GUIDE

How to sell gift cards on your website

Gift cards are money in the bank before you have done the work. Here is how to sell them from your own site and deliver them the moment someone buys.
THE SHORT ANSWER

Use a site that sells and delivers them

The easiest way is a platform that treats a gift card as a product it can sell and deliver. You set the amounts, take payment, and the buyer gets a code to pass on. Instinctor handles this in the store, so gift cards are not a separate service to bolt on.
STEP BY STEP

Six steps to selling gift cards

1. Create the gift card
Add a gift card with set amounts, or let buyers choose a value. Give it a nice image so it feels like a present.
2. Take payment
Connect a card processor so buyers can pay by card or wallet. The money reaches your bank right away.
3. Deliver the code
After payment the buyer gets a gift card code automatically, ready to forward to the lucky person.
4. Push seasonal sales
Feature gift cards before holidays and birthdays, when people are looking for an easy present.
5. Redeem at checkout
The recipient enters the code at checkout and the value comes off their total, no manual tracking.
6. Enjoy the float
You are paid now and deliver later, and some cards are never fully spent, which is pure upside.
WHY IT WORKS

Why gift cards are worth selling

A gift card is a sale before any work, a new customer the recipient brings you, and cash flow when you need it most, around the holidays.
Money up front
You collect the payment today and provide the service later, which smooths out a quiet stretch.
New customers arrive
The recipient is often someone new to you, walked in the door by a friend who already trusts you.
Nothing to bolt on
Gift cards live in your store with your other products, so there is no separate gift card app to run.
WHAT SELLING GIFT CARDS TAKES

Cash now, customers later

Gift cards are one of the simplest ways to boost revenue: you get paid now for value delivered later, and they routinely bring in new customers who spend more than the card is worth. Selling them on your own site means a buyer can purchase any time, pick an amount, and send a digital card by email in minutes, which is exactly what a last-minute gift-giver needs. They work for almost any business, retail, services, hospitality, and they spike around holidays. The essentials are an easy purchase, instant digital delivery, and clean redemption at checkout or booking.
WHERE BUSINESSES MISS GIFT CARD REVENUE

The mistakes that cost you sales

The first is not offering them at all, leaving easy, high-margin, cash-now revenue on the table. The second is only selling physical cards in person, missing every online and last-minute buyer. The third is awkward redemption that sours the recipient's first experience. Offer digital gift cards, sell them online with instant delivery, and make redemption clean, and you capture buyers you were turning away.
THE RIGHT WAY

Sell gift cards on your own site

Let customers buy a digital gift card any time, choose the amount, and send it by email instantly, then redeem it smoothly at checkout. Push them around the holidays. Instinctor handles gift card sales, delivery and redemption in one site you own, live in about a minute, free to start, so you get paid now and gain customers later.
COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about gift cards

Automatically. Once payment goes through, the buyer gets a gift card code they can forward to the recipient, so you do not hand anything out by post.
Yes. Offer set values, or let buyers pick a custom amount, whichever suits how your customers like to give.
The recipient enters the code at checkout and its value comes off their total. There is nothing for you to track by hand.
No. Gift cards are sold and delivered from the same store as your other products, so there is nothing extra to install or connect.
Around holidays and birthdays, when people want a simple present. Feature them on your homepage in those weeks to catch the demand.
The card processor charges its standard rate. Instinctor does not take a cut of the gift cards you sell.
KEEP READING

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