How do I sell gift cards with PayPal Zettle?

Before selling gift cards, set up the gift cards feature.

Set up in the PayPal Zettle app:  

1. Go to Gift cards.
2. Tap Continue to start.
3. Select how you'd like to sell gift cards (sent via email, handmade physical cards, or pre-made physical cards that are scannable).
4. Choose to generate random card codes or create your own custom codes.
5. Set the expiry date and confirm the terms.
6. Tap See how it works to learn more about gift cards or Skip.

Set up in your online PayPal Zettle account:

1. Go to Products and select Gift cards.
2. Click Set up gift cards.
3. Select how you'd like to sell gift cards (sent via email, handmade physical cards, or pre-made physical cards that are scannable).
4. Choose to generate random card codes or create your own custom codes.
5. Set the expiry date and confirm the terms.
6. Tap See how it works to learn more about gift cards or Skip.

Adding codes

Whether you sell a physical gift card or one via email, the code on it should match the one that you enter into your PayPal Zettle app.

You should assign a unique identifying code to each gift card for tracking and redeeming.

There are 3 options for doing this:

• Scan a barcode from a printed card
• Generate a random code and write it on the card
• Enter a custom code

If you're scanning plastic cards, you’ll set the barcode when ordering the cards.

If you want to create custom codes, make sure they’re a minimum of 6 letters or numbers. For example, Summer01 or Birthday124. We recommend that you use 8 alphanumeric characters in your codes so that you don’t need to duplicate them if you sell a lot. 

How do I sell a gift card?

Once you’ve set up the gift card feature, you’ll find Gift cards in your product library. Tap it to add it to your cart. 

If you have physical gift cards with a scannable code, scan the card and the alphanumeric code is automatically added.

Steps for selling:  

1. Tap Gift Card in your product library.
2. Enter the value you want to load onto the card. The value must be at least $1.00 USD and not higher than $100.00 USD.
3. Complete the steps to add it to your cart. You can update your preferences in Settings.
4. Process the payment.

Tips:

• Gift cards can’t be combined with other products in the same purchase.
• Gift cards can only be sold through the PayPal Zettle app and not online through a webstore.
• A customer can purchase a gift card with card or cash only. They can’t be purchased with PayPal QRC or Venmo.
• If a refund is issued back to a gift card and the customer can’t find it, you can locate the gift card code from the Zettle app and share it with them.
• You can change the expiry date of gift cards in Account & Settings by clicking Gift card settings.

How do I redeem a gift card?

1. Add the products to the cart as usual.
2. Click All payment methods.
3. Click Gift card. If your customer wants to split the payment using a gift card and cash or card, enter the gift card as the first payment type.
4. Enter or scan the code (the remaining balance will be checked).
5. Complete the payment or continue with another payment method if the gift card balance doesn’t cover the purchase amount. You can use multiple gift cards in the same payment.

If you don't see gift cards in your list of payment methods, go to Settings, Payment Settings, Gift cards and toggle On.

Here’s how to check a gift card balance:

1. Go to Products and Gift cards.
2. Enter the gift card code in the search field.
3. View the balance.
4. Click the row to view more details.

Here’s how to check a gift card balance:

In the PayPal Zettle app:

1. Go to Gift cards.
2. Enter the gift card code in the search field.
3. View the balance.

Tracking gift cards

You can view the balance, status and any payments made with the gift card in the “gift card section” of the PayPal Zettle app.

In your PayPal Zettle account:

1. After selling a gift card, it immediately appears in the gift card register ("Products", "Gift cards").
2. At the top, you’ll see a summary of active gift cards (cards that have been sold and have a balance remaining) and the collective value of these cards (outstanding debt).
3. For each card, you can view the balance, status and any payments made with the gift card.

The different statuses are:  

• Unredeemed: a card has been sold with a value and a code.
• Redeemed: a card has been used and has a balance of zero.
• Partially redeemed: the card has been used for a purchase and has a balance remaining for another purchase.
• Expired: the card has expired and may or may not have a remaining balance. Check this by clicking the row.
• Returned: the card was returned by the customer who purchased it. A redeemed, partially redeemed, or expired card can’t be returned.

Bookkeeping gift cards

In your PayPal Zettle account, the reports section shows the status of gift cards.  If there are no sales or changes to your gift cards in the time period selected, there will be no information available.

When a gift card is sold, it’s not counted as a sale. That means it won’t show up in the total sales and sales channels section until it's been redeemed. For information on the gift cards you’ve sold, check your gift card report under Reports.

Record gift cards in your accounting service according to the regulations of your local tax authority. The sale of gift cards should be accounted as liability, while the redemption of gift cards should be accounted as revenue. 

Gift cards are sales tax exclusive for multipurpose vouchers, meaning tax is only applied on products purchased with a gift card; not on the sale of a gift card.

Single purpose voucher versus multipurpose vouchers

The PayPal Zettle gift card service only supports multipurpose vouchers. We don’t recommend this service if you’re offering single purpose vouchers.  

What is a single-purpose voucher?  

If all the products or services you sell have a single tax rate, then tax is due at the time the gift card is sold.

What is a multipurpose voucher?  

If you sell products or services with different tax rates, then tax is due when the gift card is redeemed for a specific product or service.