11. Giftnote Known Limitations & Workarounds
Every known Giftnote limitation, whether a workaround exists, and its current status — so you can plan around them before a busy period.
Written By Giftnote Team
Last updated About 1 hour ago
This article lists every known Giftnote limitation, whether a workaround exists, and its current status — so you can plan around them instead of discovering them the hard way.
Accurate as of September 2026. This page changes as features ship.
Quick reference
No longer limitations
These were on this page before our big September 2026 update. They're listed so you know the old workaround is no longer needed.
- Can't disable the Send Now option → turn it off in Settings → Gift Orders → Advanced → Delivery Methods. Every delivery method (Send Now, Send Later, On Delivery, On Fulfillment) has its own switch. No CSS needed.
- No search in the Giftnote dashboard → Gift Orders has a search icon, Filter (Status, Method, Medium, Source, Billing, Health) and Save as view.
- Cancelling an order doesn't cancel a scheduled note → open the gift order in the Giftnote app and choose Archive. Archiving removes it from the active list and stops any further gift processing. It can't be undone, and Giftnote has no delete. Cancel the order itself in Shopify. Send Now gifts also wait 15 minutes after checkout before sending, so an order that is cancelled or flagged for fraud in that time doesn't send.
- Failed Multi Gift orders raise no alert → the Multi Gift - Error (Staff) notification goes to your shop contacts when there's an issue with a multi-gift order. During busy periods, still reconcile portal orders against Shopify daily, and give corporate buyers a direct contact rather than leaving them to discover a failure alone.
Gift message widget
One gift note per order
Gift messages are stored at the order level, so one message applies to the entire order. You cannot attach different messages to different items in the same order.
Workaround: for several recipients, use Multi Gift. For a split shipment, say in the message itself that items are arriving separately.
Split shipments: one parcel drives the note
On a split shipment, one fulfilment decides when an On Delivery note is sent. Giftnote tracks each parcel, and you can choose which parcel drives the gift's delivery status from the order in the Giftnote app (Change fulfillment / Update tracking).
Workaround: choose the parcel the recipient will open first, and word the message so it makes sense on whichever parcel arrives first.
Product exclusions can't be set per line item
There is no per-line-item control. Exclusions are set as Hidden products in Settings → Gift Orders → Advanced, and those products don't show the gift-message option on the product page.
Workaround: weigh whether the exclusion costs you more gift orders than it saves confusion.
The widget loads on every page
The app embed loads theme-wide by design and cannot be scoped to specific pages. The widget renders nothing on pages where it is not placed — it only loads the background script.
Custom CSS can be overwritten by updates
When Giftnote ships a platform update, custom button styles may reset to defaults. There is no mechanism to protect them.
Workaround: keep a copy of your CSS outside Shopify and re-paste it after any update that affects the widget. Labels and display options (default delivery method, hide On Delivery, hide phone input) are set in Settings → Gift Orders → Widgets and don't need CSS.
Publishing a new theme drops your widget settings
Publishing a new theme, including a duplicate of your current one, resets the Giftnote app embed. The widget stops appearing until you re-enable it.
Workaround: after publishing, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize → App Embeds and toggle the Giftnote Control Panel back on. Re-enter any custom CSS. Settings → Overview → Storefront widgets shows whether the embed is active on your published theme.
Checkout extension requires Shopify Plus
The checkout extension is only available on Shopify Plus. Non-Plus stores cannot add third-party widgets to checkout.
Workaround: use the product page and cart drawer widgets, available on all plans.
Checkout extension branding can't be removed
Shopify controls that surface, so branding in the checkout extension cannot be removed. On the popup widget, removing the "Powered by Giftnote" branding is available on the Professional plan.
Gift cards and currency
Variant names can't show local currency symbols
A variant named $50 reads $50 for a UK customer even though the theme, cart and checkout correctly show £50. Shopify does not support dynamic currency symbols in variant names.
Workaround: remove the symbol from variant names and let the price carry the currency, or add a theme override.
Discounts at redemption can't be controlled
Giftnote can control how discounts affect a gift card when a customer buys one (Allow Discounts in Settings → Gift Cards → Advanced). It cannot control discounts at the point the card is used, because redemption happens in Shopify's checkout.
Gift card stacking is Shopify behaviour
A customer can apply more than one gift card in a single checkout and use the combined balance. This is Shopify's checkout and cannot be limited from our side.
Gift card balance can't be edited after issuance
Once a code is issued its balance cannot be increased or decreased. This is a Shopify API limitation.
Workaround: issue a new card for the difference. To reduce a balance, disable the existing card — open it in the Giftnote app and choose Disable from the menu, or use Shopify Admin → Products → Gift Cards — and issue a replacement.
No printable PDF gift card
There is no option to generate a printable PDF version of a gift card for physical delivery.
Workaround: recipients can print or screenshot the delivery email.
Native emails carry Giftnote branding
Gift notification emails sent through Giftnote's built-in email system carry "Powered by Giftnote" branding in the footer. Removing it is available on the Professional plan.
Workaround: on Core, send through Klaviyo instead, where you control the full email design, sender domain and branding.
Dashboard and reporting
Gift message export has limits
Settings → Exports → Gift Orders CSV exports every gift order with its status, delivery method, total, customer and recipient, for a date range you choose. Gift card and liability exports are on the same page.
Workaround: if you need gift message content or sender details that aren't in the CSV, chat with us and request a manual export. Privacy restrictions apply, so not every field can be included.
Scheduled confirmations show UTC, not local time
On the previous version of Giftnote, the confirmation email a customer received showed the scheduled time in UTC, which caused confusion ("I scheduled 9am but the email says 2am").
Workaround: none. The message is delivered at the time the customer chose; only the display is wrong. Reassure customers on that basis.
Notifications and delivery
Gift messages are plain text only
No rich text, HTML, bold, italics or images. Messages are plain text.
Gift messages are capped at 210 characters
When you edit a gift message in the Giftnote app, it can be up to 210 characters. That is roughly two to three sentences.
No WhatsApp delivery notifications
Notifications are delivered by email and SMS only. WhatsApp is on the roadmap with no confirmed timeline.
Recipients can't reply to subscribe by SMS
Replies reach Giftnote's sending number, not yours.
Workaround: use a link or a text-to-join keyword in the message.
No native way to charge for gift notes on non-Plus stores
There is no built-in toggle to add a fee when a customer adds a gift message unless you are on Shopify Plus (Settings → Gift Orders → Advanced → Surcharge & visibility).
Workaround (needs a developer): listen to the giftnote_saved and giftnote_removed JavaScript events to add or remove a surcharge product from the cart. See Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup) for the step-by-step.
No addressless gifting for single gift orders
For a single gift order, the sender must know the recipient's email or phone number. There is no option for the recipient to supply their own address after receiving a gift link.
Integrations
Recipient details are never bulk-exported into marketing tools
This is a deliberate compliance boundary, not a missing feature. Gift notes are transactional messages that need no prior opt-in, and moving those contacts into a marketing list would breach TCPA, GDPR and CASL.
What to do instead: invite recipients to opt in from inside the gift message itself. Recipients who accept join your list lawfully.
GDPR blocks a second email to non-opted-in recipients
Anything extra you want to say has to travel inside the original transactional message.
Check event fields before branching on them
If your email or SMS templates branch on a field such as SKU, check that the event carries it first. Select Preview or Test on the event in that integration's page under Settings → Integrations.
Workaround: if a field isn't there, use separate templates, or branch on a field the event does carry.
Multi Gift portal
Live shipping rates can fail under load
If a carrier rate request times out or returns nothing, the buyer can see no live shipping options. Shopify does not tell us when a rate request is being throttled.
Workaround: on the storefront's Shipping tab, keep Fixed Shipping Rates set up even when Use Shopify Rates is on — if Shopify returns no rates, the fixed rates are used as a fallback. Before a busy period, confirm carrier calculated rates are enabled on every relevant shipping profile and test one order per region.
Testing a settings change
If a storefront setting change doesn't show straight away, wait a few minutes and hard refresh rather than changing the setting again. Test each change with a fresh order.
Address autocomplete doesn't resolve every address
Postcode prediction is unreliable outside major metropolitan areas.
Workaround: recipients can type addresses manually, and CSV upload bypasses autocomplete entirely.
Large catalogues
To organise a large range, split it across several collections. Add them on the storefront's Products tab under Additional collections.
The portal is not built for search discovery
It is a private ordering tool on a separate domain. Setting a storefront's visibility to Unlisted hides it from your shop directory while keeping the direct link working.
Workaround: build and optimise a corporate gifting page on your own store, and point its call to action at the portal.
Notes
- Shopify platform constraints — per-line-item gifting, gift card balance editing, variant currency symbols, checkout extension on Plus only — are outside Giftnote's control and need changes to Shopify's own APIs.
- Roadmap and in-development items are actively planned but have no guaranteed dates. If a specific limitation is blocking your business, chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app, or email support@giftnote.com — knowing which ones affect real revenue decisions helps prioritise the roadmap.
- CSS-based workarounds are visual only and may need re-applying after a platform update or a theme change. Always keep a copy of your CSS outside Shopify.