How to sell gift cards in WooCommerce

Decide whether you are selling a prepaid card that can be spent over several orders, or a promotional voucher issued as a marketing reward. A prepaid, multi-purpose card represents stored value and may need to be recorded as a liability, so confirm tax treatment, expiry rules and refunds with your accountant before publishing it.

Also decide whether customers can choose their own amount, select from fixed denominations, send the card to another email address, schedule delivery and use the balance alongside another payment method.

WooCommerce core includes coupons, but it does not create true stored-value gift cards. For a small shop selling occasional one-use vouchers, create a simple product, tick Virtual so shipping is removed, and publish a product for each denomination. WooCommerce supports virtual products and standard fixed-cart, fixed-product and percentage coupons.

After each purchase, create a unique fixed-cart coupon under Marketing > Coupons. Set a usage limit of one, add an expiry date if required, restrict the allowed email where appropriate, and email the code to the recipient. This route is manual, does not track a remaining balance, and is easy to mishandle when a customer spends only part of the voucher. Do not present it as a multi-use gift card.

For prepaid cards, install a WooCommerce gift card extension from Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, then activate it. The extension needs to generate unique codes, apply partial balances at checkout, record redemptions and send the recipient email; those are not functions supplied by WooCommerce coupons alone.

After activation, look for the extension's settings under WooCommerce > Settings. The exact menu names vary, so follow the extension's setup screen rather than adding code or changing database files.

Create a product under Products > Add New. Depending on the extension, use a simple product for one fixed denomination or a variable product for several denominations, then enable its gift card option. Official WooCommerce Gift Cards documentation uses simple or variable products as the basis for gift cards rather than adding a separate product type.

Add a clear title, description, image and denomination choices. Configure the recipient email, sender name, personal message, delivery date and expiry options. If the extension supports customer-selected amounts, check the minimum and maximum values before publishing.

Choose whether gift cards are sent to the buyer, another recipient, or either at the customer's choice. Enable the account feature if customers should be able to save a card and use its balance without entering the code again. Enable the cart option if you want the gift card field to appear before checkout. These controls are available in the official Gift Cards settings under WooCommerce > Settings > Gift Cards.

Set rules for combining gift cards with coupons, then edit the gift card email under WooCommerce > Settings > Emails if your extension provides that template. Keep the policy visible on the product page, especially for expiry, refunds and whether unused balances can be transferred.

Place a test order for immediate delivery and another for a future delivery date. Gift card codes are commonly generated only after the order is paid or reaches the configured completed status, not while it is still pending. Scheduled emails rely on background processing, so a disabled WP-Cron, failed Action Scheduler queue or broken loopback request can stop delivery.

Use the code on a smaller order, then check that the remaining balance can be used later. Also test a partial payment, a refund, a failed payment and a customer using a different email address. If delivery fails, check Tools > Scheduled Actions, Tools > Site Health, your email logs and the order status before blaming the payment gateway.

If gifting is a core sales feature, use WooCommerce Gift Cards instead of maintaining coupon codes by hand. It is suited to digital and printable gift cards with scheduled delivery and balance tracking, so customers can buy a denomination, send it to a recipient and spend the value over time.

Install it, create the gift card product, configure the delivery and redemption rules, then run the test orders above before promoting the card in your navigation, checkout and seasonal campaigns.