How to Set Up Gift Cards in GoHighLevel (Complete Tutorial + Hidden Gotcha)
GoHighLevel just released a brand new end-to-end gift card system, and it's a solid addition to the platform. You can now sell gift cards on your website or as a standalone page, and customers can redeem them at checkout.
In this guide, I'll walk you through everything from creating your first gift card to handling redemptions. I'll also share a gotcha that took me 45 minutes to figure out. Support couldn't solve it. I finally found the answer buried in a Facebook comment. That tip alone will save you a ton of frustration.
How to Set Up Gift Cards in GoHighLevel
Watch "How to Set Up Gift Cards in GoHighLevel" on YouTube
What the Gift Card System Includes
For a first version, GoHighLevel did a great job. The system covers the full gift card lifecycle:
Selling Gift Cards
You can offer gift cards at fixed values ($25, $50, $100) or create promotional gift cards with special pricing. Customers purchase through a dedicated page that you can embed on your website or share as a standalone link.
Gift Card Delivery
When someone purchases a gift card, they choose whether it's for themselves or someone else. If it's a gift, they enter the recipient's email and the gift card gets delivered directly to that person.
Redemption at Checkout
Customers can apply gift cards to any order form or checkout page. The system deducts the gift card balance from their total. If the gift card doesn't cover the full amount, they pay the difference. If there's remaining balance, it stays on the card for future use.
If you're new to GoHighLevel and want to follow along, you can start a free 14-day trial here.
Creating Your First Gift Card
Let's walk through the setup process step by step.
Step 1: Access the Gift Card Settings
Navigate to Payments, then Gift Cards in your dashboard. You'll see the gift card management area where you can create and track all your gift cards.
Step 2: Create a New Gift Card
Click "Create Gift Card" and fill in the basic information:
Gift Card Name: Choose something descriptive. For a microblading studio, you might use "Microblading Gift Card" or "Holiday Special Gift Card."
Description: You have up to 200 characters to describe the gift card. Use this to explain what services it can be used for or any special terms.
Expiration Date: This is when the gift card expires after purchase, not when it stops being available for sale. If you want gift cards to be valid for one year, set the expiration accordingly. Leave it blank for no expiration.
Terms and Conditions: Add any redemption rules here. I recommend including a link to your booking or checkout page so recipients know exactly where to use their gift card.
Step 3: Set Your Gift Card Values
Add the denominations you want to offer. Traditional setups might include $25, $50, $100, and $200 options. For promotional gift cards, you might offer a single value like a $500 gift card sold at a discount.
Step 4: Upload Your Gift Card Image
This is where you design how the gift card looks when delivered to customers.
Image Specifications:
The gift card displays with your uploaded image as the background. Keep these things in mind:
Use a clean design that works at various sizes
Avoid putting important text near the edges
The system mirrors the image for the back of the card, so don't include text or logos that would look reversed
I learned that last point the hard way. My first design had an address on it, and on the back of the card, it was completely reversed and unreadable. Keep your design symmetrical or text-free to avoid this issue.
Step 5: Save and Activate
Once everything looks good, save your gift card. It's now available for purchase.
Embedding Gift Cards on Your Website
You have two options for selling gift cards.
Option 1: Standalone Gift Card Page
GoHighLevel generates a direct link to your gift card purchase page. Share this link in emails, social media, or anywhere you want to promote gift cards.
Option 2: Embed on Your Website
Create a new page on your site specifically for gift cards. Use the embed code to add the gift card purchase widget directly to your page. This keeps customers on your website throughout the purchase process.
For the cleanest look, create a dedicated page with a header like "Gift Cards" and embed the widget below. Add some supporting text about what services the gift card covers and who it's perfect for.
Setting Up Gift Card Redemption
Here's where customers actually use their gift cards. You have two main options.
Redemption on Order Forms
Add the gift card redemption field to any order form or checkout page. Customers enter their gift card code, click apply, and the balance is deducted from their total.
Redemption on Standard Forms
You can also enable gift card redemption on standard forms if you're collecting payment through those.
Important Note on Service Calendars:
If you're using the new V2 Service Calendars, gift card payments are not currently supported. They work with coupon codes but not gift cards yet. This feature is expected around mid-January 2026. For now, you'll need to create a separate checkout page for gift card redemptions if your primary booking uses Service Calendars.
The 45-Minute Gotcha (Don't Skip This)
This is the issue that had me stuck. I set up everything correctly, created my gift card, built my checkout page, but the gift card redemption field wasn't showing up anywhere.
I contacted support. They didn't know the answer. I got escalated. Still nothing. I spent 45 minutes troubleshooting before I found a random Facebook comment that explained it.
Here's the solution:
The gift card redemption field will not appear on your forms until at least one gift card has been purchased. Just creating a gift card isn't enough. Someone has to actually buy one first.
So if you're testing your setup and wondering why the redemption field isn't showing, purchase a test gift card yourself. Use a small amount like $5 if you want. Once that purchase goes through, the redemption field will appear on all your payment forms.
This isn't documented anywhere obvious, and support didn't know about it. Now you do.
Tracking Gift Card Sales and Redemptions
The gift card dashboard gives you basic analytics.
What You Can Track
Total gift cards sold
Revenue from gift card sales
Number of customers
Gift card denominations sold
Finding Individual Orders
Click on "Orders" to see specific gift card purchases. You can view the gift card code for each order, which is helpful if a customer loses their code and needs you to look it up.
Current Limitations
As of now, there's no clear way to see whether a specific gift card has been redeemed. The status options show Active, Scheduled, or Expired, but not Redeemed. The system does prevent customers from reusing an empty gift card (it shows "no remaining balance"), but tracking redemptions from the admin side needs improvement.
I'll be sharing this feedback with the GoHighLevel team. This is a first version, so improvements are likely coming.
Automation Possibilities
Currently, there aren't gift-card-specific automation triggers. You can't automatically trigger a workflow when a gift card is purchased or redeemed specifically.
However, you can use standard payment triggers:
Trigger automations when a payment is received
Send confirmation emails after purchase
Add purchasers to a nurture sequence
As the feature matures, expect more automation options to be added.
Gift Card Use Cases for Local Businesses
Gift cards work well for appointment-based businesses. Here are some ideas:
Holiday Promotions
Offer gift cards as holiday gifts. A $500 gift card for a $450 purchase creates urgency and drives seasonal revenue.
New Customer Acquisition
Existing customers buy gift cards for friends and family. Those recipients become new customers you didn't have to pay to acquire.
Prepaid Service Packages
Sell gift cards as prepaid service credits. A client buys a $300 gift card and uses it across multiple appointments.
Last-Minute Gift Solution
Promote gift cards to customers who need a quick gift. Instant email delivery solves the "I forgot to get a gift" problem.
What I'd Like to See Improved
The gift card system is solid for a first release, but here's what would make it better:
Redemption tracking: Clear visibility into which gift cards have been redeemed
Service Calendar support: Native gift card payments on V2 Service Calendars
Automation triggers: Specific triggers for gift card purchase and redemption
Image handling: Option to upload separate front and back images (instead of mirroring)
Manual redemption: Ability to manually mark a gift card as used for in-person redemptions
GoHighLevel consistently improves features after launch, so I expect many of these will be addressed.
Getting Started with Gift Cards
Ready to add gift cards to your business? Here's the quick-start checklist:
Go to Payments > Gift Cards
Create your gift card with name, description, and values
Upload a clean, symmetrical image
Embed on your website or share the direct link
Purchase a test gift card yourself (so the redemption field appears)
Add gift card redemption to your checkout forms
Promote to your customers
If you're not on GoHighLevel yet, you can start your free 14-day trial here and set up gift cards for your business.
Already using GoHighLevel and want full access to all features? Upgrade to Agency Unlimited for the complete platform.
Join the Community
Got questions about gift cards or anything else in GoHighLevel? Join our free community where GHL users help each other, share wins, and grow together.
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For more GoHighLevel tutorials and walkthroughs, subscribe to the channel where I post new content regularly.
Video Transcript
[0:00] Hey everybody, welcome to my Alpha Blossom GHL Academy. In this video, we're going to talk about the brand new gift cards that are now available inside of your Alpha Blossom CRM or if you're a HighLevel user, you'll find this in your GoHighLevel account. So, this video applies to you as well. So, they just released a brand new end-to-end gift card system that allows you to sell gift cards on your websites or as a standalone page and also allows people to redeem them via checkout form or standard forms. Couple other payment methods in the system as well. And it's just a really professional awesome system, especially for the first version. It will only get better from here. So, this is a full A to Z video showing you how to do everything from creating gift cards to redeeming gift cards to tracking gift cards. And I even talk about something that may hang you up. When I was trying to get this process, I couldn't find the gift card entry field on my checkouts and it took me about 45 minutes to find that. I reached out to support. I was on a call, escalated to support and I finally found it hidden in a comment in one of the groups. I found a solution and so I'll cover that if you stay to the end. And that alone will save you a ton of time and frustration wondering why this thing is not working for you. So, let's jump into it. If you're not already subscribed to the channel, make sure to click that subscribe button, like this video, and leave a comment. And let's jump into the video, and we'll show you the full deal from beginning to end. See you on the other side.
[1:30] In this video, we're going to walk through the full gift card system inside of our AlphaBlossom local CRM. Or if you're a GoHighLevel user, you can find this same process to apply it to your HighLevel account. And this is a new feature that just came out. It's an end to end gift card system, which is really nice. There's a few things about it that I would like to see improved. And also, there is one thing that you really need to know that I had to actually get on a call with support and it wasn't until they didn't even know the solution to this. It wasn't until I came across a Facebook comment that explained how this worked. So, like I said, the support agent that I spoke to did not know and then I got it escalated. I'm not sure that they knew either. Just when I got the call escalated, I saw the comment and so I was able to figure it out and end the call. So, I'll go over that here towards the end of the video, but it's worth watching just because that alone probably spent 45 minutes trying to figure that out. And so, it can be a real time saver for you because otherwise it's just going to be a super frustrating process.
[2:42] You can see here, this is the screen where people will come to order their gift card and it says, "Please select a gift card value." There is the amount down here. And so, if you have a traditional gift card where you might have like a 5, 10, $20, $50, they'll all be listed here to select. In this case, we're doing a promotion where we're offering a discounted gift card where people can buy gifts. It's Christmas time, so it's going to be a Christmas promo. And then once this ends, we'll probably go to a traditional gift card where you can have different values that people can give to somebody. And so, it might be a little confusing just having one value here for people. It'd be nice maybe if there was a label here or something, but essentially, you're just going to come here and select the value you want. And then you can see the gift card. I'll show you how to upload the background. Also, what size you want to use for the image and things like that. Also some limitations on that. I'll show you an example of that as well once we start designing this so that it'll just be easier for you to design this. And then they come to click buy and then they can come in here and they can select it for themselves or for someone else and then the recipient and the email so that if you enter the recipient's email, it's going to email this gift card to them. If it's for yourself, then that goes away and it just gets emailed to you and you'll receive that.
[4:00] So yeah, I mean it's really nice first version. It'd be nice to be able to control some of these things. But I think for starters, they did a great job. It just came out maybe a couple weeks ago. So, well, let's just jump into it. I'm going to show you guys how to create your own gift card. And we're just going to start from scratch. And so, the client that I'm doing this for has a microblading service in Burbank, California. And we're managing all the local service, SEO, reviews, reputation management, and things like that. And so, we're going to actually create a page here to embed this on the site. So, we're going to cover all of that here. Show you how to do the whole thing from A to Z. So, by the time you're done, you'll know fully how to use the gift cards here. So, let's get started.
[4:57] Okay. So, we're inside of our client's dashboard. We're going to go into payments and gift cards. You can see we've got a new gift card up here. And we're just going to create a gift card. And so, I'm going to call the gift card name Microblading. And then I'm going to have a little description here. I'm copying and pasting. If you're using AI, you can use that to write your description here as well. And you can be up to 200 characters here for the gift card description. The expiration date, this is the date they have to use the gift card by. So it's not the date that they have to purchase the gift card by, but rather once they get the gift card, this is if you want them to use it within a certain time frame, then you can set that here. Otherwise, you leave it blank. They got a little icon here to tell you that as well. So that's when it'll expire. Otherwise, if you want to deactivate the gift card, you can actually deactivate it so it's not available to purchase anymore. And that's a separate place. We'll show you that as well.
[6:06] And then we're going to put our terms and conditions here as well. I'm going to update this once we get our most likely we're going to redeem this on a checkout page. And then when I do that, I'm going to add a link to the URL here so that when they go to redeem it, it's going to take them to that page directly so they can redeem the gift card. Now, we're using the new service calendars, V2 service calendars, which do not currently support gift card payments. I'll show you that really quickly as well, just in case you're using this because a lot of service businesses are using these as well. So, you know, when we come here to book an appointment, we can select these. They don't use traditional calendars, so it's a different system completely. And now, they do support coupon codes, but they don't support gift cards yet. And I'm told that's going to be out approximately in the middle of January of 2026. So, we're still about a month and a half. So, I'm going to have to make a workaround where when people want to redeem their gift card, they're going to have to go to a separate checkout page to do that.
[7:15] So let me show you how to set that up. We're going to create a simple checkout page. You can do this with an order form or a checkout page. I'm going to use a checkout page for this example. And we're going to add our products here. So I'm going to add the microblading services that this gift card can be redeemed for. And then we're going to make sure that the gift card payment option is enabled on this form.
[8:30] And then we need to design our gift card image. I'm using Canva for this. You want to create something that looks professional and matches your branding. Remember that the image gets mirrored for the back of the card, so avoid putting any text that would look weird when reversed. I made that mistake on my first attempt. Had my address on there and on the back it was completely backwards and unreadable.
[10:45] Okay so now we've got our gift card created, our checkout page set up, and our image uploaded. Let's test the purchase flow. I'm going to go through and buy a test gift card to make sure everything works. You select your value, enter your information, and complete the purchase. The gift card gets emailed to whoever you specified.
[14:20] Now here's the issue I ran into. I set all this up, created my checkout page for redemption, but the gift card field wasn't showing up. I could not find it anywhere. I contacted support, they didn't know. Got escalated, still nothing. Spent 45 minutes on this. Finally found a Facebook comment that explained it. The gift card redemption field only appears after at least one gift card has been purchased. Just creating the gift card isn't enough. You need an actual purchase first. Once I bought that test gift card, the field showed up on all my forms. That's it. That simple. But it's not documented anywhere and support didn't know about it.
[18:30] Let me show you the redemption process now. Customer comes to your checkout page, enters their gift card code, clicks apply, and the amount is deducted from their total. If the gift card covers the full amount, they're done. If not, they pay the difference. The system tracks the remaining balance on the gift card for future use.
[21:15] For tracking, you can see your gift card stats in the dashboard. Total sold, revenue, customers. Click on Orders to see individual purchases and look up gift card codes if a customer loses theirs. One thing that's missing right now is clear redemption tracking. You can't easily see which gift cards have been used. The status shows Active, Scheduled, or Expired, but not Redeemed. The system does prevent reuse of empty cards, but admin-side tracking needs work. I'll be sharing this feedback with the HighLevel team.
[24:00] Currently there aren't gift-card-specific automations, but you can use standard payment triggers for things like confirmation emails. As the feature matures, expect more automation options. And that's basically it for the A to Z gift card tutorial. Hopefully you found it helpful, especially the tip about why the input field isn't showing up. That alone drove me crazy. But I'm glad we found a solution and I'm able to pass that on to you guys. Make sure to subscribe for more tutorials like this, and check out the links below if you're new to HighLevel or ready to step up your game. See you in the next one.
