How to add email notifications for gift card product purchases

You can add gift card email notifications that are sent to recipients when someone purchases a specific gift card, including a PDF of the gift card.

For example, you may want to add custom gift card notifications for each gift card product, e.g., bronze, silver, and gold.

You can set up notifications to meet your business requirements, including options to specify the subject line, sender address, reply-to address, recipient list, relevant products, and the message content and format.

Read further to learn how to add gift card email notifications, view examples of the email, or find answers to frequently asked questions.
 

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Using the system's default gift card notification
You can also use the system's default gift card notification.

After activating the gift card integration, a new notification type becomes available in your account.
 

The default notification is a simple email sent to the recipient after a customer purchases a gift card or is issued one by staff. It includes the gift card PDF. The subject of this notification is Congratulations, you have received a Gift Card.
 

Learn more:

This email is distinct from the booking status email notification that we send with the invoice to designated recipients (usually the purchaser).

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Are you new to notifications? Learn more here:

 


Adding gift card email notifications

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Follow these steps to add a gift card email notification:

  1. Go to the Notifications area (Configuration > Notifications).
  2. Select + New Notification to open the New Notification page.

    Notifications dashboard showing booking email notifications list with New Notification button
     
  3. Enter a custom Subject for the email. The subject line can include standard system email or custom variables you may have created in the booking form field editor. You can find a list of email variables in the page's left-hand menu.

    Gift card notification setup highlighting the Subject field for email notifications.
     
  4. Enter an optional Name to help staff identify the notification. The field supports up to 100 characters.

    Gift card notification setup highlighting the Name field for internal identification.

     

  5. Choose Gift Cards as the Notification Type.

    Gift card notification setup with Subject Congratulations and Gift Card Recipient selected
       
  6. Note the default From email address. This address lets the recipient know who has sent the notification. By default, this is the email address associated with your account (Account > Setup > Company > Email Address).

    Select Change to set up a custom 'from' address in an outbound email via our integration with Postmark.

    Gift card notification setup highlighting the From field for sender details.

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    Learn more about our Postmark integration here:

     

  7. Add a Reply To address for recipients to reply if they have questions or comments for your organization. If not customized here, this defaults to the current 'reply-to' email address setup in the Postmark integration.

    Gift card notification setup highlighting the Reply To field for email replies.
     
  8. Select Recipients from the list to receive notifications. You can send gift cards to multiple people, including recipients, staff members, partners, and customers. By default, the system sends messages to the gift card recipient.

    Gift card notification setup highlighting the Recipient section with Gift Card Recipient selected.
     
  9. Choose the Message Format to send the notification in HTML, Text, or both formats.

    Gift card notification settings with recipient selection highlighted and HTML and Text message formats selected.

    Callout icon of an open book outline, indicating a note. We recommend using HTML to format emails when embedding invoices or when special formatting is needed. However, it is best to provide both plain text and HTML versions. This way, the recipient's email client can choose which format to display based on their preferences.

     

  10. Set the Apply To option to specific categories or products to determine which purchases trigger gift card notifications, such as bronze, silver, or gold gift cards.

    Select the checkbox next to a category to include notifications for that product category.
     
    Click the arrow next to each category to view and select individual products. 

    Options listed here depend on which products you have set up. 

    Gift card notification settings screen showing message format and product selection with Gift Card option checked.

     

    Callout icon of an open book outline, indicating a note. When the customer adds multiple products with different notifications to a single booking, they receive an email for each product rather than a consolidated notification containing all the information.
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    You can set up different notifications for each product by copying a notification and configuring it for a specific product.

    Learn how to copy your email notifications here:

     

  11. Enter your email content as HTML or Text.   

    When editing an HTML email, you can switch between the text editor and source mode by clicking the < > button in the toolbar. Text emails cannot contain formatting elements such as bold, colors, or HTML.

    Notification editor with email section open, showing empty HTML editor and email variables for gift cards on the left panel.

    You can add supported email variables to the body of an email. When the system sends the email to the recipient, it replaces the embedded variable in the body with the corresponding data from your account.

    For example, if you include the email variable, {$GIFTCARD_BALANCE}, this is replaced with that gift card's remaining balance in the email.


    Gift card notification editor highlighting the email message content area with gift card variables.


    The following are the supported gift card email variables you can include:

     

    Variable Description
    {$GIFTCARD_CODE} This value is the code that the recipient uses to apply the gift card to purchases.
    {$GIFTCARD_TOTAL}

    This value is the original value of the gift card.

    Remove this option (and other amount variables) if you want to hide amounts from recipients. You can do this by enabling the Hide amount on PDF emailed to the recipient setting within the gift card product builder or the staff-side issue gift card option.

    {$GIFTCARD_BALANCE}

    This amount represents the balance on the gift card.

    Remove this option (and other amount variables) if you want to hide amounts from recipients. You can do this by enabling the Hide amount on PDF emailed to the recipient setting within the gift card product builder or the staff-side issue gift card option.

    {$GIFTCARD_TO_NAME} This value is the recipient's name.
    {$GIFTCARD_FROM_NAME} This value is the sender's name.
    {$GIFTCARD_MESSAGE} This value is the message the customer enters at the time of purchase.
    {$GIFTCARD_EXPIRY} This value is the gift card expiry date. 


    You can preview your messages using the Live Preview option in the left-hand menu.

    Notification editor highlighting the Live Preview button to view email layout.

     

    Callout icon of an open book outline, indicating a note. If you wish to override the default CSS included with outgoing email, include a <body> tag in your notification. You can also include some default styling.

     

  12. Include an optional short description of the notification with Internal Notes. This field supports up to 280 characters.

    Gift card notification editor highlighting the Internal Notes field for adding a short description.
     
  13. Ensure that you enable the notification by default.

    Gift card notification editor highlighting HTML email body input field
     
  14. Select the Create button to save and create your notification.

    Gift card notification editor with empty email message box, internal notes field, and “Create” button highlighted.

   


Viewing examples

The following is an example of the default email message.

Email inbox showing gift card email notification with subject “Congratulations, you have received a Gift Card” and attached PDF.

The following is an example of the default gift card attached to the gift card email.

Gift card PDF displaying $100 balance, recipient Jane Smith, sender John Smith, and expiration set to “Never.”

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Gift card number format

Gift card codes are now alphanumeric and randomized in the following format: YYYY-YYYY-YYYY, for example, UZ23-32U8-3FJ2-BGB8.

Ambiguous characters are not supported, e.g., O, I, L, 0, 1.

Existing codes for previously issued gift cards are supported.

 


Frequently asked questions

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Where can I quickly find this feature using the menu?

  • Configuration > Notifications

What permissions do I need to use this feature?