Coming November 2026
Complimentary gift cards let you send a free gift card to your existing customers to thank them, win them back, or encourage their next purchase. There's no payment or purchase involved. You send it, and your customer gets a branded gift card by email to spend with you. You can set this up to automatically send after they make a purchase, to thank them for previous purchases, for birthdays and anything else you want.
This is completely separate to the gift card purchase flow that you currently have where someone buys gift cards for their friends and family. Complimentary gift cards are sent by you and your team to help drive more sales, in lieu of refunds, as a thank you tool or any reason you want really!
Who it's for
Businesses that want more repeat business from the customers they already have or to draw in potential customers. For example, a café thanking its regulars, a salon winning back clients who haven't booked in a while, or an online store sending a gift card after a purchase so customers come back for the next one, or share it with their friends and family.
How it works
Turn on Complimentary gift cards in Settings > Integrations and save a payment card.
Go to Complimentary gift cards in the menu and click Send a complimentary gift card.
Choose a design and currency, then add your customer's name and email, the gift card amount, an optional personal note (for example, "Thanks for being a loyal customer!"), and when they should get it. You can send it now or schedule it for a later date.
Click Preview gift card. Nothing is sent until you confirm on the next page, where you click Send gift card now or Schedule gift card.
What your customer gets
Your customer gets an email from your business with their gift card, the amount, the expiry date (if you set one) and your instructions on how to use it. They redeem it just like any other Cardivo gift card, in person or through your connected checkout. If they spend less than the full amount, the rest stays on the gift card for next time.
Every email includes an unsubscribe link.
Customers who unsubscribe won't get complimentary gift cards from any business using Cardivo, and Cardivo won't let you send them one. Gift cards they already have keep working.
Settings
Expiry: You can add an expiry period in days, counted from the date each gift card is sent, to encourage customers to use it sooner. This is separate to the expiry period for standard purchased gift cards.
Terms: show or hide gift card terms. The default terms say the gift card was issued free of charge and has no cash value.
How to use the gift card: add your own redemption instructions.
Designs: complimentary gift cards use the same designs as your other gift cards.
See what it brings in
The Complimentary gift cards dashboard shows how many gift cards you've sent, how many converted to a sale, the total and net transaction value, the value redeemed, and the value not yet redeemed. A gift card counts as redeemed / converted as soon as your customer uses any of it.
Send them automatically
As well as sending from your Cardivo dashboard, you can send complimentary gift cards automatically through Zapier, Paythen payment plans or via any custom flow using our easy Cardivo API.
What it costs
There's nothing to pay upfront and no monthly fee. We only charge our 5% fee when your customer redeems the gift card, on the value they use, charged to a payment card on file.
Here's what a $100 complimentary gift card costs you if it is redeemed:
When you send it: $0
While it's unused: $0. If your customer never uses it, you never pay.
When it's redeemed: $5 (5% of the $100 your customer uses)
The most you'll ever pay on a $100 complimentary gift card is $5. If your customer only uses part of it, you pay 5% of what they use.
Complimentary gift cards are designed for sending to individual customers, not for bulk marketing.
Coming November 2026. Add your email here to get notified when it's live, or let us know via the chat icon.