Gift Cards
Gift Cards Shoppers Can Buy, Send and Spend
When a shopper cannot decide what to give, a gift card decides for them. Mercayo sells it on its own page, sends it to the person it is for, and keeps every card's balance safe until it is spent.
- In every plan
- Free for 14 days
Kosha is a demo store on Mercayo. Its products, orders and customers are sample data.
In short
What It Does
Gift cards are off for a new store; switch them on and your store gets a Gift Cards page.
Buying. The shopper chooses an amount (from your list, ₹500, ₹1,000, ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 to start with, or their own amount between ₹100 and ₹25,000), who it is for, email or text message, right away or on a day they choose, a message and the name it is from. They pay online through your own Razorpay account. A gift card cannot be bought with cash on delivery, store credit or another gift card.
The code. When the payment arrives, a card is issued with a 16-character code (XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) from letters and digits that are hard to misread. Only a secure fingerprint of the code is kept: your team sees the last four characters, and the full code goes once, to the person it is for.
Spending. At checkout, "Have a gift card?" takes the code and shows what will be used: "Gift card ready: ₹1,000 will be used. You pay ₹299." A card can be spent a bit at a time; what is left stays on it. Anyone can check a balance on the Gift Cards page.
GST. No GST is charged when a gift card is sold; GST is charged on the products it is spent on, exactly as for any other payment.
Your team works on the Gift Cards screen: tabs (Active, Used Up, Expired, Disabled), totals (Outstanding, Sold, Given Free, Redeemed, Lapsed), each card's history in a side sheet, and ISSUE GIFT CARD for prizes, apologies and thank-yous. A card can be adjusted, extended, reissued with a new code, or disabled, each with a reason. Export CSV lists every matching card (up to 5,000).
For your store
Why It Matters
Gift cards bring in money before any parcel ships, and many of them reach a shopper who has never bought from you: the friend, the sister, the colleague. Festivals, weddings and birthdays are gifting seasons in India, and a gift card sent by text on the morning of the day is a gift that is never late.
Selling them online only, never on cash on delivery, keeps them safe from the fraud that cash orders invite. A fingerprint instead of the code, and a lock-out after repeated wrong codes, keep balances safe from guessing.
And the Outstanding figure tells your accountant exactly what the store still owes in goods, at any moment.
Step by step
How It Works
Switch Gift Cards On
In Settings → Rewards and Credit, the Gift Cards card has the switch, the Amounts to Choose From (500,1000,2000,5000 to start with), whether shoppers can type their own amount, the smallest and largest card, and the months until a card expires. Online payments must be on, through your own Razorpay account.
The Gift Cards card in Settings → Rewards and Credit, on Kosha, a demo store on Mercayo. Shoppers Buy One
On the Gift Cards page, the shopper chooses an amount, who it is for, email or text message, right away or on a day, a message and their own details, sees how the card will look, and presses PAY. The card is sent to the person it is for once the payment arrives, or on the chosen day.
The Holder Spends It
At checkout, under "Have a gift card?", the holder types the code and presses APPLY. A gift card is used first, then store credit, then cash on delivery or online payment for the rest. A card that covers the whole order pays for it.
Issue Cards Yourself
On Gift Cards, ISSUE GIFT CARD makes a card with an amount and a reason; the code is made for you, to send now or copy and pass on yourself. Cards you give are counted as Given Free, apart from cards sold.
Look After Every Card
Open a card to see its history and act on it: adjust the balance, EXTEND EXPIRY, reissue the code (the old one stops, the balance moves), or disable it. Each action asks for a reason and is kept in the card's history.
Answer Extension Requests
Shoppers can ask for more time in a card's last 30 days, or up to 365 days after it expired. Requests wait in Extension Requests at the top of the screen for you to APPROVE or DECLINE, unless you approve them at once. An extension adds 12 months; an expired card comes back with the balance it held.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
Shoppers find a Gift Cards page: choose an amount, who it is for, email or text message, now or on a day, a message, and see how it will look before paying. The person it is for receives the code with the amount, the message and the expiry. At checkout, "Have a gift card?" takes the code and says what it pays. Anyone can CHECK BALANCE by code; a signed-in shopper sees the cards sent to their phone or email in their account, with what each holds and its date, and can ask for more time near the end.
Settings
Settings You Control
All are under Settings → Rewards and Credit → Gift Cards.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
Mercayo sets the shortest expiry a store may choose (12 months) and how many times one card may be extended (once to start with), and can force or lock any gift card setting for a store, with a reason your admin shows and a record in Mercayo's audit log. Mercayo never sees a gift card's full code: only its fingerprint is stored.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- Cards go by email or text message; WhatsApp delivery is not built.
- The buyer does not get a copy of the code: it goes to the person it is for. A lost code is solved by reissuing the card.
- A gift card is bought on its own page, one card per purchase, not in the bag with products.
- The reminder before a card expires is one email, sent the days you choose before its expiry, to the person who holds the card.
- Refunding a gift card order does not disable its card by itself: disable it on the Gift Cards screen.
- No GST is charged at sale (a multi-purpose voucher); a store that must charge GST at sale cannot choose that.
Questions
About Gift Cards
Is GST charged on a gift card?
Not when it is sold: a gift card spent on any of your products is treated as a voucher, and GST is charged on the products when it is spent, exactly as for any other payment. Please confirm this with your accountant for your business.
Can shoppers pay for a gift card by cash on delivery?
No. Gift cards are paid online only, through your own Razorpay account, and cannot be bought with store credit or another gift card. This keeps them safe from fraud.
What stops someone guessing gift card codes?
Codes have 16 characters from a 31-character set, and only a fingerprint is stored. After 10 wrong codes in 15 minutes, further tries from the same place are locked out for 15 minutes, and every unknown, disabled or expired code gets the same answer.
What happens when an order paid by gift card is cancelled?
The part the card paid goes back to the card, or to the shopper's store credit when the card is no longer active. The same happens when a parcel comes back undelivered.
Can I give gift cards away?
Yes. ISSUE GIFT CARD makes a card with an amount and a reason; send the code by email or text, or copy it. These cards are counted as Given Free in the totals.
Do gift cards expire?
After 12 months to start with, counted from the day the card is issued (you can choose longer, or never). Shoppers can ask for a 12-month extension near the end or after it, and an expired card that is extended comes back with its balance.
Related
Related Features
- Store CreditGive shoppers a balance with your store: instant refunds without bank details, goodwill credit, cashback and referral rewards, spent at checkout.
- Online PaymentsShoppers pay by UPI, card, net banking or wallet through your own Razorpay account; Mercayo confirms every payment on its server and never holds your money.
- RazorpayPaste your Razorpay keys, test with test keys first, and Mercayo sets up the webhook secret; the money goes straight to your account.
- GST InvoicesEvery order gets the right GST document, a tax invoice or a bill of supply, numbered without gaps per financial year, as a PDF for you and your shopper.
- Customer AccountsShoppers sign in with a one-time code by email or phone, or with Google, and find their orders, invoices, addresses and credit in one place.
More in Discounts and Offers: Discount Codes · Automatic Offers · Buy X Get Y · Quantity Prices · Bundles and Add-Ons · Free Gifts · One-Time Codes · Combining Offers · Offer Labels and Sale Page · Offer Reports · Store Credit · Rewards Tiers · Refer and Earn · Affiliates
Try It on Your Own Store
Every feature is in every plan, free for 14 days.