How To Create And Sell Gift Cards In WooCommerce (2026)

Gift cards are one of the easiest products you can add to a WooCommerce store, and shoppers already love them. According to the National Retail Federation, 43% of holiday shoppers planned to buy at least one gift card in 2025, with total gift card spending expected to reach $29 billion.

But WooCommerce doesn’t sell gift cards out of the box. A simple product that emails a coupon code looks close, but it can’t keep track of a balance, and that’s where most DIY setups fall apart.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what gift cards are, why they’re worth selling, and how to create gift cards in WooCommerce with fixed or custom amounts, your own designs, and scheduled delivery. Let’s get started!

What Are Gift Cards?

Gift cards, also called digital gift cards or e-gift cards, are prepaid balances that a customer buys for someone else (or for themselves). They arrive by email as a unique code, and the recipient redeems that code in your store to buy whatever they like.

The key word here is balance. Spend $30 of a $50 gift card and the remaining $20 is still there for next time. That’s what makes a gift card different from the two things it often gets mixed up with:

• A coupon takes a discount off an order. It doesn’t hold a value that goes down as it’s used, and it costs you margin instead of bringing money in.
• Store credit is a balance you give a customer, usually as a refund or a reward. It isn’t something people buy as a present. We cover where each one fits in our guide to store credit vs gift cards.

For recipients, there’s no worrying about whether they’ll like the present. They get the freedom to pick exactly what they want from your store.

Why Sell Gift Cards In Your WooCommerce Store

Shoppers choose gift cards because they’re quick and flexible. For store owners, the benefits go further than that:

1. You get paid before anything ships

A gift card is the only one of the three (gift card, coupon, store credit) that brings cash in upfront. The money arrives when the card is bought, and the products only leave your store later, when the card is redeemed.

2. It can increase your sales

Recipients often spend more than the card is worth. According to a 2024 TSG and Bank of America survey, 47% of consumers reported spending more than their gift card value.

3. It introduces new customers to your brand

Gift cards put your store in front of new people. Recipients explore your products, and the happy ones often come back to buy gift cards for their own friends and family.

What’s more, digital gift cards travel by email, so they’re easy to send to anyone, anywhere.

4. It keeps customers coming back

A gift card that leaves a balance behind gives your customer a reason to return, which a one-time discount code can’t. With Advanced Gift Cards, any unspent value stays in the customer’s store credit balance, ready for their next order.

Can WooCommerce Sell Gift Cards Without A Plugin?

No. WooCommerce doesn’t include a gift card feature by default, and the usual workarounds don’t behave like real gift cards.

The most common attempt is a simple product priced at $50 that emails a coupon code. It breaks in three places:

• No balance: the code is a discount, so a $30 order against a $50 card uses up the whole thing.
• No record: there’s nothing that tracks what’s left on each card.
• No protection: nothing stops the same code being used again by anyone it gets forwarded to.

What you need is a plugin that issues a unique code for every purchase, tracks the value of each card, and handles redemption for you. Advanced Gift Cards does all three. When a recipient redeems a card, its value goes into their store credit balance, so if you already use Advanced Coupons, gift cards work right alongside your coupons and store credit.

Still comparing tools? Our guide to choosing the best WooCommerce gift card plugin walks through the main options side by side.

Fixed Amount Vs Custom Amount Gift Cards

Before you create your first gift card, it helps to decide how customers will pick its value. There are two ways to sell one:

• Fixed amount: one product at one value, like a $50 gift card. If you’d like a few set values, a Variable Advanced Gift Card lets you sell them as variations of one product.
• Custom amount: customers type their own amount within limits you set, with optional preset buttons for popular values.

	Fixed amount	Custom amount
Who picks the value	You do	The customer, within your limits
Settings	Gift Card Value	Minimum, maximum, step, default, and up to 5 presets
Best for	Clear, standard price points	Gifts where every budget is different

Custom amounts take the guesswork out of gifting. If someone wants to spend $60 and your cards only come in $25, $50, and $100, they have to settle. Let them type it in, and they can give exactly what they planned. For more ideas, see our guide to custom amount gift cards.

How To Create Gift Cards In WooCommerce With Advanced Gift Cards

The steps below use Advanced Gift Cards for WooCommerce. Gift cards are a product type, so you’ll create one the same way you add any other product to your catalog.

Step 1: Add a new product and set its type

First, go to Products > Add New and give your gift card a name customers will recognize. Something like your store name plus “Gift Card” works well.

Next, open the Product data dropdown and choose Advanced Gift Card. If you’d rather sell several set values as variations of one product, choose Variable Advanced Gift Card instead.

Step 2: Set the value, or let customers choose it

In the General tab, you’ll find a Gift Card section. This is where all the settings for your card live.

For a fixed amount card, enter the Gift Card Value. This is the amount of store credit the recipient gets when they redeem it.

To let customers choose, tick Let the customer choose the amount. You’ll then see the fields that set the limits:

• Minimum amount: the lowest value a customer can enter (the only required field).
• Maximum amount: the highest value allowed.
• Step increment: the amounts customers can pick, counted up from the minimum.
• Default amount: the value that’s already filled in on the product page.
• Preset buttons: up to five quick-pick amounts for popular values.

In our example, we’re using a $10 minimum, a $500 maximum, a step of $5, and a $50 default. That way, customers can give anything from $10 to $500 in $5 steps.

💡 PRO TIP: Selling a Variable Advanced Gift Card? You can keep your set values as variations and add one custom amount variation alongside them, so customers get both options on the same product.

Step 3: Choose a design and set the expiry

Now for the fun part! In Gift Card Design, pick one of the three built-in designs (Default, Birthday, or Thank You), or click Select image to upload your own background. Whichever design you choose appears in the email the recipient opens.

The expiry sits just above it. Gift Card Expiry is set to 5 years by default, and you can choose a shorter term, a custom number of days, or no expiry at all. Some regions have rules about gift card expiry, so check what applies to your store before shortening it.

Want more choice? Your Advanced Gift Cards license comes with 85+ extra designs on top of the built-in ones, made for occasions like Black Friday, Christmas, and Mother’s Day.

You can also make the built-in designs your own, store-wide. Go to Coupons > Advanced Gift Cards, open the Settings tab, and replace the Default, Birthday, or Thank You image with your own artwork. Every gift card that uses that design then shows your artwork, unless a product has its own custom background. See how it works in our guide to customizing the default gift card image.

Before you move on, click Preview Gift Card Email. It shows the card exactly as the recipient will see it, which is the quickest way to catch a design that doesn’t look right.

Step 4: Turn on gifting and scheduled delivery

Next, tick Giftable. This adds “Send To Friend” fields to the product, cart, and checkout pages, so the gift card email goes straight to the recipient. If you leave it unticked, the email goes to the customer who bought it.

Then tick Allow customers to set a custom delivery date. Customers sending the card to a friend can pick a delivery date up to a year ahead, and the email goes out on that day. It’s the setting that turns a gift card into a real birthday present. Someone shopping in October for a December birthday no longer has to remember to forward an email!

💡 PRO TIP: Scheduled gift card emails rely on WordPress’s scheduled tasks, which run when your site gets visits. Before you promote gift cards, buy a test card with a delivery date a day or two ahead and make sure the email arrives on time.

Step 5: Publish and test your gift card

If you also run Advanced Loyalty Program, there’s one more setting worth a look. Its Loyalty Program section lets you tick Allow earning points, so customers earn loyalty points when they buy this gift card.

When everything looks good, click Publish. Your gift card now appears in your shop alongside your other products.

Finally, buy one yourself. Check that the email arrives, the design looks right, and the amount matches. Then redeem it and spend part of the balance on a test order, so you can see the rest waiting in your store credit. Afterward, the Advanced Gift Cards dashboard shows how many cards have sold and been claimed, and the Manage Gift Cards tab lists every card with its status.

Create Gift Cards In Bulk With A CSV Import

Gift card products are perfect for customers buying gifts. But what if you need 200 codes for a giveaway, a corporate order, or pre-printed physical cards? Creating them one at a time isn’t fun, so Advanced Gift Cards lets you import them in bulk.

Go to Coupons > Advanced Gift Cards > Manage Gift Cards and click Import CSV. Your CSV file needs a code, value, and status for each card, and it can also include expiry dates and recipient details. Click Download Sample CSV to start from a ready-made template.

Don’t have codes yet? Fill in the Code Pattern field with the {random} placeholder, like BF-{random}, and the import generates a unique code for every card in your file. It’s also a handy way to move your existing gift cards over from another plugin. Get the full walkthrough in our guide to bulk importing gift cards.

What Customers And Recipients See

On the product page, customers choose the amount (if you’ve turned on custom amounts) and who the gift card is for. Here’s how each option works.

Send to a friend

When the product is giftable, customers can choose to send the card to a friend. They’ll fill in:

• The recipient’s name (required)
• The recipient’s email address (required)
• A short message (optional)
• A delivery date, if you’ve allowed custom delivery dates

The recipient’s details show on the cart and checkout pages, in the order emails, and in the order details in your dashboard. Once the order is paid, the recipient gets an email with the design you chose, the gift card value, their unique code, and the message.

Send to me

Customers can also buy a gift card for themselves. The gift card email goes to the customer’s own address, so they can print it, forward it, or keep the balance for their next order.

Redeeming a gift card

To redeem, the recipient logs in to their account, opens Store Credits in My Account, and enters the code under Redeem a gift card? You can also turn on a redeem form on your checkout page.

The card’s value then moves into their store credit balance. They can use it on their order, and anything they don’t spend stays in their account for next time. For a deeper look at every setting, check out the Advanced Gift Cards getting started guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start Selling Gift Cards In WooCommerce

Gift cards bring cash in before anything ships, introduce new shoppers to your store, and give people a reason to come back.

Here’s how to get started:

• Decide between fixed and custom amounts based on how your customers like to gift
• Create your first gift card product with a design, expiry, and scheduled delivery
• Import codes in bulk for giveaways, corporate orders, or a move from another plugin
• Test the buying and redeeming experience before you promote your gift cards

Ready to sell gift cards in WooCommerce? Get Advanced Gift Cards and launch your gift card program today. Do you have any questions about Advanced Gift Cards? Let us know in the comments!