Guide
Launching a gift card programme
Most of a gift card programme is four decisions made in the first hour, and they are the ones that are awkward to change once cards are in people's phones. Here they are, in the order they actually come up.
Updated
At a glance
- Time to live
- 3–5 business days
- Hard to reverse
- Denominations, expiry, redemption scope
- Easy to change
- Design, promotions, sale channels
- Issuance cost
- Free per card
Updated
The four decisions
Denominations. Fixed amounts are simpler to sell and to reconcile; an open amount converts better online. Offering both is normal, but it doubles the reporting you will look at.
Expiry. Where local law allows it, expiry turns unspent balance into recognised revenue on a schedule you control. Where it does not, plan for balances that sit for years.
Redemption scope. Every location, or some of them? A franchised network usually has to answer this before it can answer anything else, because it decides who owes whom.
Who funds the promotion. “Buy $100, get $110” is a marketing cost that lands on somebody's P&L. Decide whose before the first campaign, not during the first reconciliation.
- A promotional bonus is recorded as a separate ledger entry, so margin stays reportable.
- Partial redemption is on by default: the remainder stays on the card.
- Balances are visible to the customer without asking a cashier, which is what gets them spent.
The sequence
- 01
Make the four decisions
Denominations, expiry, redemption scope and who funds promotions.
- 02
Design the card
Branding and the fields shown on the pass — an afternoon, not a project.
- 03
Turn on the sale channels
Till first, then the online widget, then bulk issuance for corporate buyers.
- 04
Train the counter
Issuing and redeeming are one screen each.
- 05
Sell into a campaign
Launch alongside something that already has attention, not into silence.
- 06
Read the first month
Issuance, redemption rate and remaining balance, per location.
What to watch after launch
- Redemption rate
- The share of issued value actually spent
- Time to first spend
- Long gaps usually mean the balance is not visible enough
- Average top-up
- Whether gift buyers are becoming regulars
- Breakage
- Unspent balance, per programme and period
- Channel mix
- Till versus online, once both are live
- Promotion cost
- Bonus value issued against real money taken
Questions about this
What is a closed-loop payment platform?
It lets you issue and process payments inside your own ecosystem — gift cards, prepaid balances, employee accounts — without routing every transaction through Visa, Mastercard or a bank. The funds stay in your system, so the fees, the data and the customer experience are yours to set.
Do my customers need to install an app?
No. Cards issue straight to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, which are already on every phone. The customer scans a QR code with the camera, taps “Add to Wallet”, and the card is there in about ten seconds. No download, no account, no registration form.
Does it work with my existing POS terminal?
Yes. The cashier enters the amount on the terminal you already run, the terminal shows a QR code, and the customer scans it with their own phone. That works on any terminal that can draw a QR on screen, which covers modern PAX, Verifone and Ingenico fleets. If there is no terminal at all, staff can run the same flow from a phone.
Do you handle online payments too, or just POS?
Both, on one balance. There is a checkout widget for merchant sites and a direct embedding into PSP gateways as a payment method. One admin panel, one transaction ledger, one reporting stream — offline and online together.
How does 7Konto embed into a PSP checkout?
7Konto appears as a new payment method inside your existing checkout, next to the cards and wallets you already offer. Every merchant on that gateway sees “Pay with 7Konto” without changing a line on their own site: we integrate once with the gateway, and the whole portfolio has it.
Start a pilot and launch inside the month
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