Gift card promotion ideas for the holidays: five on-site messages for your Shopify store

Gift cards are the gift that still works after your last shipping date. A shopper who misses the cutoff for a parcel can still buy one on 23 December and have something to give. The catch is that a gift card on a single product page is easy to miss unless shoppers already know it exists.

This guide gives you five gift card promotion ideas for your Shopify store, each built from on-site messages: what to say, which page to show it on and when to switch it on and off. You will also see a worked example, the plan each step needs and what this setup does not do.

Why gift cards need their own moment on your store

Much gift card advice is written for shops with a counter, where the card sits by the till. Online, there is no till. Shoppers find the gift card through your menu, your search or a message that points to it at the right time, and the right time is narrow: the last days before the holiday, when your other products can no longer arrive.

That makes timing the main job. A gift card message that shows all season competes with your Black Friday offer. One that shows only after your shipping cutoff answers the question late shoppers actually have: what can I still buy that will be ready in time? If you have not set up the gift card itself yet, start with how Shopify gift cards work.

Idea 1: a gift card message in your store's feed

A NotiFeed message sits in the feed shoppers open from the bell on your store. It is on every plan. Write a short title that names the problem it solves, add a button and point the Button link at your gift card product page.

Before and after, for the same store:

• Before: "Gift cards available. Shop now."
• After: "Missed the shipping cutoff? A digital gift card arrives by email, any amount from $25." Button: "Choose an amount".

The second version tells the shopper why it matters today and what happens after they buy. On Starter (Free) you have one active NotiFeed campaign with one message, so edit your current message or pause that campaign before you add this one. On Scale and Enterprise+, a campaign can hold up to six messages, so the gift card message can sit next to your sale news. See NotiFeed for what the feed shows.

Idea 2: a NotiPop on the pages late shoppers visit

Late shoppers often look for delivery dates first. A NotiPop is a small message that appears over the page without blocking it, and targeting rules decide where it shows. Targeting is on every plan.

Add a Page URL rule that Contains the path of your shipping page, such as /pages/shipping, so the message shows to shoppers reading about delivery times. Then choose when it appears with Appear after: a short delay, a scroll depth or a spell of inactivity. Leave cart rules off this one: a NotiPop waiting on a cart rule shows as soon as the rule matches and skips Appear after. Once a shopper closes or clicks the NotiPop, it doesn't show again on later pages in that browser. Give it a button that opens the gift card product page. A NotiPop has no form and can't apply a discount code, so keep the message to the facts: delivery by email, the amounts you sell and the button. Read how targeting rules work before you combine them.

Idea 3: switch the message on at your cutoff and off on Christmas Eve

The gift card message has a start date and an end date, and both are known in advance. On Scale and Enterprise+, the Schedule tab gives a campaign a start and end, so it goes live and stops on its own.

Set the start to the hour after your last shipping date for standard delivery, and the end to the evening of 24 December. Times use the time zone of the computer you schedule from, so convert them if that differs from your store's. A schedule belongs to the whole campaign, not to each message, so put the gift card message in its own campaign. On Starter (Free) there is no Schedule tab and only one NotiFeed campaign can be active: change your message by hand on both dates, and set yourself a reminder. The scheduling guide covers the rules.

Idea 4: name the people gift cards are for

"Gift card" is a format, not a reason. Messages that name the recipient give the shopper the reason:

• "For the friend who returns everything: let them pick."
• "For teachers, coaches and hosts: a gift card in any amount."
• "Buying for someone far away? Email the card straight to them."

The last line only works if your gift card setup lets buyers send the card to a recipient, so check that in Shopify first. If you run a holiday gift guide, add the gift card as the last option in it, for shoppers who still can't decide.

Idea 5: welcome gift card holders in the last week of December

After the holiday, the people arriving include recipients who are spending a card. Atomato can't tell who holds a gift card, so write a message that works for everyone: "New this week, and everything you can spend a gift card on." Link it to a collection of new or restocked products. Keep it in the feed rather than over the page, since these shoppers came to browse.

A worked example: a candle store

A candle store on Scale has a last standard shipping date of 17 December. Its plan:

1. One NotiFeed campaign, scheduled from 18 December 00:00 to 24 December 20:00, with the "Missed the shipping cutoff?" message linking to the gift card product page.
2. One NotiPop campaign over the same dates, targeted with Page URL Contains /pages/shipping, appearing after the shopper scrolls 50% of the page.
3. A second NotiFeed message, scheduled from 26 to 31 December in its own campaign, pointing gift card holders to new arrivals.

To see what worked, open each campaign's summary page. A click to the gift card product page opens a 6-hour window, and gift cards added to the cart in that window count toward the message's revenue if the shopper checks out in the same browser within 30 days. Only the first checkout after the click counts, and a click on another message replaces this one. See how revenue is attributed.

What this setup does not do

• It doesn't create bonus offers such as "buy a $50 card, get $10". Set those up in Shopify or your gift card app, then announce them on-site.
• Cart value rules count gift cards in the cart total, and there is no way to exclude them. Keep that in mind if a free shipping message uses a cart value rule.
• Messages don't show on Shopify checkout or the thank-you page, and they can't be targeted by location.
• Atomato doesn't send the gift card email. Shopify does that.

Next step

Look up your last shipping date, write the gift card message and schedule it to start the hour after. For the rest of the season, the Black Friday on-site plan and the BFCM page show how this fits with your sale messages.

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