Guide

Gift card software for small businesses

Gift cards bring in money up front and bring new customers through the door. For a small business, the hard part isn’t selling them, it’s issuing them, keeping track of balances and making sure they get used. This guide explains what gift card software does, how the different formats compare, and how to set up digital gift cards that live in your customers’ phone wallets.

Last updated October 9, 2026. Facts about Apple Wallet and Google Wallet were checked against Apple’s and Google’s own documentation, linked in the sources.

The short answer

Gift card software lets you sell a gift card, deliver it to the person who will use it, keep track of how much is left on it, and accept it as payment. For a small business, the simplest setup is a digital gift card: created the moment someone pays, sent by email or text, and saved in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, where it shows its balance and a code your staff can scan.

You don’t need a dedicated gift card platform to start. Many businesses combine the checkout they already use to take payment with a tool that creates and updates the card itself.

Offering gift cards as a small business

Gift cards bring in money before the sale happens, introduce your business to new customers through the person who receives the card, and often lead to a visit where the recipient spends more than the card’s value. Before you start, decide:

• Amounts. A few fixed values (say $25, $50 and $100) are easier to sell and explain than any amount.
• Where you’ll sell them. At the counter, on your website, or both.
• How they’re delivered. Printed, emailed, or saved to the buyer’s or recipient’s phone.
• How staff redeem them. Who checks the balance, and where it’s recorded.
• Your terms. Expiry and fees are regulated in many places - see gift card rules to know.

Then promote them when people are buying gifts: the holidays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, graduations, and as a last-minute option on your website and at the till.

What gift card software does

Whatever you use, a gift card program has to cover five jobs:

1. Sell. Take payment for the card, online, in store or both.
2. Issue. Create a card with its own number or code and starting balance.
3. Deliver. Get the card to the buyer or straight to the person it’s for.
4. Track. Keep a record of each card’s balance as it’s spent.
5. Redeem. Let staff accept the card at the register and take the amount off the balance.

Some point-of-sale systems do all five in one place. Others handle selling and redeeming, and leave issuing and delivery to you. Knowing which jobs your current tools already cover tells you what you actually need to add.

Plastic, email and wallet gift cards

There are three common formats. They differ mostly in cost and in what happens after the sale.

Plastic still has a place as a physical present in a card or envelope. But for most small businesses, especially for gifts bought online, a digital card is cheaper to issue and more likely to be used.

How a wallet gift card works

A wallet gift card is a pass in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Apple’s developer guide lists gift cards among the cards its store card pass style is meant for, and Google Wallet has a dedicated gift card pass type. To the customer it looks like any other card in their wallet.

• It carries a balance. The balance is a field on the pass. Each card shows its own amount, even though every card shares your one design.
• It has a code to scan. A QR code or barcode holds the card’s number, so staff can scan it at the register instead of typing it.
• It can change after it’s saved. When you update the balance, the copy on the customer’s phone updates too. Apple notes that updates aren’t guaranteed to arrive straight away, for example if the phone is offline.
• It can remind people. You can send a notification to the lock screen, for example before the card expires or when it still has money on it.

What to look for in gift card software

Selling and redeeming

• Can customers buy a card online, in store, or both?
• Can your register read the card’s code, and does it track the balance itself or will staff update it?

Issuing and delivery

• Is a card created automatically when someone pays, or by hand?
• Can you send it to someone other than the buyer, by email or text?
• Does it go into Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, or only as an email?

Branding and control

• Can the card carry your logo, colors and an image?
• Can you set an expiry date, and send reminders before it?
• Can you see how many cards were issued and saved?

Cost

• Is it a monthly fee, a fee per card, a percentage of each sale, or a mix? A percentage fee grows with your sales; a fixed fee doesn’t.

Setting up digital gift cards, step by step

1. Design the card. Add your logo, colors and a hero image, and choose the fields to show, such as the balance, the card number and a valid-till date.
2. Decide how cards are created. For a few cards, create each one by hand. For more, create one automatically whenever someone pays in your online store.
3. Deliver it. Email the card to the recipient with a button to add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. You can also share a link or a QR code.
4. Redeem and update. At the register, scan or type the card’s number, take the payment off, and update the balance on the pass.
5. Follow up. Remind holders before the card expires, and pair it with a loyalty card so first-time visitors come back.

Gift card rules to know

Gift cards are regulated, and the rules depend on where you sell. In the United States, the federal rules for store gift cards (Regulation E) generally:

• stop a card from expiring sooner than five years after it was issued or money was last loaded onto it;
• limit fees for not using the card, which can only start after a year without use and only once a month; and
• require the expiry date and any fees to be disclosed clearly.

Many states add their own rules, some banning expiry altogether, and other countries have different laws. This isn’t legal advice: check the rules that apply to you before you set an expiry date or any fees.

Ready to create your first card? Get started for free, or read what a wallet pass is first.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Apple’s newer developer pages load dynamically, so where a number comes from Apple it is taken from its Wallet Developer Guide and support pages. If Apple’s or Google’s current documentation differs, follow theirs.

• Apple: Wallet Developer Guide, Pass Design and Creation
• Apple: Wallet Developer Guide, Updating Passes
• Google: Google Wallet gift cards
• CFPB: Regulation E, § 1005.20 Requirements for gift cards and gift certificates