Gift Cards for Shops and Independent Retailers
An independent shop can sell plastic gift cards in three ways: printed with a fixed value such as £10 or £25, with any amount written on at the till, or with any amount loaded on a till that has a gift card feature. The first two need nothing from your till, just a number on every card and a register.
This guide is for shop owners: boutiques, gift shops, bookshops, delis, farm shops, DIY and pet shops, and small chains. We supply the cards, printed in England, from 25 cards. Prices and the full range are on our plastic gift cards page, and our gift card printing guide covers every set-up in detail.
The short versionDecide whether each card has its value printed, written on or loaded on your till. Ask your till supplier whether it accepts gift cards printed elsewhere, and what code it needs on them. Hang the cards by the till in euro slot carriers. Use the same cards for store credit when customers change their mind. Order well before Christmas.
Should a shop print the value on its gift cards, or load it at the till?
Print the value if you want cards customers can pick from a display and your till has no gift card feature. Load it on the till if you want one design for any amount and your till can hold the balances. Writing the amount on at the till sits in between: any amount, with no till feature.
| Value printed on the card | Amount written on at the till | Amount loaded on the till | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What your till needs | Nothing | Nothing | A gift card feature that takes cards printed elsewhere |
| On each card | The value, and its own number | A write-on panel for the amount, and its own number | Its own number, in the format your till asks for |
| How you keep track | A register of the numbers you sell | A register of numbers and amounts | Your till holds each balance |
| Designs to order | One for each value, each quoted, from 25 cards | One | One |
| Best for | A display of set values by the till | Any amount, on any till | Any amount, with each balance kept for you |
Many businesses sell two kinds side by side, such as printed values on the display and one design for other amounts. Whichever you choose, give every card its own number, so it can only be spent once. A gift card register can be a notebook or a spreadsheet.
Our gift card printing guide explains each set-up in more detail, and a fourth for a named item, such as a hamper. If your town runs a shared gift card that can be spent in many local shops, your own card can sit beside it: yours is only spent with you.
Which shop tills accept printed gift cards?
Shopify POS, Lightspeed Retail, SumUp and Zettle all describe ways to use printed cards, each with its own rules for the code. Square sells only its own cards as Square gift cards, and Epos Now adds gift cards through apps. We read each system’s help pages in October and November 2026. Features change, so check with your till supplier before you order.
| Till | What its help pages say |
|---|---|
| Shopify POS | Cards from another supplier work if each has its own printed code of 8 to 20 letters and numbers, which staff type in. The setting for physical gift cards is switched on in the POS editor. See gift cards for Shopify POS. |
| Square | Only plastic cards ordered through Square can be loaded, sold or accepted as Square gift cards. A card from another supplier can be recorded with a custom payment method, but Square doesn’t hold its balance. Using your own card numbers in Square’s gift card system needs a developer or an app. See plastic gift cards and Square. |
| Lightspeed Retail | Staff scan or type the card’s code when they sell it. Lightspeed advises random codes rather than numbers in sequence, which are easy to guess. On R-Series, a code is 8 to 32 digits long. On X-Series, Lightspeed recommends Code 128 barcodes and codes of at least eight characters. |
| Epos Now | Gift cards come from apps such as VoucherCart, which finds a physical card by its QR code or card ID and can use your own list of codes. Ask whether it takes cards printed elsewhere. |
| SumUp | SumUp Gift Cards take cards printed elsewhere: sell each one as a Classic card, and staff scan or type its own code. On SumUp POS Pro, gift cards are only recorded against a typed code, and their balances aren’t kept. |
| Zettle (PayPal Point of Sale) | You create the codes in your Zettle account and download them as a file to send with your order. The app’s camera reads EAN, UPC and QR codes, and a card can hold £1 to £1,000. |
For any other till, ask whether it accepts cards printed elsewhere, whether staff scan or type the code, and what format the code has to be. Our guides to gift cards with barcodes and printed cards and tills go further.
Whatever the till, print each card’s own number large enough for staff to type in, with a barcode as well if your till scans.
- The card’s own number, big enough to type in. Numbers in order are easy to guess, so ask your till supplier whether to use random ones, and how long they should be.
- The same number as a barcode, if your till scans. Our guide to gift cards with barcodes covers the types and sizes.
- How it works, in one line.
- A write-on panel for the valid-until date, filled in at the till. If your cards expire, the date must be clear and the terms fair: see gift card VAT and expiry rules.
- Your terms in brief, and where to read them in full. Our gift card terms and conditions page has wording to copy.
How do I sell gift cards from a hook by the till?
Put each card in a euro slot carrier and hang the carriers on a hook by the till.
- The euro slot, die cut at the top, so the carrier hangs on a hook or a spinner.
- Die cut slits hold the card.
- A line on how it works, such as choosing the amount at the till.
- The card, with its own number on the back.
Make sure a card on the hook is worth nothing until it’s sold. Record each number when you sell it, or load it on your till, and check the number when the card is spent. Then a card taken from the hook without paying won’t be on your register.
Euro slot carriers start at £79.00 +vat for 25, printed with your own design. Carriers are produced alongside your cards and quoted with them as one job, and our design service can set up the carrier and the card together. For cards sold over the counter rather than from a display, a landscape wallet takes a handwritten message and fits a standard envelope. Our page on card carriers and wallets has every format and its prices.
Tell people at the door too, with a small sign in the window or by the entrance saying you sell gift cards. Many people still buy gift cards in person: in the Gift Card & Voucher Association’s State of the Nation 2025 report, nearly half (48.8%) of gift card buyers had bought at least one physical gift card in a shop in the first half of 2025. Our gift card display ideas cover hooks, stands and windows in more depth.
Can I give store credit on a gift card instead of a credit note?
Yes, when a customer changes their mind: you don’t have to refund an item bought in your shop just because they no longer want it, so your own returns policy can offer store credit on a gift card. It’s different when goods are faulty: if a refund is owed, it goes back the way the customer paid, unless they expressly agree to something else.
| The return | What applies |
|---|---|
| Bought in your shop, and the customer has changed their mind | No legal right to a refund. Your policy decides: an exchange, store credit on a gift card or a refund. |
| Faulty, not as described or doesn’t do what it should | A refund, if one is owed, goes back by the same means of payment the customer used, unless they expressly agree otherwise, for example to store credit. |
| Bought online, by phone or by mail order | The customer can usually cancel within 14 days of receiving it, even if nothing is wrong, and must be refunded by the same means of payment unless they expressly agreed otherwise. Some goods, such as perishable or personalised items, only have to be refunded if faulty. |
So make it clear in your policy that store credit is for change-of-mind returns, and that it doesn’t affect refunds for faulty goods. It’s illegal to mislead customers about their rights, for example with a sign saying you don’t give refunds. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guidance on unfair terms (July 2026) also names allowing only credit notes, rather than cash refunds, as an example of a term that can keep customers from their legal remedies.
On a numbered card, store credit works like any other balance: record the number and the amount in your register, or load it on your till. Use your gift cards, or order a second design printed Store credit, like the cards at the top of this page, so staff can tell the two apart. Unlike a paper credit note, it’s a plastic card the size of a bank card, and the print on our full colour PVC cards can’t scratch or wear off. If your cards expire, the date must be clear and the terms fair.
This is general information, not legal advice. GOV.UK’s guide to accepting returns and giving refunds has more, and our gift card terms and conditions page has wording to copy.
Can a gift card bought in the shop be spent on my website?
Only if your till and your website share one gift card system, so both can find the same card and its balance. Shopify is the clearest example: a printed card sold on Shopify POS can be spent in the shop or online, where the customer types its code at checkout.
If your till and website are separate, a card sold in the shop can only be spent in the shop, so say so on the card. Square, Shopify, SumUp and Zettle can also sell digital gift cards, so customers can choose either: our guide to digital vs plastic gift cards compares the two.
A code that can be spent online works like cash once the card is sold. On a Shopify card it’s printed openly, because staff type it in when they sell the card. If customers spend your cards online by typing a secret code, the code can go under a scratch-off panel, with the card’s number left on show. Our guide to gift card codes in Excel or CSV shows how to send them.
When do shops sell the most gift cards?
Around Christmas. The Gift Card & Voucher Association’s report on the second half of 2023, compiled by KPMG, says sales of physical gift cards always rise around Christmas, because they’re convenient and suit giving as a present. Gift cards also sell in waves at Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Birthdays sell cards all year round. In the association’s State of the Nation 2025 report, 66% of gift card buyers had bought one as a birthday present in the past 12 months, and 45% for Christmas. So keep cards on show all year, not just in December.
Order well before each busy time, and the carriers with the cards, because they’re produced alongside the card order. Ask us for this year’s last order dates before Christmas at sales@cpcards.co.uk. Our guide to Christmas gift cards for your business has more on the run-up.
What should a shop order, and how much does it cost?
Most small businesses start with 100 to 250 cards, from £85.00 +vat for 100 or £109.00 +vat for 250, before any extras. A shop’s order might include:
- Gift cards: one design for any amount, or one design for each printed value, at least 25 of each.
- A number on every card, from a start number you choose or your till’s own codes in an Excel or CSV file, with a barcode if your till scans.
- A write-on panel for the valid-until date, and for the amount if staff write it on.
- Euro slot carriers to hang by the till, or landscape wallets for cards sold over the counter.
- A finish: High Gloss is included, and Premium Matt is £20 +vat per order.
Numbers, barcodes and write-on panels are priced on your quote. Email sales@cpcards.co.uk or use our gift card quote form, and tell us your till, the values or amounts you’ll sell and how many cards you need. We often reply within minutes, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Send your artwork at 92 x 60mm, which includes 3mm of bleed all round, or your logo and wording for our £29 +vat design service. The cards are 86 x 54mm and 760 microns thick, printed in full colour on both sides, then bonded between clear PVC sheets and cut, so the print can’t scratch or wear off.
Every order gets a free email proof, so you can check the layout and wording before anything is printed. The colours on the proof are a guide only, because every screen shows colour differently. If a colour has to be right, add a postal proof.
Production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability.
How much do shop gift cards cost?
Gift cards start at £75.00 +vat for 25, and the price per card falls as the quantity goes up, because much of the work in an order is the same whatever the quantity.
| Quantity | Price from |
|---|---|
| 25 | £75.00 +vat £3.00 each |
| 50 | £79.00 +vat £1.58 each |
| 100 | £85.00 +vat 85p each |
| 200 | £99.00 +vat 49.5p each |
| 250 | £109.00 +vat 43.6p each |
| 500 | £175.00 +vat 35p each |
| 1,000 | £245.00 +vat 24.5p each |
Prices are for one design from your print-ready artwork. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. They exclude VAT and extras such as barcodes and numbering, which are priced on your quote. Carrier prices are on our card carriers and wallets page.
Questions & Answers
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What kind of gift card should a small shop sell?
Shops usually sell cards printed with a fixed value, such as £10, £25 or £50, or one design for any amount. Printed values suit a display by the till and need only a number on each card and a register. Any amount can be written on at the till, or loaded on a till with a gift card feature that holds each balance.
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Do I need a till with a gift card feature to sell gift cards?
No. Cards printed with a value, or with a write-on panel for the amount, work with any till. Give every card its own number, record each one in a register when it’s sold, and check the register when it’s spent. You only need a gift card feature if you want your till to hold each card’s balance.
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Which shop tills accept gift cards from another supplier?
When we read their help pages in November 2026, Shopify POS, Lightspeed Retail, SumUp Gift Cards and Zettle all described ways to use printed cards, with a code that staff type or scan. Square sells only its own cards as Square gift cards, though others can be recorded as a custom payment, and Epos Now adds gift cards through apps such as VoucherCart. Check with your till supplier before you order.
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Can I use printed gift cards with Square?
Not as Square gift cards. Square’s UK help says only plastic gift cards ordered through Square can be loaded, sold or accepted as Square gift cards in Square POS. A card from another supplier can be recorded with a custom payment method, but Square doesn’t hold its balance, so you’d keep a register of balances yourself. Using your own card numbers in Square’s gift card system needs a developer or an app.
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Can I give store credit on a gift card instead of a credit note?
Yes, when customers change their mind about something bought in your shop: you don’t have to refund it, so your policy can offer store credit on a gift card. If goods are faulty and a refund is owed, it goes back the way the customer paid, unless they expressly agree otherwise. This is general information, not legal advice.
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Can a gift card bought in my shop be spent on my website?
Only if your till and your website share one gift card system. With Shopify, for example, a printed card sold on Shopify POS can be spent in the shop or online, where the customer types its code at checkout. If your till and website are separate, say on the card that it’s for use in the shop.
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When should a shop order gift cards for Christmas?
Well before the Christmas rush, because sales of physical gift cards rise around Christmas. Production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability. Ask us for this year’s last order dates at sales@cpcards.co.uk.
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Where can I get gift cards printed for my shop in the UK?
CP Cards supplies them, printed in England. Our minimum order is 25 cards, from £75.00 +vat. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. Every order gets a free email proof, so you can check the layout and wording before anything is printed. For a quote, email sales@cpcards.co.uk or use our quote form.
Ready to order gift cards for your shop?
Tell us which till you use, the values you’d like to sell and how many cards you need. We’ll quote by email, often within minutes, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.