How can I use gift cards with the system?

[BHBBQ]

How can I use gift cards with the system? I need to be able to put $ on them and then use them when redeemed?

 

 

Thanks,

[Andy]

Hello. 
 

Unfortunately, Loyverse POS does not have the functionality to deal with gift cards, but some workaround is possible.

In the Back office, it is possible to add points to the customer manually. You can create a new customer, let's call it "Gift card 22", assign it a Customer code (which is printed on the gift card).

You can enter new points balance in the pop-up ‘Edit points balance’ form and click ‘Adjust’.

Note, that 100 point is equal to the 1.00 money value.

And when the customer gives you the gift card, you can scan it to add it to the ticket; the points will be redeemed for the assigned discount. 

Check: How to Redeem Customer Points for a Discount

[Catpants]

On 2/16/2021 at 6:46 AM, Andy said:

In the Back office, it is possible to add points to the customer manually. You can create a new customer, let's call it "Gift card 22", assign it a Customer code (which is printed on the gift card).

You can enter new points balance in the pop-up ‘Edit points balance’ form and click ‘Adjust’.

Note, that 100 point is equal to the 1.00 money value.

And when the customer gives you the gift card, you can scan it to add it to the ticket; the points will be redeemed for the assigned discount. 

Check: How to Redeem Customer Points for a Discount

Gift Certificate purchases are supposed to be tax free. The problem with this method is that the "Gift Certificate" is treated as a discount, which subtracts the sales tax. Therefore, sales tax is never paid on orders where a gift certificate is redeemed. A gift certificate feature would be nice.

[Starup]

I love the gift card feature as well. Convenience to make more profits (customers sometimes forget to redeem the gift cards) and remind customers to come back to use our service.

[Catpants]

Due to inventory and sales tax issues with Andy's workaround above, our shop started using another method. It's definitely less than optimal, and a legit Gift Card system is needed.

1. We added a new payment type under Other called "Gift Certificate".
2. When a customer purchases a Gift Certificate we still create a customer and manually add reward points (though you could just as easily keep a log on paper or a text document).
3. When a customer pays with a Gift Certificate, we do a split payment between the payment type "Gift Certificate" and whatever else they're paying with. We also tie the Gift Certificate customer to the order.
4. We manually remove the reward points from the Gift Certificate customer (or log it on paper/text document).

Pros...

• All sales tax is now accounted for.
• Since we're not redeeming points, discounts aren't used, and do not effect sales metrics of items/categories.
• Customers can pay with multiple gift cards on one order.

Cons...

• Net Sales and Gross Profit on the Sales Summary over-report your earnings. To find our real earnings we have to go to "Sales by Payment Type", add "Cash" and "SumUp" together, and go to "Sales Tax" and subtract that. We do miss our line graphs.
• To make sure a customer isn't committing gift certificate fraud, you have to check that the Gift Certificate has rewards points/a balance before ringing up the sale.
• It's overall a very cumbersome process.

Simple solution that the Loyverse Team could implement in the Interim...

1. Add a payment type category called "Gift Certificate".
2. Have all payments via "Gift Certificate" not add anything to Net Sales and Gross Profit. (of course, they need to be added to an individual item/category's profits).

This solution wouldn't fix the cumbersome process, but it would make our lack of a gift certificate feature bearable.

Edit: Another solution could be Sid and Allison's request in this thread: 

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Catpants