Set Up Physical Gift Cards in Shopify

Totus picks, packs, activates and ships each physical gift card. You make one product in Shopify. This guide shows how.

How it works

Step	Who	What happens
1	Your store	A customer buys a physical gift card product in your store.
2	Shopify	Shopify sends the order to Totus, the fulfillment provider on each variant.
3	Totus	Totus picks and packs the card.
4	Totus	Totus activates the card for the amount bought, and ships it.
5	Totus	Totus marks the order fulfilled and updates the order status in Shopify.

What Totus does

• Sets up your physical card program and its card amounts, and sends you the list.
• Turns on Totus fulfillment for your eCommerce store. Totus then shows in Shopify as a fulfillment provider.
• Connects each amount in your Shopify product to your card program.
• Picks, packs, activates and ships each card, then marks the order fulfilled.

What you do

• Install the Totus app in your Shopify store.
• Make one physical gift card product, with one variant for each card amount offered (see Set up your product below).
• Set Totus as the fulfillment provider on every variant, and publish it.
• Tell Totus when the product is ready.

Before you start

• The Totus app is installed in your store. See How to install the Shopify App.
• You have the card amounts from Totus, for example $25, $50 and $100. Use only these amounts. Totus cannot fulfill a variant not listed on the product.
• Totus tells you that fulfillment is on. You can then choose Totus as a fulfillment provider on a variant.
• You have card artwork, a product photo and a description for your store page.

Use a regular product, not a Shopify gift card

Shopify’s own Gift card products are digital. Shopify sends them by email, and the order never comes to Totus. Your physical card is a regular product that ships.

Set up your product

All of these steps are in the Shopify admin. The illustration shows what the finished product looks like.

Illustration of the finished product. Shopify can change the layout.

Step 1. Add a product

Go to Products › Add product.

Give it a title, for example Physical Gift Card, a description and photos. Shopify can suggest the Gift Cards category. Change it, for example to Uncategorized. Save the product.

Vendor is only a label. It does not send orders to Totus (see Step 4).

Step 2. Make one variant for each Totus amount

Go to Variants › Add options like size or color.

• Option name: Amount. Add one value for each amount on the list from Totus. Do not add other amounts.
• Price: the card amount, exactly. A $50 card costs 50.00.
• SKU: give each variant its own SKU, for example PGC-50.

Step 3. Turn off quantity tracking, turn on shipping

• Inventory: do not track inventory (Inventory not tracked). Totus keeps the card stock.
• Shipping: turn on Physical product. Enter a weight, for example 2 oz.

Step 4. Set Totus as the fulfillment provider on every variant

This is the most important step. It is set on each variant, not on the product. Set Totus on every variant below shows each click.

This is the setting that sends orders to Totus

Without it, Totus never sees the order.

Step 5. Send orders to Totus

Request fulfillment on each order, or turn on automatic requests. Your Totus Client Success Manager can help.

Step 6. Publish, then tell Totus

Set the status to Active and choose sales channels. Email your Totus Client Success Manager the product name. Totus connects each amount. Then place one test order.

The most common mistakes

A variant without Totus as its fulfillment provider, or with a second provider too. The order goes somewhere else and the customer gets no card. Setting Vendor to Totus does not fix this.

Set Totus on every variant

Each amount ($25, $50, $100…) is a variant. Each variant has its own fulfillment setting, so set Totus on each one. Do this after you save the product. These are real Shopify screens.

A. Open a variant

On the product page, scroll to Variants. Click the first amount, for example $25.

B. Click the pencil in Inventory

On the variant page, find the Inventory box. Click the pencil next to “… location fulfills this”.

C. Select only Totus, then Save

The Edit inventory locations window opens. Check Totus (it is labeled App). Clear every other location, such as your shop or warehouse. Click Save.

D. Check it, then do the next variant

The Inventory box now says 1 location fulfills this: Totus. Go back to the product, open the next amount and repeat A to C, until every variant says Totus.

Vendor is not the fulfillment setting

Vendor is a label on the product. Typing “Totus” there does not send orders to Totus. Only steps A to D do.

After you go live

Tell your Totus Client Success Manager before you make one of these changes:

If you…	What happens
Change a variant’s price	The card still loads the old amount until Totus updates the connection.
Add a new amount	Totus must add it to your program first. Until then, its orders are not fulfilled.
Change a variant’s fulfillment provider	Orders go to the new provider and never reach Totus.
Delete a variant or the product	Totus gets no new orders for it.

Questions?

Contact your Totus Client Success Manager.