3. Email Notification Types in Giftnote
Every Giftnote notification in the current app — who receives it, when it fires, which channels it uses, and how native emails and Klaviyo fit together.
Written By Giftnote Team
Last updated 44 minutes ago
This article explains every notification Giftnote sends, who receives each one, and when it fires — so you know exactly what your customers experience.
Why this matters
Giftnote sends notifications to two different people on every gift order: the person who bought the gift (the customer, or gifter) and the person receiving it (the recipient). Understanding which emails go to whom — and when — helps you deliver a seamless gifting experience and avoid confusion like duplicate sends or unexpected messages.
You can see the full list in the Giftnote app at Settings → Notifications. Each notification shows a Customer or Recipient badge, a one-line description, and icons for the channels it can use (email, SMS, and your connected integrations).
Quick reference
Gift orders
Gift cards and store credit
Multi Gift
If you use Multi Gift, Settings → Notifications also lists: Multi Gift - Confirmed and Multi Gift - Complete (to the buyer), Multi Gift - Claim Request and Multi Gift - Claim OTP (to recipients claiming an addressless gift), Multi Gift - Email Verification OTP (to a shopper verifying their email), and three staff alerts: Multi Gift - Placed, Multi Gift - Paid and Multi Gift - Error (Staff). Staff alerts go to the contacts you set in Settings → Profile & Contacts, even though the page badges them "Recipient".
If you knew the old list of nine emails
Earlier versions of Giftnote listed one email per delivery method. Here's where each one lives now:
Emails sent to the recipient
These are the emails your gift recipients see. They're the core of the Giftnote experience — the moment someone discovers they've been given a gift.
Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered
The gift message to the recipient — Giftnote calls it the core notification. When it fires depends on the delivery method the customer chose:
- On Delivery — fires when the carrier marks the parcel as delivered. This is the most common method and Giftnote's primary differentiator — the recipient learns about the gift at the perfect moment, not days before it arrives.
- Send Now — fires immediately after the customer completes checkout. Used when the gifter wants the recipient to know about the gift right away (common for last-minute or digital-first purchases). See delivery options.
- Send Later — fires on the specific date and time the gifter selected at checkout (for example a birthday or holiday). The gifter picks the date in the gift message widget during purchase.
- On Fulfillment — fires when the order is fulfilled (shipped), without waiting for delivery confirmation.
Includes: the gifter's name, their personal message, and your brand's design. You can preview each version on Settings → Notifications → Email design using the Send Now, Scheduled, On Delivery and On Fulfillment tabs.
Gift Card - Delivered to Recipient
Fires when a gift card is purchased and the delivery time arrives (immediately for Send Now, or on the scheduled date for Send Later). The recipient receives the gift card code directly — unlike Shopify's native gift cards, which send the code to the buyer.
Includes: the gift card code, balance amount, the gifter's personal message, and a link to your store.
Gift card balance reminder
There's no native balance reminder email. When a gift card is used, Giftnote sends a Redeemed Gift Card event ("Update the customer/recipient of the remaining balance") to connected email integrations such as Klaviyo. Build the reminder as a flow there. This re-engagement email reminds the recipient they still have credit to spend.
Gift Card - Store Credit Issued
Fires when you issue store credit from the Giftnote app — for example, as a customer service gesture, influencer gift, or loyalty reward — and it's added to the recipient's account.
It tells the recipient that store credit has been added to their account.
Gift Card - Generic
Fires for gift cards that complete on confirmation, with no message and no scheduled delivery — for example when someone buys a gift card for themselves (no recipient details entered). Confirms the purchase and delivers the gift card code directly to the buyer.
Includes: the gift card code and balance amount.
Emails sent to the customer (gifter)
These emails keep the person who bought the gift informed about what's happening with their gift message or gift card.
Gift Order - Confirmed
Fires at checkout when the gift order is confirmed and the gift message is queued or scheduled. Gives the gifter peace of mind that their message will be delivered.
Includes: confirmation of the recipient's name, the delivery method they chose, and their message.
Gift Order - Complete
Fires when the gift message has been successfully delivered to the recipient. This is the "you're now their favourite person" moment.
Includes: confirmation that the recipient received the message.
Gift Card - Confirmed and Gift Card - Complete
The same pair for gift card orders: one when the order is confirmed, one when the gift card delivery is fully complete.
Two ways to manage these emails
Giftnote offers two email systems. You use one or the other for each notification — never both at the same time.
Native emails (default)
Native emails are ready to send using Giftnote's built-in templates. Customise them at Settings → Notifications → Email design: upload a logo or paste a logo URL, set the logo height, set a font stack, choose body, header, backdrop and border colours (or one accent colour for every email), and set the Email sender name recipients see in their inbox and an optional Reply-to address.
Native emails are sent by Giftnote, not from your own email domain. If deliverability is a concern, the Klaviyo integration is the recommended path. A reply-to address means replies still reach you.
Giftnote branding appears on native emails. A small "Powered by Giftnote" mark is included in the footer. Removing it is available on the Professional plan. For full white-label control, use the Klaviyo integration.
Klaviyo integration (recommended)
With Klaviyo, your gift emails are sent from your own branded domain with full design control — custom fonts, dynamic product blocks, recipient segmentation, and automated flows.
Connect Klaviyo at Settings → Integrations → Klaviyo. That page lists the events Giftnote sends to Klaviyo, with a switch, a Test button and an Edit option to rename each one. Klaviyo uses different event names from Settings → Notifications:
- Placed Gift Order — the customer's confirmation. It carries a Delivery Method property: Send Now, Send Later, On Delivery or On Fulfillment
- Gift Order Delivered — the customer's delivered email
- Received Gift Order — the recipient's gift message (Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered)
- Received Gift Card — the recipient's gift card
- Purchased Gift Card and Gift Card Delivered — the customer's gift card emails
- Issued Store Credit, Gift Card (no message or self purchase) and Redeemed Gift Card
- Multi Gift Created, Multi Gift Approved and Multi Gift Complete
On a paid plan (Core or Professional), you can ask us to copy template flows into your Klaviyo account: chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app, or email support@giftnote.com.
Iterable, Attentive and Ometria use the same event list. See Klaviyo Giftnote events.
If your Klaviyo connection was set up before September 2026: the older Giftnote - Order Scheduled and Giftnote - Order Tracked events both map to Placed Gift Order now. Migrated Klaviyo shops keep sending both legacy metric names, so your existing flows don't stop. Build new flows on the current event names.
When you activate Klaviyo flows, you must turn off Giftnote's native emails for the same notifications immediately. If both are left on, recipients receive duplicate emails. Native notifications are managed in Settings → Notifications, which lists every notification. Open one to see its Channels: Email and SMS each have an on/off switch and Edit template, and connected integrations such as Klaviyo show their own switch. Turn the Email switch off on each notification Klaviyo now sends.
What about SMS?
SMS notifications are always sent from Giftnote's own platform — not through Klaviyo or any other email tool. SMS fires at the same moment as the email notification.
- Only the recipient's gift message goes by SMS. On Settings → Notifications, the SMS channel appears only on Gift Order - Gift Message Delivered and Gift Card - Delivered to Recipient. Customise the SMS text in those notifications.
- SMS is included on the Core and Professional plans. SMS has its own on/off switch on each notification that supports it, under Channels. Links are allowed in the SMS body.
- Message length. When you edit a gift message in the Giftnote admin, it's limited to 210 characters.
Key things to know
- Giftnote branding appears on native emails. Removing "Powered by Giftnote" is available on the Professional plan. For full white-label control, use the Klaviyo integration.
- Never run Klaviyo flows and native emails for the same notification at the same time. This causes duplicate sends. Turn native emails off the moment your Klaviyo flows go live.
- There's no native gift card balance reminder. Build it in Klaviyo (or another email integration) from the Redeemed Gift Card event.
- SMS is separate from your email choice. Whether you use native emails or Klaviyo, SMS is always sent directly by Giftnote, and you customise it in the same Notifications settings area.
- Integrations and Settings → Notifications use different names for the same moments. Use the mapping above when you build flows.