Redeeming a card

The Redeem gift card tile lets staff look up a customer's external gift card and take it as payment on a POS sale.

The staff workflow

1. Staff tap the tile on the POS home screen.
2. They capture the card number, either by scanning the card with the POS device's barcode scanner, scanning it with the device camera, or typing it in, then enter the card's PIN.
3. They tap Look up. Cardigan checks the card with your provider and shows its current balance and expiry date.
4. They tap Get code. Cardigan places a hold on the external card and produces a gift card code.
5. Staff copy that code and enter it during the POS payment step, applying it as a gift card just like a native Shopify gift card.

The code shown identifies which card it belongs to by its last few digits, so staff can confirm they're applying the right card when a customer is holding more than one.

Why a code is needed

Shopify POS doesn't allow apps to add a payment method directly to a sale. To work around this, Cardigan mirrors the external card into Shopify as a native gift card holding the same balance, and hands staff that card's code.

From the POS's point of view it's an ordinary Shopify gift card payment. Behind the scenes, the funds are held against - and then taken from - the card held by your external provider.

See How redemption works for more detail on this mechanism.

Cards with no balance

If a card has a zero balance, the Get code action is unavailable. Staff can still look the card up to confirm its balance with the customer, but there's nothing to redeem.

Expiry dates

Where your provider returns an expiry date, it's shown alongside the balance. Cards with no expiry are shown as such, so staff can answer a customer's question without having to check elsewhere.

PINs

The redemption tile asks for a card number and a PIN.

If your gift card program doesn't use PINs, get in touch - your store's PIN behaviour is configured by the Cardigan team, and we'll make sure the POS flow matches how your cards actually work.