Custom Reports to Track Shopify Gift Card Usage & Trends

Have you ever wondered how many of your gift cards are being used? Tracking gift card sales and redemptions in Shopify is crucial for managing revenue, refunds, and customer engagement. If not, you're in the right place!

A gift card is a prepaid digital or physical voucher that customers can use instead of cash. It is an excellent business strategy for boosting sales and improving customer retention.

‍Shopify Gift Cards can be used in two key ways:

• Customers can buy a gift card to gift someone else, just like any other product.
• Customers can use a gift card to redeem it for purchases or as store credit during refunds.

Each gift card has a specific value, known as a denomination. The denomination can range from $0 to USD 10,000 (or the equivalent in your local currency).

How Shopify Gift Cards Work

Gift cards provide a flexible payment method that enhances the shopping experience while benefiting businesses. Here’s how they are commonly used for:

1. Gift Cards as Refunds

Instead of issuing cash refunds, businesses can provide store credit in the form of a gift card. This approach helps retain revenue while still allowing customers to get their money’s worth.

‍2. Order Adjustments and Fixes

Mistakes happen, whether it's shipping the wrong item or a delay in delivery. Gift cards can be used as compensation to retain customer trust and satisfaction.

3. Gift Card Expiry Dates

Businesses have the option to set an expiration date or allow gift cards to remain valid indefinitely, providing flexibility based on their sales strategy.

‍4. Gift Cards and Shipping Charges

When a gift card is applied at checkout, it covers the final order total, including shipping costs and taxes. This ensures a seamless purchasing experience for customers.

Shopify Gift Card Reports: Pros and Cons

While Shopify provides various reports, its standard sales reports do not include gift card transactions by default. However, Shopify does allow merchants to track gift cards separately.

What Shopify Gift Card Reports Include:

• Gift card codes—The first four and last four digits of your gift card can provide details like redemption, activeness, and expiry date.
• Usage Statistics- Monitor how many people have redeemed specific gift cards and by whom.
• Track Gift Card transactions: Use Shopify’s API to see how many times a specific gift card has been redeemed. 

Limitations of Shopify’s Native Reports:

• Shopify build in-sales reports exclude gift card transactions by default, which requires merchants to fetch the data manually. 
• Limited insights on redemption trends and balances- it lacks advanced filters to analyze repeat customers, redemption frequency, and gift card usage. 
• Lack of advanced analytics for tracking refund usage- It does not tell you how many times a particular gift card is being redeemed across different product categories.

Because of these gaps, many Shopify store owners turn to third-party reporting apps for a more detailed and customizable analysis of gift card sales and usage.

Why You Need a Shopify Gift Card Reporting App

A third-party gift card reporting tool provides deeper insights, giving you complete control over gift card tracking, report scheduling, and analysis. Here’s how it can help you:

1. Track Gift Card Usage & Status

You can easily monitor whether a gift card is active, used, partially redeemed, or expired. You can also see how many times a single card has been used across multiple orders.

2. Analyze Original vs. Current Balance

View the initial value and remaining balance of each gift card, ensuring accurate financial tracking and transparency for both the business and the customer.

3. Schedule or Export Custom Reports

Unlike Shopify’s limited built-in reporting, advanced reporting tools allow you to automatically schedule to export gift card data in formats such as CSV and spreadsheets (XLSX).

You can export:

• The current status of gift cards
• All gift cards available in your store

4. Customization & Advanced Insights

With a reporting app, you can filter and customize reports based on:

• Gift card details (code, recipient, date issued)- You can track specific gift cards and which ones are active, deactivated, or partially used.
• Expiry dates (if applicable)- This helps you to decide whether you want to keep expiry dates for your gift cards or not. 
• Transaction history- This allows you to track full redemptions, partial redemption, and the remaining balance of your gift cards. 
• Customer activity related to gift card redemptions- Helps you to track when your gift card has been used and how frequently gift cards are used.

By using an advanced reporting app, you gain better financial insights, and improve customer satisfaction, and your gift card strategy.

Conclusion

Shopify Gift Card Reports provide crucial insights into gift card sales, refunds, and customer usage trends. With the right reporting tools, businesses can:

• Track gift card sales trends to understand usage patterns
• Manage refunds and order adjustments efficiently
• Export detailed data for accounting and business analysis
• Improve customer experience by offering seamless, customized gift card options

Need detailed Shopify Gift Card reports with advanced analytics?