The 12 best gift certificate plugins for WooCommerce [2024]
Gift certificates are a popular payment method in both physical and e-commerce stores. They offer customers an easy way to purchase goods or services as a “gift” for someone else. Discover the 10 best WooCommerce gift card plugins, and how to use them.
Gift cards can be physical cards that are given in person (or mailed), or they can be digital codes that are sent digitally. Regardless of their form, gift certificates can be a valuable addition to any online store. Here’s why:
- You can use gift cards to generate additional sales.
- Gift cards can help you increase customer loyalty.
- They can be used as a marketing tool to attract new customers.
- They're a useful way to offer refunds while ensuring that the customer comes back to your store.
If you run an online store and want to selling gift cards in WooCommerce, you’ll need a gift certificates plugin to help you manage the process.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the 10 best gift certificate plugins for WooCommerce by highlighting the key features and options available with each one. We’ll also show you step-by-step how to use one of the top-rated plugins, WooCommerce Product Options, to sell gift certificates on your WooCommerce store.
By the end of this article, you’ll have all the information you need to choose the best WooCommerce gift card plugin for your ecommerce store.
What are gift certificates in e-commerce?
A gift certificate is a prepaid payment method that can be used to purchase goods or stores from a specific store (or retailer). It’s often given as a gift, allowing recipients to choose the product or experience it themselves. If you don't know what to buy your loved ones as a birthday present, then a gift certificate is often the answer.
As mentioned earlier, gift certificates can be physical cards that are given in person or they can be digital gift card codes that are emailed or displayed on a device.
There are different types of gift cards that e-commerce stores can offer. These broadly include:
- Fixed-value cards – the customer chooses a specific amount to give
- Open-value cards – the customer types in their own amount
- Event or experience cards – recipients can use them to purchase tickets or reserve a spot at a specific event or activity
Some popular examples of digital gift certificates include the PlayStation Store gift card that recipients can use to buy PlayStation games. Barnes & Noble offers gift cards that let recipients purchase books. Plenty of other retailers – like Adidas, Ulta Beauty, and Kohl’s – offer gift certificates, as well.
Why use a WooCommerce gift certificate plugin?
Gift certificates can be a lucrative revenue stream for e-commerce stores. Here are a few reasons why:
- Increase sales. They often help online stores generate additional sales when the recipient uses the card to purchase additional items. In a sense, a gift card is another product you sell.
- Boost customer loyalty. If a customer buys from your store regularly, chances are they’ll buy gift cards to give to their friends and family. This way, you can boost customer loyalty effectively.
- Attract new customers. Customers will give gift cards to friends and family. Recipients can then redeem gift certificates on your online store to buy products, services, or experiences. In this way, gift certificates can be used as a marketing tool to attract new customers.
Aside from boosting sales and growing your customer base, gift cards are a great substitute form of payment. It reduces friction in the buying process and can potentially help you reduce fraud.
Top 10+ WooCommerce gift certificate plugins for 2024
Here, we’ll introduce you to the best WooCommerce gift card plugins. We’ll also highlight their features and options, talk about usability, and help you decide which is the best plugin for your needs.
#1: WooCommerce Product Options
WooCommerce Product Options is a versatile and powerful tool that can help online store owners sell gift certificates in a variety of ways. This plugin is not just a simple gift card plugin. Instead, it's a complete solution for adding extra options or fields to any product. This makes it excellent value for money.
One of the key features of this plugin is the ability to add various types of fields to sell gift certificates online. These include:
- Fields to let the customer select the type of gift card (e.g. printed or digital).
- Recipient's details (e.g. their name, address, or email address).
- Voucher amount (e.g. a list of denominations for the customer to select from).
- A freeform field where the customer can enter a custom gift card value.
- The delivery date when it should be delivered to the recipient.
- Clickable images for selecting the design of a greetings card to be included with the gift certificate.
- An option for selecting the occasion (birthday, Valentines Day, Christmas, etc.).
Another useful feature of the plugin is the ability to add options for personalizing the gift certificate, such as:
- Clickable images for selecting the design of a greetings card to be included with the gift certificate
- An option for selecting the occasion (birthday, Valentines Day, Christmas, etc.)
- A delivery date field that allows customers to choose when they want the gift certificate to be delivered to the recipient.
How do I process the gift card orders in WooCommerce?
When customers order a gift certificate, they receive an order confirmation email and you receive the order notification email. You are then free to process the order, just as you would with any other order in WooCommerce. This might involve:
- Mailing a physical gift card to the recipient on the selected date, with the custom message and any other extras that the customer selected.
- Manually creating a coupon code in WooCommerce and emailing it to the recipient, along with the custom message that was entered.
What else can this gift certificate plugin do?
Send gift certificates to multiple recipients
Imagine that someone is doing their Christmas shopping and wants to order a gift card for multiple people at once. Easy! Just use WooCommerce Product Options to add fields where customers can add the details for multiple recipients.
So, for example, a customer might purchase gift cards worth $20 and have it emailed to one friend.; and also a $50 physical gift voucher to be mailed to their niece. By adding the right combination of fields and options to the page, they can order all the gift cards that they need at once!
Alternatively, they can enter the details of each gift certificate one at a time, add it to the cart, and then repeat the process. Each gift card will be listed individually in the WooCommerce cart and checkout. This allows them to order an unlimited number of gift cards at once, without adding too many fields to the product page.
Add additional extra fields to your products
WooCommerce Product Options is much more than just a WooCommerce gift card plugin. It's a fully featured product options plugin. This means that you can use it to add any type of extra option to your products - not just gift cards.
This might be checkboxes letting customers choose optional extras, radio buttons, other types of text field, file upload fields - the sky's the limit!
Use conditional logic to show/hide fields
The WooCommerce Product Options plugin also lets you use conditional logic to display certain options based on the user’s choices. For example, you can show an email address or postal address field depending on whether the customer selects a physical or digital gift card.
See the conditional logic in action on the gift card demo product!
Compatible with everything
And importantly, WooCommerce Product Options has excellent compatibility with your WordPress theme and other plugins. For example:
- If your store offers multiple gift card products, then you can use the WooCommerce Product Table plugin to display them all on the same page. This might be the main shop page, the gift card product category page, or any other page on your site. You can also create a one-page order form listing your gift card product alongside the other products in your store:
- If you have a multi-lingual site then it plays nicely with translation plugins like WPML.
#2: YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards
The pro version of the YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin lets you create, design, and sell gift certificates on your e-commerce store. You can set custom amounts for the gift cards you create and ship physical gift vouchers to customers the same way you would ship a product to them. The plugin also lets you create virtual gift cards to mail to the recipient's email address.
In addition to this, the YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin includes options for recipients to redeem their gift vouchers online or in-store. As a store owner, it's easy to manage gift certificates. For example, you can set expiry dates and usage limits for the new gift cards you create. The expiration date can be a specific date (expires on December 31st) or a time period (expires after 6 months).
#3: Free Gifts for WooCommerce
Free Gifts for WooCommerce plugin is one of the best plugins for giving gift products to customers, which helps you to use marketing strategies to attract new customers or run customer retention programs on your online store.
With this attractive plugin, you can create different rules to encourage customers to buy. For example, give a free gift product to customers who have logged in to your site on their first purchase or allow your users to add another product to their cart for free in exchange for purchasing a product.
This plugin is fully compatible with the latest version of WooCommerce and has a variety of features, including:
- Creating rules with different methods such as Buy x Get x, Subtotal, Buy x Get y BOGO, Subtotal and more.
- Create unlimited gifting rules for gift product offers that all work together at the same time.
- Automatically add free gift to the cart.
- Determining the desired conditions and limits for the free gift offer.
- Offering free gifts for buying specific products or categories.
- Offering free gifts on a date range or special occasions like Black Friday.
- Get useful reports from gift rules.
- And many other facilities.
With Free Gifts for WooCommerce, you can give free gifts to specific customers or encourage customers to spend more in your shop to receive the gifts.
#4: Smart Coupons
Smart Coupons is a WooCommerce gift certificates plugin that lets you create and sell gift cards, as well as manage coupon codes and discounts for your store. This coupons plugin includes options for creating personalized coupons, setting usage limits and expiration dates. It also generates reports on gift card code performance.
With Smart Coupons, you can allow customers to purchase gift certificates from your WooCommerce store. The plugin lets you create gift cards with custom amounts, fixed denomination gift certificates, and physical gift vouchers. This is a good option for anyone that wants to sell gift certificates that will be redeemed on the same website (not physical stores) and needs more complex logic for the discounts.
There's no free version of this product, so you will need the pro version for the WooCommerce coupons.
#5: Advanced WooCommerce Gift Cards
The Advanced WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin lets you create a new gift certificate product in WooCommerce and set its price and value. Customers can send the gift card directly to recipients by entering their email addresses. Recipients receive the notification email, and can then redeem their gift certificates at the checkout page.
Advanced WooCommerce Gift Cards comes with pre-built gift card templates to help you design eye-catching certificates. Alternatively, you can upload your own gift card designs. The WooCommerce gift vouchers the plugin generates are randomly generated and hard to guess making them secure.
#6: Gift Up!
Gift Up! lets you sell gift cards as a product or add a gift certificate option to any product. You can set it up in a way to allow customers to choose an amount, add a personal message, and choose a gift card design. Customers can choose to have the gift certificate notification sent to an email address or postal address immediately or schedule it to be sent on a special occasion.
You can accept WordPress gift cards on your website and in-store. Gift cards also support top-ups and balance checks. To set it up, check out these instructions on using Gift Up! with WooCommerce.
#7: Gift Cards For WooCommerce Pro
The Gift Cards For WooCommerce Pro plugin lets you create and sell gift certificates on your online store. Once customers purchase a gift card, you can send it via email, WhatsApp, SMS, or downloadable PDF. Recipients can redeem gift vouchers using QR codes or bar codes.
Gift Cards For WooCommerce Pro comes with over 20 pre-designed gift certificate templates for different occasions. The plugin supports five different pricing types including fixed price, price range, selected price, custom price, and variable price.
#8: Gifting for WooCommerce Subscriptions
Gifting for WooCommerce Subscriptions, as the name indicates, is an extension of the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. It’s a great option for store owners that want to sell gift cards for subscription products such as coffee subscriptions, monthly treats by mail, or a magazine subscription for kids.
By using both the Gifting for WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin and the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin, you can let customers buy subscriptions for friends and family.
#9: Gift Cards
This WooCommerce gift card plugin lets users create pre-paid digital gift cards that recipients can redeem online. Customers can add gift vouchers to their accounts for later use and check their gift card balance. Returning customers can also create gift certificates by paying with funds stored in their accounts.
Store owners can set expiration dates and let customers choose a gift card delivery date for the e-gift vouchers to be sent. Users can also see reports in the back-end based on gift card status – issued, used, and expired.
#10: PW WooCommerce Gift Cards
The PW WooCommerce Gift Cards plugin lets customers select a gift certificate amount and enter the recipient's details. Recipients will receive an automated gift card email that lets them redeem the gift voucher by clicking a button.
Although this is not the most professional way to sell gift certificates online, you can check it out if you’re comparing different options. It's definitely worth considering as a WooCommerce gift card plugin.
#11: WooCommerce Store Credit
The Store Credit plugin lets customers gift store credit to friends and family. Customers can buy the store credit from you and enter the recipient’s email address as well as a personalized gift card message.
This is a useful WooCommerce gift card plugin if you just want to gift people store credit to use as a free payment method in your WooCommerce store (not a physical store). It’s not as fully featured as some of the other plugins in this list in terms of gift cards.
#12: Gift Vouchers for WooCommerce
The Gift Vouchers for WooCommerce plugin by World Web Technology is a solid solution for integrating online stores and physical business operations. Customers get an intuitive interface with robust features, empowering them to sell customizable PDF vouchers as store credit to bridge the gap between online and in-store experiences.
It's perfect for used cases like pre-paid admissions, event tickets, and personalized gift certificates, tailored to your brand identity. Personalized messages, easy voucher management and redemption tracking help you optimize customer journeys for convenience and satisfaction.
Tutorial: How to use WooCommerce Product Options to sell gift cards
As you can see, there are lots of ways to sell gift certificates in WooCommerce. For example, the WooCommerce Product Options plugin lets you add a range of flexible options for selling gift cards to your product pages, like this:
Next, I'll show you step-by-step how to use WooCommerce Product Options to sell gift cards.
Step #1: Install and activate the plugin
If you haven’t done so already, purchase the Product Options WooCommerce gift card plugin plugin. You’ll get the plugin files and a license key in a confirmation email.
Go to the Plugins tab in your WordPress dashboard and select Add New. Click the Upload Plugin button and select the plugin file from your completer. Click Install Now and then the Activate button to proceed.
Step #2: Set up a product to sell gift cards
Next, it's time to create your gift certificate product.
Go to the Products tab from the WordPress admin panel and click the Add New button. Enter the product details as usual:
Scroll down to the Product data section, set the product type to Simple Product, and check the box to Virtual if you’re selling digital gift certificates. You can also set it up as a variable product if you want to use variations as well as other types of product options for selling the gift cards.
Step #3: Add gift card options
Now you've created a gift card product, it's time to add all the fields that you need relating to your gift cards:
- Head over to Products → Product Options.
- Create a group.
- Select your gift card product. Alternatively, select one of your product categories to add gift certificate options to multiple products.
- Next, add various options for your gift card.
For example, you might want to add:
- Amount – using a number field or a dropdown list of pre-set amounts
- Type – digital or physical
- Recipient’s address – using a text field or a selectable list of previous addresses
You can add more options if you’d like, for example, a text field to let customers enter a personalized gift card message or greeting.
Step #4: Process and fulfill gift card orders
When a customer purchases a gift certificate, they will see the details on the cart and checkout. The order will also appear in your WooCommerce dashboard just like any other order. You can manage the different gift card orders from this screen.
Conclusion
Offering gift certificates is a smart move for online stores that are looking to increase sales, grow their customer base, and build customer loyalty. There are plenty of WooCommerce gift certificate plugins out there to help you manage the process of creating and selling gift cards, each with its own unique features and options.
The WooCommerce Product Options plugin stands out for its versatility and user-friendliness. It makes it incredibly easy to create a gift card product for your online store, create custom fields and pricing rules, and display options on the product page. This is what makes WooCommerce Product Options a top choice for store owners.
The other plugins we covered in this list also offer valuable features and are definitely worth considering depending on the specific needs of your online store. Whether you’re looking to sell physical gift cards, digital gift certificates, or both, there’s a plugin on this list that can help you get started.
With the right WooCommerce gift card plugin, the process of creating and selling gift cards becomes seamless and hassle-free.
Ready to start selling gift certificates? Get WooCommerce Product Options today!