eGiftCard Discount Rules

[MariahLMT]

I am looking to run a buy one, get one half off on gift certificates sale during Black Friday. I set an automatic discount for the gift certificate item category I created, which will work for manual/in-person sales, but would I be able to set this type of discount rule on the eGiftCard site so it can be applied to online purchases as well? I am only seeing a general discount code that looks like it'd apply to the whole purchase.

[Stacelyn24]

Hey there 👋 Great idea running a BOGO 50% off promo on gift certificates for Black Friday — that’s sure to catch some attention! 🎁🖤

Here’s the scoop:

You're right — Square’s automatic discounts only work for in-person or POS sales, not online eGift Card sales. And unfortunately, Square Online’s discount system can only apply percentage or dollar-off codes to the full transaction, not per-item or category-level exclusions.

So right now there's no built-in way to automatically offer “Buy one gift card, get one half off” for eGiftCard purchases on Square’s online checkout.

🛠️ Workarounds to Consider:

1. Create a Custom Discount Code
   Offer a 50% off code meant specifically for the second gift card.
   Just make sure to clearly state that they need to “add 2 gift cards to cart” and apply the code — it's a little manual but pretty close in outcome.

2. Run a Manual Promo
   Let buyers purchase a gift card online, and then manually send them the second one at half price — especially useful if you're doing this with a smaller audience or email list.

3. Create a Discount Landing Page
   Build a page on your site with instructions and your contact info — that way buyers can purchase gift cards and you can apply the discount yourself on the backend.

4. Submit a Feature Request
   This is definitely something Square could improve — you can submit it directly via Dashboard > Settings > Feedback, and I’d recommend you do. A lot of sellers would love more flexible discount rules for eGift Cards 😄

[Laurie_]

Hey @MariahLMT, thanks for writing in with your question! And appreciate you helping out here in the meantime, @Stacelyn24!

I just wanted to jump in after reviewing some of the workarounds provided:

1. Customer discount code: You can create an eGift Card discount (in your Dashboard, navigate to Items & services > eGift Cards > Discounts > Create Discount, or Create Code); however, the way this currently works is that the customer needs to purchase a minimum amount (gift card load) to qualify for the dollar or percentage discount. At the moment, we don’t support a BOGO discount code for eGift Cards.

2. Manually sending a gift card: Unfortunately, this isn’t possible. You’d still need to process the customer’s payment card and collect their contact information to deliver the eGift Card, not to mention create and apply a 50% discount to the sale.

@Stacelyn24, could you share a bit more detail on what you were referring to here, maybe with some clear steps? If this is something you’ve tried yourself, I’d love to learn if I'm missing something here!

3. Discount landing page: @Stacelyn24, again, you might be able to shed more light on this suggestion, but I’d be a little apprehensive about using this particular workaround since we don't have a way to apply discounts to transactions retroactively, aside from issuing partial refunds. 

4. Submitting feature requests: These steps look a little different now! From your Dashboard, click the question mark icon (?) in the bottom-left corner > Square Community > then select Feedback at the top of the page > Feature Requests.

@MariahLMT, in short, you’ve presented a great use case that highlights a gap in the current eGift Card discount functionality. Unfortunately, there aren’t any elegant workarounds I’d feel confident recommending at this time.