totalProductsOrdered }}

7. Turn on auto-fulfilment for the surcharge line

Unticking "Requires shipping" does not make Shopify mark the fee as fulfilled. Giftnote fulfils the surcharge line itself, but only if you turn it on:

• Go to Settings > Gift Orders > Advanced settings in the Giftnote app.
• Turn on the setting that marks the surcharge item as fulfilled automatically. Save if a save bar appears.

With this on, Giftnote fulfils the line that matches the surcharge variant picked in the Surcharge & visibility card. With it off, the fee sits unfulfilled with your other items, and shows on packing slips and "unfulfilled" reports until someone fulfils it by hand.

Final checklist

Before you go live, check:

• The product is hidden from collections, search, and menus
• Customers can't check out with only a gift message
• The product is excluded from packing slips
• It's filtered out of Klaviyo product blocks
• Automatic fulfilment of the surcharge item is turned on in Settings > Gift Orders > Advanced settings (it does not auto-fulfil just because it's marked digital)
• Optional: it doesn't get counted in "total items" summaries

We don't edit themes or email templates for you. On the Core or Professional plan, we can look over your setup or suggest a developer who has done this before. Chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app, or email support@giftnote.com. If we need to see your store, we'll send a Shopify collaborator request (a request for limited access to your Shopify admin).

Selling through a multi-gift storefront?

Multi Gift storefronts (Professional plan) have their own Message Fee on the storefront's Pricing tab (Settings > Multi Gifts, Edit on the storefront, then Pricing) and it's separate from the checkout fee in this checklist. It's also a real product in your store and can carry through to each recipient's order. Check that product's vendor and tags in Shopify, and adapt the hiding, packing slip and email filters above to match them.

Related articles

• Next: Upsell Giftnote at Checkout
• Upselling and Charging for Giftnote at Checkout on Shopify Plus
• Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup)
• How to setup Klaviyo