Gift Card App - How does it work?

Using Gift Cards as Payment in eCom

When a user is checking out from your eCom website, the payment option we setup for the Gift Card app will display as an option in checkout.  If selected, once the user completes eCom checkout, they are sent to our payment page where they can enter their gift card codes to apply their gift card balances to the order.  If the user's gift cards don't cover the full order balance due, we setup a "back-up" credit card form (to work through your preferred payment gateway), so the user can use a credit card to cover the remaining balance due.  Once payment is completed with gift cards (and credit card if necessary), the user is forwarded back to the order receipt page of your eCom website.

When the app takes a gift card payment, it has to create a separate sale in your Lightspeed Retail account to debit the card. When the app is installed, you'll note AdVision created a new product in your LSR for gift card payments. Please don't modify or remove this product, it's needed for the app to charge the appropriate amount to gift cards.

Some common issues

Issue:

We had your gift card app installed not too long ago. We have had several customers call in confused and/or angry about receiving an order confirmation before any payment processing has taken place. I'd appreciate help with this error asap.

Resolution:

Today, you reached out regarding an issue with your Advision gift card customization. Every time a customer reaches the customization, an order confirmation is sent.

This can be remedied by removing all the content and title from the Order Confirmation email, and reconfiguring the contents of your Order Paid email notification. This way no order confirmations will be sent, but customers who completed sales will still receive the necessary information.

Please note this will inhibit your ability to receive email notifications for orders. I would highly recommend installing Order Alert https://www.lightspeedhq.com/ecommerce/store/apps/order-alert-for-lightspeed/ in your Lightspeed eCom back office, and searching the Google Play or Apple App store for the corresponding order alert app. This will allow you to continue receiving notifications for orders without the need for notification emails.

Selling and Generating Gift Cards

To sell gift cards on eCom, you can setup gift card products for certain amounts ($5, $10, $25 gift card, etc.) in your catalog.  When a customer purchases one of these, you can either: a) setup the app to auto-generate and email the gift card or b) manually setup the gift card in your LSR account (https://retail-support.lightspeedhq.com/hc/en-us/articles/228842287-Selling-and-recharging-gift-cards) and deliver the gift card code to the customer.  If you want the app to auto-generate cards, continue reading...

Based on product SKUs you provide to the app to identify gift card items (see Digital Product SKUs and Physical Product SKUs fields below), the app will check eCom orders that come through your site for gift card items.  When an order is marked as paid in eCom, the app will check that order to determine if there are any gift card items in it.  If one or more gift card items are found in the order, for each card purchased, the app will attempt to:

  1. Create a new gift card in your Retail account
  2. Create a new sale (separate from the eCom sale) in Retail to charge (credit) the created card for the price of that gift card item (e.g. $10 gift card is priced at $10 so the created gift card in Retail will be credited with a balance of $10)
  3. If the gift card product is "digital", app will attempt to email the card to the intended recipient

Within your AdVision app account, the gift card app provides:

  1. Under the Summary tab, any recent errors related to the generating of gift cards
  2. Under the Cards tab, a list of any cards recorded from eCom orders along with each card's status, an action button (to retry a failed action or resend email for digital cards), and a "view log" link for activity history of the card)
  3. Under the Orders tab, a list of any orders that had gift card items in them that the app recorded

Settings

Within the app's Settings form and under "Auto-Generate Gift Cards" section, check the box "Generate Gift Cards and Email Automatically" and fill out the following fields:

  1. Alert Email on Failure: provide an email address the app can alert if a failure occurs when attempting to generate a gift card.
  2. Digital Product SKUs For Gift Card: For the app to detect and create gift cards when purchased, you need to tell it which product SKUs (from your eCom catalog) to look for.  In this field, enter the product SKUs for any "Digital" gift card products.  Digital gift cards means the app should email the gift card info to the purchaser (if you don't want gift card info emailed, use the Physical Product SKUs field).

    For example: if I want to sell a $10 gift card that will be automatically emailed to the customer when purchased, I'd set up a non-inventory item in my Retail catalog called "$10 gift card" (or whatever description you choose) priced at $10, with Manufacturer SKU set to something like "10-digital-gift-card".  Then in app's settings, within Digital Product SKUs field, I'd enter that SKU "10-digital-gift-card".  Now the app will know to look for this item in eCom orders.

    If offering multiple digital gift card products for sale, you'll need to enter the SKU of each digital gift card product into the field, separated by a comma (e.g. "10-digital-gift-card, 15-digital-gift-card, 25-digital-gift-card").

    The app creates gift cards based on the amount charged for the gift card item.  E.g. If user pays $10 for the gift card item, app will create a gift card with a balance of $10.  For this reason, you should not discount or tax these gift card items.
  3. Physical Product SKUs For Gift Card: For the app to detect and create gift cards when purchased, you need to tell it which product SKUs (from your eCom catalog) to look for.  In this field, enter the product SKUs for any "Physical" gift card products.  Physical gift cards means the app will NOT email the gift card info to the purchaser, the app will only create and charge the card in your Retail account for you, and delivery of the card to the customer is left up to you.

    For example: if I want to sell a $10 gift card, I'd set up an item in my Retail catalog called "$10 gift card" (or whatever description you prefer) priced at $10, with Manufacturer SKU set to something like "10-gift-card".  Then in app's settings, within Physical Product SKUs field, I'd enter that SKU "10-gift-card".  Now the app will know to look for this item in eCom orders.

    If offering multiple physical gift cards, you'll need to enter the SKU of each physical gift card product into the field, separated by a comma (e.g. "10-gift-card, 15-gift-card, 25-gift-card").
  4. Gift Card Prefix: If you'd like to set a custom prefix to the EAN13 code used by gift cards in Retail, you can enter a 3 digit prefix here.  If left empty, 200 will be used as the code prefix.  For example, if we set this to 333, any cards generated by the app would have a code that starts with 333 (e.g. 333000000001).

    Warning: Some prefixes will allow a card to be created, but not charged. Consult with Lightspeed Retail support for acceptable prefixes for gift cards.
  5. 'Paid By' Payment Type ID: Indicate the payment type you'd like the app to use when charging the card.  If left empty, Cash payment type will be used.
  6. Employee ID for Generate Sales: Indicate the employee ID to use when charging a card.  If left empty, will use the same Employee ID set at the top of the settings form (which is used when the app needs to debit a card when customer uses the card for payment in eCom checkout).
  7. Register ID for Generate Sales: Indicate the register ID to use when charging a card.  If left empty, will use the same Employee ID set at the top of the settings form (which is used when the app needs to debit a card when customer uses the card for payment in eCom checkout).
  8. SMTP for Outgoing Email: When we setup your gift card app, we'll ask for SMTP info to be used when sending outgoing email from your app (for digital gift card emails or to alert you of errors).  The SMTP credentials to be used are chosen with this field.

Once you've filled in the necessary fields, be sure to click "Save Settings".

Common Questions
  • Question:  Why can't I indicate a Shop ID?

    The app currently charges cards using the same Shop ID set for debiting cards.
  • Question:  What if I only want to offer one type (digital or physical) of cards?

    If you only want to create digital gift cards, simply leave the "Physical Product SKUs" field empty.  Likewise, if you only want to create physical gift cards, leave the "Digital Product SKUs" field empty. One or the other needs to be set if you want the app to auto-generate gift cards from eCom purchases.

Additional Considerations for Digital Cards

Optional Security Settings

If you're auto-generating digital gift cards (card info that is automatically emailed upon order payment), it's highly recommended that you consider one or both of the "Authentication" settings offered in the app:

  1. Use Description as Pin: If checked, when the app creates the gift card, it will enter a random 3 digit number in the card's "description" field in Retail, and that number will then be required to use the gift card as payment in eCom checkout.  You can choose to include this pin in the email sent with the gift card info, or if you're concerned about fraudulent purchases, you could provide it manually in a separate email or via phone after you're sure the order is not fraudulent.  If you choose to exclude the pin from the email, it's recommend you inform the customer of this fact and how/when you'll provide the pin.
  2. Require Gift Card Purchaser's Name: if checked, the customer will be required to enter the first and last name of the person that ordered the gift card.  The first/last name must match (case-insensitive) the first and last name on the eCom order (the billing first/last name).  If you use this setting, it's recommend you provide instructions to the gift recipient in the gift card email.

Setup Gift Recipient Fields

If you'd like to offer your customer's the ability to purchase a gift card for someone else, you can do so by setting up a specific set of custom fields for the digital gift card items in your eCom catalog.  The fields must match the following underlined values:

  1. Sender name

    The name of the person making the purchase (i.e. the gift giver).  If not provided, will default to order purchaser's name.
  2. Sender email

    The email of the person making the purchase, this will be set as the "Reply to" email address for the email sent to the recipient with the gift card info.  If not provided, will default to order purchaser's email.
  3. Recipient email

    The email address of the gift recipient (where the app should send the gift card info to).  If not provided, will default to order purchaser's email.
  4. Recipient name

    The name of the gift recipient.  If not provided, will default to order purchaser's name.
  5. Message to Recipient

    (optional) The gift message to include in email to recipient (e.g. "Happy birthday!")

If you'd like to name these fields something else, or need to support other languages, go to the app's Translations and look for these field names in the records (e.g. "Sender email", "Sender name", "Recipient email", "Recipient name", "Message to Recipient").  The default field name is listed in the first column, and you can enter the field name you plan to use in the second column.  Be sure to click "Save Changes" after entering/updating any translations.

Gift Cards Email Content

If you're selling digital gift cards and would like to modify the email subject or body content that is used when the app emails gift card info, go to the app's Translations and look for "Gift Card - Generated Card Email Subject" and "Gift Cards - Generated Card Email Body" records.  The default value is shown in the left hand column and you can enter your preferred version in the right hand column.  Note the following placeholders and the value each will be replaced with:

  1. PURCHASER_NAME = purchaser's first and last name
  2. PURCHASER_EMAIL = purchaser's email address
  3. RECIPIENT_NAME = recipient's name (if no recipient, uses purchaser's name)
  4. RECIPIENT_EMAIL = recipient's email (if no recipient, uses purchaser's email)
  5. CARD_CODE = the full EAN13 code for the card from Retail
  6. CARD_PIN = card's pin (if "Use Description as Pin" is checked under "Authentication" in app's settings)
  7. MESSAGE = if you've setup a custom field to allow a gift message to be included, this will be replaced with that message (see "Setup a Gift Recipient Fields" above)
  8. AMOUNT = the amount the gift card is for

Note: placeholder names must be wrapped in curly braces (e.g. "{CARD_CODE}")

Be sure to click "Save Changes" after entering/updating any translations.

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