How gift cards work

A Zillo gift card is a unique code with a balance. A customer buys one at your checkout, receives it by email, and spends it either in person or online at your store. They don't have to use it all at once — they can spend $20 today and the remaining $30 next visit, and the balance keeps drawing down until it's gone.

Every gift card you sell shows up in Gift cards, where you can search by code, recipient name, or email, and see the running totals you need for your bookkeeping.

What a gift card looks like

Each card has a code in the format G-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. The customer gets this code in their confirmation email along with:

• The starting balance they paid for.
• An expiry date, if you've set one (many stores leave gift cards with no expiry — see the linked article below).
• Apple Wallet and Google Wallet buttons so they can save the card to their phone and pull up the QR code at the counter.

When a customer buys one

After payment clears, the customer is emailed their card automatically. The new card appears immediately in Gift cards with a status of Active (or Scheduled, if it's set for future delivery).

The two ways customers redeem

In person. Open the Redemptions console (or the Redeem tab in the Zillo mobile app) and scan the customer's QR code — or type the code by hand. Enter the amount to take off the card, confirm, and you're done. Any leftover balance stays on the card for next time.

Online at your store. The customer enters their gift card code in the code field at your checkout. The balance comes off the order total; if money is left over, it stays on the card.

The balance updates instantly and can never go negative, even if two staff members try to redeem the same card at the same moment.

1. Open the customer's card. Scan the QR from their email or wallet pass, or type the G-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX code into Redemptions.
2. Enter the amount to redeem. This is the amount of their purchase you want to cover with the card — it doesn't have to be the full balance.
3. Confirm. The balance drops, the transaction is logged, and the remaining balance is shown on screen.

Comping a card without charging

You can hand out a gift card without taking payment — for a refund alternative, a loyalty reward, or a giveaway. Create a manual sale, add your gift card product, set the value, and mark it as a comp. The recipient gets the same branded email and wallet pass as a paying customer would. To issue a whole list of cards at once, use the bulk importer instead (see the linked article below).

Promotional bonus credit

A gift card product can include a bonus tier — "Spend $50, get $10 free", for example. The bonus is added on top of what the customer paid and shows in their balance history as a separate line, so it's clear what they bought versus what you gifted.

Checking a balance

Customers can check a balance themselves at your-store.zillo.app/balance — they enter their code and see the current balance, the original amount, and the expiry date if there is one.

You can look up any card from Gift cards by searching for the code, recipient name, or buyer's email. Click a code to open it in the redemption console and see its full transaction history.

Reading the totals

The three figures at the top of Gift cards are worth understanding:

• Total issued — the lifetime value of every card you've sold or comped.
• Redeemed by customers — how much of that has been spent.
• Outstanding liability — the balance still sitting on active cards. This is what you'd owe customers if every card were spent today, and it's the number your accountant will want.

Next steps