Giftnote Known Limitations & Workarounds

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

Gift message widget

One gift note per order

Gift messages are stored in Shopify order attributes 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.

The note attaches to the first tracking number

On a split shipment the note follows the first fulfilment. You cannot choose which fulfilment carries it.

Workaround: word the message so it makes sense on whichever parcel arrives first.

Can't disable the "Send Now" delivery option

Customers see three delivery timing options: Send Now, Send Later and On Delivery. There is no native setting to remove Send Now, so customers sometimes send immediately when they meant to schedule.

Workaround: hide the option with CSS in Online Store → Themes → Customize → App Embeds → Giftnote Control Panel. Contact support for the exact snippet for your theme.

The CSS workaround hides the option visually. It does not disable the functionality at a system level.

Product exclusions apply to the whole cart

If one excluded product is in a cart of ten, the widget hides for the entire cart. There is no per-line-item control.

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.

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.

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. Branding on the popup widget can be removed on supported widget versions; branding in the checkout extension cannot.

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 prevent discounts being applied when a customer buys a gift card. 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 in Shopify Admin → Products → Gift Cards and issue a replacement.

Multi-currency store credit is unverified

Gift cards are multi-currency compatible with Shopify Markets as of August 2026. Store credit behaviour across currencies has not been verified on a live Markets store.

Workaround: treat store credit across currencies as untested and contact support before relying on it.

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.

Giftnote branding can't be removed from native emails

Gift notification emails sent through Giftnote's built-in email system carry "Delivered by Giftnote" branding.

Workaround: send through Klaviyo instead, where you control the full email design, sender domain and branding.

Dashboard and reporting

No search in the Giftnote dashboard

The dashboard has no native search. You cannot search by customer name, email, order number or message content within the app.

Workaround: use your browser's search (Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac). For a specific order, open it in Shopify Admin → Orders and use the Giftnote block in the order detail to jump straight to that gift message.

Dashboard search is on the roadmap and actively planned.

No self-serve export of gift message data

You cannot export a CSV of gift message content, sender details or recipient details from the dashboard. Gift card and liability exports are a separate feature and are available in the app.

Workaround: email support and request a manual export. Privacy restrictions apply, so not every field can be included.

Cancelling an order doesn't cancel a scheduled note

If you cancel or refund an order with a future-dated gift message attached, the message still sends on its scheduled date unless you intervene.

Workaround: find the order in the Giftnote dashboard and click Archive to stop it sending.

Scheduled confirmations show UTC, not local time

The confirmation email a customer receives shows the scheduled time in UTC, which causes 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.

SMS character limit is 210 characters

Gift messages are capped at 210 characters across every delivery mode, so the same message works on all channels. 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.

Workaround (needs a developer): listen to the giftnote_saved and giftnote_removed JavaScript events to add or remove a surcharge product from the cart. Set the surcharge product's vendor to Giftnote Surcharge so it stays out of standard Shopify order confirmations. See Charging Customers for Giftnote (Developer Setup) for the step-by-step.

No addressless gifting

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.

Addressless gifting is in active development as part of the Gift Links product.

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.

Gift card and redeemed events carry no SKU data

Templates that branch on SKU will not branch correctly for those events.

Workaround: use separate templates, or branch on a field the event does carry.

Multi Gift portal

Carrier calculated rates have no automatic fallback

If a carrier rate request times out or returns nothing, the buyer sees no shipping options. Shopify does not tell us when a rate request is being throttled.

Workaround: confirm carrier calculated rates are enabled on every relevant shipping profile before a busy period, and test one order per region. A per-store backup rate is in development.

Failed orders raise no alert

If an order fails before or after payment, neither you nor Giftnote is notified automatically.

Workaround: reconcile portal orders against Shopify daily during busy periods, and give corporate buyers a direct contact rather than leaving them to discover a failure alone. Alerting is in development.

Shop settings are cached for up to an hour

A setting change will not appear immediately.

Workaround: wait and hard refresh rather than changing the setting again. Repeated changes cause more confusion than the delay.

Draft orders never pick up new settings

A draft created before a settings change keeps its original configuration permanently.

Workaround: create a fresh order to test any change.

The billing address appears in the shipping fields

On the parent order the billing address is written into the shipping address fields. Recipient addresses live on the child orders.

Workaround: tell buyers to ignore the billing address and any error messages beneath it. Gifts ship to the recipient addresses entered in the portal.

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.

Changing the date format strips blackout dates

This has happened more than once when merchants adjusted the format for an ERP.

Workaround: finalise your date format first, then set blackout dates, then verify them in the calendar.

Catalogue is capped at 98 products per collection

Each collection in the portal displays a maximum of 98 products. This is a Shopify API constraint.

Workaround: use multiple collections with tab navigation to organise more than 98 products.

The portal is not built for search discovery

It is a private ordering tool on a separate domain. A formal no-index option is in development.

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, email the team — 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.