How To Start A Gift Card System For Small Business In 2024

All Square POS plans, free and paid, include a free online store builder.

Other Square fees include:

• 2.5% transaction fee on all gift card sales
• $0.34-$1.50 per physical gift card
• 2.5%-2.9% payment processing fee (required for all sales no matter which POS provider you use)

Once you sell over $125/month in gift cards, Square’s gift card program software may not be the most cost-effective option. However, Square’s free POS software and online store builder still make Square one of the most affordable sales solutions available.

While you don’t technically need Square POS hardware ($59-$799) to sell gift cards, using card readers and registers lowers in-person payment processing fees.

Related: Read our guide to Square POS hardware to help decide which POS hardware your business needs.

Square’s most unique gift card sales features for customers include:

• Purchase a single gift card using multiple payment sources, which is useful for several people going in on a group gift for a boss or friend
• Send friends eGift cards online using the recipient’s email
• Check a gift card balance and reload a gift card online
• Purchase gift cards in bulk, which is great for companies purchasing gift cards for employees or a specific customer group
• Earn loyalty points on gift card sales with Square Loyalty
• Redeem gift cards at multiple locations

At the register, employees can:

• Sell and refund digital and physical gift cards
• Attach a gift card to a customer’s phone number or email
• Reissue gift cards if a customer loses their gift card

Related: Read our Square Loyalty review for loyalty program pricing and features.

TouchBistro’s gift card program software costs $25/month/location and is an add-on to TouchBistro POS plans, which range from $69-$399/month.

The $399/month plan includes unlimited user licenses, making TouchBistro a cost-effective option for businesses with several employees and stations.

TouchBistro’s gift card program integrates well with add-ons including:

• $50/month online ordering platform
• $99/month loyalty program
• $99/month marketing suite

Note: TouchBistro partners with eCard for printing physical gift cards. The lowest quantity you can purchase is 125 gift cards for $110. You can get gift cards from a different source and import them to TouchBistro via CSV file if you’re not ready to commit to purchasing physical gift cards on a large scale.

Additional TouchBistro fees include payment processing fees, which you will pay to TouchBistro or a third-party payment processor, plus a $200 setup fee.

You may install TouchBistro on most iPads, so you can decide how much to pay for your POS hardware.

TouchBistro’s gift card program features include:

• Sell gift cards on an online ordering page, customer web app, and in-person
• Schedule digital gift cards to be sent to friends and family on a certain date and time
• Customers can earn gift cards as part of loyalty rewards
• Personalize gift cards for holidays, birthdays, and other occasions (great for marketing with a coffee shop POS system)
• Customers can redeem gift cards at any restaurant location
• Take gift cards at a customer’s table and the register

While not directly related to your gift card program, TouchBistro’s marketing software allows you to create promotional campaigns that offer dollar or percentage discounts to your online ordering platform visitors, loyalty program members, and customers signed up for your email newsletters.

We also like that TouchBistro software has a great offline mode so you can take orders and sell gift cards without WiFi. This is one reason why TouchBistro is one of the best food truck POS systems.

You can use Clover’s free gift card app or a third-party app. In addition to a POS plan, Clover fees include:

• Clover POS Hardware: $599-$1,799
• Payment Processing: Varies depending on Clover POS provider
• Clover Gift Card Fee: $0.05 for every $2 gift card value sold (with free Clover app)
• Third-Party Gift Card App: $0-$30/month (optional)

Read our guide to Clover POS pricing for more information on how Clover software, hardware, and payment processing works.

Clover’s best gift card features include:

• Over 70 gift card designs are available
• Send digital gift cards over text or email
• Issue gift cards as store credit
• Accept gift cards across multiple locations
• Sell QR code gift cards at the POS or on your website
• Send gift cards to friends or family with a custom message
• Reload a physical or digital gift card balance
• Check a gift card balance at the register or online

Clover integrates with third-party gift cards for POS systems, including Loopz, Givex, GiftFly, LoyLap, and Factor4.

Related: Clover’s niche integrations with ID verification and EBT sales apps make this POS system one of the best grocery store POS systems.

Shopify gift card program software is available on all Shopify POS plans. Additional Shopify fees include:

• Physical Gift Cards: $0.56-$1.89 per card
• Gift Card Sleeves: $59-$789 (250-5,000 sleeves)
• Payment Processing Fees: 2.4%-2.6% + $0.10 for in-person orders and 2.5%-2.9% + $0.30 for online orders
• POS Hardware: $49-$459

Note: Shopify sells physical gift cards in bulk (100-5,000 per order), but you may pay for them in interest-free installments.

Read our Shopify POS hardware guide to help you decide which hardware you need in your store.

Shopify’s best gift card sales features include:

• Sell gift cards on any of your available sales channels, just like you would sell on any products
• Redeem gift cards on Shopify POS, Shopify website, Facebook store, Facebook Messenger, or using a “buy” button on an external website, social media post, etc.
• Sell gift cards as part of a larger gift package (such as a book gift package using a bookstore POS system)
• Issue promotional gift cards and refund gift cards
• Print out gift certificates using your own printer, so you don’t have to buy gift cards if you don’t want to
• Customers can add gift cards to Apple Wallet
• Sell gift cards and customized gift card sleeves

Shopify also integrates with several gift card software apps such as Gift Up!, Rise.ai, Growave, and Govalo if you like Shopify’s strong multichannel retail sales capabilities but want more gift card functions than Shopify provides.

Lightspeed does not charge any additional fees to sell gift cards. Additional Lightspeed features include:

• Additional Registers: $59/register license/month
• Additional Locations: $69-$269/location/month
• Payment Processing Fees: 2.6% + $0.10 for-in person orders; 2.9% + $0.30 for online orders

Note: With each new location, you get another register. For example, if you have two locations, you’ll get two registers, one in each location, but will only pay the added location fee. If you purchase a third register license, you’ll pay the added location fee and an additional $59/month.

When it comes to gift card sales customizations, you can:

• Set custom security settings around gift cards
• Recharge physical and digital gift cards
• Choose a gift card expiration date and choose whether to honor expired gift cards
• Order physical gift cards from several gift card providers and import the information to Lightspeed
• Offer several images that customers can choose to attach to digital gift cards
• Choose between several different fixed prices to load to a gift card
• Create gift cards with open amounts so customers can purchase their custom amount
• Create gift card minimums and maximums to drive a minimum number of sales and protect yourself from instances of fraud
• Attach your Lightspeed loyalty program with gift cards
• Track customer gift card usage

Related: Read our Lightspeed Loyalty program review.

Toast’s gift card software costs $50/month and is an add-on to Toast POS software plans unless you sign up for the free Starter Kit plan and agree to a higher payment processing fee.

Additional Toast fees include:

• Toast POS Hardware: $799.20-$1,024.20
• Payment Processing Fees: 2.49%-3.69% or custom (dependent on POS software plan)
• Loyalty Program: $50/month
• Online Ordering Platform: $75/month

Related: Read our restaurant POS hardware guide to learn more about what restaurant hardware is available from providers like Toast.

Our favorite gift card program features from Toast include the customer-centric gift card purchasing and redemption features.

Customer-centric gift card features include customers’ ability to:

• Purchase gift cards and schedule a gift card to be sent at a specific date and time, as well as include a special message for the recipient
• Send gift cards using an email or phone number, which is great for customers who don’t remember the recipient’s email or check their email if they’re purchasing a gift for themselves
• Choose from several different designs with pre-loaded or open-ended amounts
• View and reload physical and eGift cards from an online portal
• Add gift cards to their Apple Wallet

Toast’s best gift card redemption features include:

• Guests can redeem gift cards online, at the POS, and self-serve kiosks
• Guests can redeem gift cards by swiping a physical gift card, using an eGift card code, and scanning a QR code attached to an eGift card
• Servers can accept gift cards via the Toast Go 2 handheld POS system so customers can pay with a gift card at the table
• Guests can still be prompted to leave a tip after using their gift card as payment
• Multilocation businesses can accept gift cards at any location

You may also combine your gift card and loyalty programs so loyalty customers can earn points when they redeem gift cards.

Restaurant owners can easily import gift cards from other programs to Toast, so the transition from a previous program is easy.

Related: Compare Toast to the rest of our best POS loyalty programs.

Revel’s gift card program is a custom-priced add-on to a custom Revel POS software plan. You’ll also get a custom payment processing fee.

Revel Systems is a highly flexible POS system that works best for established restaurants. The software makes it easy to manage multiple locations and a large inventory. It has many niche customizable features, such as drive-thru POS capabilities.

The following are some of Revel System’s small business gift card features:

• Sell digital gift cards on an online ordering website
• Design and order physical gift cards from your POS portal
• Preloaded and custom-pricing gift card sales
• Reloadable gift cards
• Issue promotional gift cards
• Gift card tracking and reporting
• Import current gift cards if switching from another POS or gift card app
• Gift card integrations include Givex, Incentivio, eCard Systems, Paytronix, LoyaltyPlant, Valuetec, and Synergy Loyalty Solutions