How To Set Up Wix Gift Cards

To set up Wix gift cards, you need Wix Stores enabled on a Business plan or higher (~$36/month). Once both are active, you'll find Gift Cards under Catalog → Gift Cards in your Wix dashboard, hit "Add Gift Card to Site," customize the denominations and recipient email, then publish. The whole setup takes about 15 minutes once the prerequisites are in place - most of the work is in the design and pricing decisions, not the technical setup.

This guide covers what you actually need before you start, the 5 setup steps in detail, how to price your gift cards, what Wix charges in fees, the legal and tax rules to know, and how to promote gift cards once they're live so they actually generate sales.

Before You Start: Prerequisites Checklist

Skip this section and you'll waste 30 minutes hunting for a Gift Cards menu that doesn't exist on your account. Confirm all four:

• Wix Business plan or higher. Light and Core plans don't include the Gift Cards feature. The Business plan starts at ~$36/month.
• Wix Stores app installed. Open Editor → Add Apps → search "Wix Stores" → install. Gift Cards is a Wix Stores feature, not a standalone app.
• A payment method connected. Wix Payments, Stripe, PayPal, or one of the supported processors. See our guide on setting up Wix Payments.
• Sales tax configuration done (if applicable in your state/country). Gift card sales themselves are usually tax-exempt at purchase, but the redemption is taxable - Wix handles this correctly only if your tax settings are right first.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Gift Cards on Wix

Once the prerequisites are in place, the setup itself is fast. Here's the full walkthrough:

Step 1: Log into Your Wix Account

Open Wix and log into the account that owns the site you want to add gift cards to. If you manage multiple sites, double-check the dashboard shows the correct site name in the top-left corner before you make changes.

Step 2: Enable Gift Cards in the Dashboard

From your dashboard, open the Catalog tab in the left sidebar, then select Gift Cards. Click "Add Gift Card to Site." Wix automatically creates a gift card product page on your site and adds it to your store catalog. If you don't see the Gift Cards option, your plan or Wix Stores install is the issue - check the prerequisites above.

Step 3: Customize the Gift Card Recipient's Email

Open the gift card settings and find the "Recipient Email" tab. This is the email that gets sent to the person receiving the gift card - the default Wix template is plain, transactional, and easy to mistake for spam. Customize three things at minimum:

• The subject line - change "You received a gift card" to something on-brand, e.g., "Sarah sent you something - a $50 gift to ."
• The header image - upload your logo or a brand-aligned image (recommended size: 600 x 200px).
• The personal message field - make sure the buyer's note to the recipient is prominent, not buried under boilerplate.

Step 4: Customize Your Gift Card Page Design and Denominations

From the Gift Card product settings, set your denominations (e.g., $25, $50, $100, $250) and decide whether to allow custom amounts. In the Editor, open the Gift Card page and adjust the layout, colors, and product images to match your site theme. Add clear copy explaining:

• How the recipient will receive the gift card (email immediately vs scheduled delivery).
• Whether the gift card is single-use or rechargeable.
• Expiration policy (or that there isn't one - see Legal section below).
• What it can be used for (your whole store, specific categories, exclusions).

Step 5: Test, Publish, and Verify

Before publishing live, test the flow yourself: buy a $5 gift card to your own email, confirm the email arrives and looks right, then redeem it on a test purchase. This catches the two most common issues - broken email rendering and a redemption code that doesn't apply at checkout. Once the test passes, hit Publish and verify on the live site.

Wix Gift Card Pricing Strategy

Denomination choice has a bigger impact on sales than design does. Here's what works:

• Service businesses (salons, spas, classes): $25, $50, $75, $100. Match your single-service prices so the gift covers an exact treatment.
• Retail / e-commerce stores: $25, $50, $100, $200. Round numbers convert better than odd ones ($50 outsells $49 in gift contexts).
• High-ticket stores ($500+ AOV): Add $250 and $500 tiers. Buyers giving "experience" gifts will skip toward the higher numbers.
• Restaurants / cafes: $20, $50, $100. Skip $25 - it doesn't cover a meal for two at most price points.
• Custom amount option: Always include it. Some buyers want to gift exactly $43 to cover a specific item plus shipping.

Gift card buyers usually spend more than the card's value when they redeem - a $50 card averages $65–$80 in actual order value. Pricing your highest tier at 1.5x your average order value pulls more revenue per gift card sold.

Wix Gift Card Fees and Margins

Selling gift cards on Wix isn't free - three costs to budget for:

• Payment processing on the gift card sale. 2.9% + $0.30 if you use Wix Payments (similar across most processors). On a $100 gift card, you keep $96.80.
• Payment processing on the redemption. No additional processing fee when the gift card is used - Wix treats redemption as an internal balance transfer. This is one place gift cards beat regular sales.
• Wix plan fee. The Business plan you need (~$36/month) is the same plan you'd use for any e-commerce store, so it's not a gift-card-specific cost.

Net margin: gift cards on Wix run roughly 97% of face value, with redemption coming through at 100% of remaining balance.

Promoting Gift Cards Once They're Live

The biggest mistake store owners make is setting up gift cards and assuming customers will find them. They won't. Promotion plan:

• Add to main navigation. A "Gift Cards" link in your top nav makes them visible on every page. Without this, conversion drops by half.
• Homepage banner 4–6 weeks before major gift-buying holidays (Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, December holidays, Valentine's Day).
• Email campaign to your list 2–3 weeks before each holiday. Subject line: "Last-minute gift? Send a gift card in 30 seconds."
• Cart abandon email mentioning gift cards as an alternative for indecisive buyers.
• Social ads with gift-aware messaging in the 2 weeks before each holiday - gift cards have unusually strong same-day-delivery appeal because they're digital.
• "Out of stock" recovery. When a product is sold out, offer a gift card as the alternative - you keep the sale and the recipient picks something different.

Legal & Tax Considerations

Gift card law varies by state and country. Three rules every Wix store owner should know:

• Expiration dates. US federal law (CARD Act) requires gift cards to be valid for at least 5 years from purchase. Many states ban expiration entirely. Wix lets you set an expiration - don't, unless you've checked your local law.
• Sales tax timing. Sales tax is charged when the gift card is redeemed, not when it's bought. Wix handles this automatically if your tax settings are configured correctly - but double-check by running a test purchase + redemption.
• Breakage revenue. "Breakage" is gift cards that are sold but never redeemed (industry average: 10–20%). In some jurisdictions you can recognize this as revenue after a defined period; in others, unredeemed balances must be remitted to the state under unclaimed property laws. Talk to an accountant before you treat breakage as profit.

Troubleshooting Common Wix Gift Card Issues

• "Gift Cards menu doesn't appear in my dashboard." Your plan or Wix Stores install is missing - check the Prerequisites section.
• "The recipient never got the email." Check the spam folder first. If not there, verify the buyer entered the recipient's email correctly (Wix doesn't validate at purchase). Also check your Wix Stores email sender domain - using a custom domain ([email protected]) cuts spam-folder rates significantly.
• "The gift card code isn't applying at checkout." Confirm the gift card hasn't already been fully redeemed (check the Gift Cards tab in dashboard). Also confirm the customer is on a product the gift card is allowed against - if you set category exclusions, that cause silent failures.
• "Customer wants a refund on a gift card." Wix doesn't auto-refund gift cards. You can manually issue a refund via Wix Payments, then mark the gift card as void in the dashboard so it can't still be used.
• "Gift card balance shows wrong amount." Refresh the Gift Cards dashboard - Wix sometimes lags 2–3 minutes after a redemption. If still wrong after 10 minutes, contact Wix support with the gift card ID.

Why Offer Gift Cards in the First Place

Three measurable reasons gift cards earn their setup time:

• Higher average order value. Recipients spend ~30% more than the gift card's face value when they redeem.
• Customer acquisition. 30–40% of gift card recipients are first-time customers - the buyer is effectively introducing your brand to a new person.
• Cash flow. You collect the money on day one, the cost of fulfillment hits weeks or months later. Gift cards are essentially short-term interest-free loans from your customers.

Conclusion: How To Set Up Wix Gift Cards

Setting up Wix gift cards takes about 15 minutes once you've confirmed you're on a Business plan or higher with Wix Stores installed. The setup itself (5 steps, finished above) is the easy part - pricing strategy, promotion, and the legal/tax rules are where most store owners lose money. Set tiered denominations that match your product prices, customize the recipient email so it doesn't read like spam, add gift cards to your main navigation, and time promotions 4–6 weeks before each gift-buying holiday. Done right, gift cards lift average order value by 30% and pull in new customers you wouldn't have reached otherwise.