Can I sell physical gift cards with Giftnote?

Giftnote is built for digital gift cards, but you can still sell a printed card. Here is the workaround, the Shopify limits behind it, and the workflow your team follows.

Written By Giftnote Team

Last updated 1 day ago

Short answer: not directly. Giftnote issues digital gift cards. We do not design, print, pack or fulfil physical cards, and there is no physical card product inside the app.

You can still sell a printed card from your Shopify store, and plenty of merchants do. It takes a workaround, because of a Shopify limitation rather than a Giftnote one. This article explains the setup, what your team has to do manually, and the limits worth knowing before you launch.

Why you cannot just ship a Shopify gift card

Shopify treats gift cards as a special product type that is always delivered by email. If you set a gift card product's variants to require shipping, Shopify rejects it with Requires shipping cannot be applied to gift cards.

That means a native gift card product can never be posted or collected in store. It has nothing to do with Giftnote, and no app can override it.

The workaround is to stop using a gift card product for the physical item.

The recommended setup

Sell the printed card as an ordinary physical product, and attach a real gift card code to it by hand.

  1. Create a normal product, for example "Physical Gift Card", with one variant per value you want to offer ($50, $100, $200). It must be a standard product, not a Shopify gift card product.

  2. Set delivery to suit. Because it is a normal product it gets your usual shipping rates, or local pickup if you make it available at that location. Pickup orders then follow Shopify's standard flow: your team marks the order ready for pickup, and Shopify sends its ready-for-collection email. Check that notification is switched on under Settings > Notifications.

  3. Get your codes. Ask Giftnote support to create a batch of gift cards in your Shopify account at the values you need. We send them back as a CSV. There is no extra charge for this.

  4. Assign a code when you fulfil. Your team writes or applies the code to the printed card, and records which code went to which order in the order notes.

Every code is a real Shopify gift card. The balance is recorded once and redeems online and through Shopify POS, with no duplicate issuance and no digital gift card email going out.

The Shopify pre-printed card alternative

Shopify sells its own pre-printed gift cards with the codes already on them, at hardware.shopify.com/pages/gift-cards. Same principle as above, minus the CSV step, but you are limited to Shopify's card designs.

Choose this if you want to launch quickly. Choose the Giftnote batch if you want your own branded card and envelope.

What to know before you launch

Assigning codes is manual. There is no automated link between the order and the code. Someone on your team does it at fulfilment, and records it against the order.

One delivery method per order. Shopify checkout allows a single delivery method per order. If a customer adds jewellery for shipping and a printed card for pickup, they either collect everything or have everything posted. To make one item pickup-only you need a delivery customisation app such as Zapiet, or Shopify Plus.

Accounting. The gift card liability is created in Shopify the moment the batch of codes is created, not when a card is sold. The sale itself lands as ordinary product revenue. Worth a word with your bookkeeper about how to record both sides.

Reconciliation. Tag these orders with something like physical gift card so they are easy to find and match against the code batch later.

Refunds and cancellations. Handled in Shopify. Disable the code or reduce its balance there. If an order is never collected, disable the code before the card goes back in the drawer.

What Giftnote does best alongside this

Your physical card sits outside Giftnote entirely, so your existing eGift Card experience is untouched. Giftnote keeps handling the digital side: a real gift message from the buyer, delivery scheduled to the recipient by email or SMS, recipient capture into your customer list, and the Klaviyo flows behind it.

Many brands run both, a printed card for in-store and considered gifting, and eGift cards for last-minute online purchases.

Frequently asked questions

Does Giftnote print or post the cards?
No. We create the codes only. Design, printing, packing and fulfilment are yours.

Is there a charge for the code batch?
No. Contact support with the values and quantities you want.

Are the codes active as soon as they are created?
Yes. They are live gift cards from creation, so store them securely and treat them like cash.

Will the recipient get a digital gift card email by mistake?
No. The order runs through a normal product, so Giftnote is not involved and nothing is sent automatically.

Can a customer buy a printed card and an eGift card in the same order?
Yes, but the delivery method still applies to the whole order, so plan for the shipping or pickup rule above.

Do the codes work in Shopify POS?
Yes. They are standard Shopify gift cards and redeem online and in store.

Can I add a gift message to the physical card order?
Yes. The Giftnote widget works on a normal product, so you can capture a message at cart or checkout the way you do for the rest of your catalogue.

  • 3. Add eGift Cards
  • Gift Card Only Implementation
  • Definitions: Gift Cards and Store Credit
  • Gift Card Setting Options