Configuration
Gift card redemption
When a customer applies an external gift card at checkout, in the cart or at the point of sale, Cardigan mirrors it into a native Shopify gift card so that Shopify can take the payment. This page covers the currency that Shopify gift card is issued in, and the one setting that controls how it can be redeemed.
The mirroring itself is described in How redemption works.
Which currency the Shopify gift card uses
Whenever your store sells in the external card's currency, Cardigan issues the Shopify gift card in that currency at the card's full balance. A customer holding a USD card on a store that sells in CAD and USD gets a USD gift card for the full USD balance.
A card in a currency your store doesn't sell in couldn't be redeemed in that currency, so it is converted into your store currency. The conversion uses the current exchange rate, with an allowance for Shopify's currency conversion fee.
If your store sells in a single currency, cards in that currency are mirrored in it and cards in any other currency are converted, which is the behaviour you have always had.
Stores installed before July 2026
Issuing gift cards in the card's own currency needs a Shopify permission Cardigan didn't originally request. Open the Cardigan app once from your Shopify admin and approve the updated permissions when prompted. Until then, cards continue to be converted into your store currency as before.
Redemption in other currencies
Under Configuration > Gift card redemption, the Allow redemption in other currencies setting controls whether a mirrored gift card can be spent in a checkout that uses a currency other than its own.
It is on by default. While it is on, a gift card in your store currency converts at your market exchange rates, and a gift card in another currency converts at the spot rate.
Turn it off to restrict every gift card to the currency it was issued in. A customer who then applies a USD card in a CAD checkout sees Shopify decline it with its own message, and the card is released back to them untouched. If you turn it off, consider pairing it with profile routing by currency or the checkout extension's supported currencies setting, so that customers reach a checkout in the card's currency in the first place.
The setting applies to every Shopify gift card Cardigan creates or updates on your behalf. A change reaches an existing gift card the next time a customer applies it, so there is nothing to migrate.