Gift card emails: selling gifts after the shipping cutoff

Why push gift cards after the shipping cutoff?

Because people are still shopping, and you've just told them they can't get a box from you in time.

NRF's 2025 holiday research found 43% of shoppers planned to buy at least one gift card, with gift card spending expected to reach $29 billion. NRF's 2026 survey says gift cards are what Gen X and Boomers most want to receive (46% and 59%). And 64% of shoppers say they're likely to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to do most of their holiday shopping, up from 51% five years ago. Later shoppers means more people hitting your cutoff.

A gift card email turns "too late" into "still possible."

When is the shipping cutoff this year?

For 2026, USPS lists these last days to ship within the contiguous US for delivery by Dec 25:

• Ground Advantage and First-Class Mail: Dec 17
• Priority Mail: Dec 18
• Priority Mail Express: Dec 19

FedEx and UPS publish their own dates. Check them for the services you actually use.

But don't set your cutoff from carrier dates alone. Talk to your 3PL about the real last pick, pack and ship time, then check the USPS, FedEx and UPS holiday timelines. Your cutoff is whichever comes first. I go through how to message it in holiday shipping cutoff emails.

When should I send the gift card email, and to whom?

Timing

I'd plan two to three sends:

1. Cutoff day: your shipping deadline email ends with a line about gift cards as the backup. "Missed it? A gift card arrives instantly."
2. The day after cutoff: the main gift card email. Lead with "still time," not "too late."
3. Dec 23 or 24: a last-minute nudge. Short, one button.

Turn Smart Sending off for these. Klaviyo's Smart Sending skips anyone who got an email in the last 16 hours, and the week before Christmas is full of sends. I keep it off for deadlines so people don't miss the reminder that matters.

Who gets it

• People who've bought gifts from you before. Tag likely gift buyers by order value or quantity. More data is better.
• People who clicked your gift emails this season but didn't order.
• Your engaged list. Not everyone who's ever signed up.

I keep heavy gifting messaging in November and December emails close to Thanksgiving and Christmas, so a gift card push fits right in. For food and beverage brands, remember a lot of people buy for themselves to share with guests. A gift card is a nice angle for the friend who hosted them.

How do I set up gift cards in Shopify?

Shopify treats gift cards as digital products. A few settings worth checking before you email anyone:

Turn on recipient fields

Shopify lets you add recipient fields to your gift card product page: the recipient's email, plus an optional name, message and send-on date. Scheduled cards go out roughly between 4 and 10 AM in the buyer's time zone, and the recipient gets an email with the message and the code.

That send-on date is the whole pitch: "Buy tonight, it lands in their inbox Christmas morning." It works in Shopify's Dawn and Horizon themes from version 9.0.0, through the theme setting "Show recipient information form for gift card products."

Check the expiry setting

Shopify gift cards never expire by default. If you turn on expiry without changing the length, Shopify defaults to 5 years. That lines up with US federal rules: the CFPB says a gift card "cannot be sold that will expire in less than five years," and state laws can add more protection. Shopify itself notes it's illegal in some countries for gift cards to expire. This is general information, not legal advice. If you sell outside the US, check local rules.

Know how discounts work

Shopify says most discounts can't be applied to gift cards. So "20% off gift cards" isn't something your normal discount codes will do. If you want an incentive, a bonus card is a simpler message ("buy a $100 card, get a $20 card for yourself"), but price it carefully.

What should the gift card email say?

Keep it simple. The reader has one question: can I still get a gift from you in time?

• Subject line: what they get and when. "Still time: gift cards arrive instantly."
• The answer up front: it arrives by email, and you can pick the day.
• The amounts: show the denominations as buttons.
• One line on why: what your best sellers are, so the recipient knows what they're getting into.

Skip the clever stuff. The most common Black Friday subject line mistake I see is being too crafty, and it holds for gift cards too. People want to know what they'll get and where.

What do I send gift card recipients in January?

This is where most brands drop the ball. A gift card that's never redeemed is a customer you never met.

Recipients are often brand new to you, so treat them like it. Introduce the brand, show the hero products, and make the first order easy. I like a three-email January series for first-time buyers from November and December, and gift card recipients fit the same thinking. You can find more January ideas in January email marketing ideas.

One catch: Klaviyo doesn't document a gift card event from Shopify in its help center, so getting recipients into a flow can take extra setup or an app. At a minimum, the buyer's order data tells you who purchased a gift card. You can at least send buyers a "they've got it, here's what they might love" email to forward.

And when gift orders do ship physically, add extra packaging or notes so the recipient learns about the products. Same idea: the gift is the introduction.

Does anything about gift cards cost you?

A few things to think through before you push hard:

• How you book it. Gift card sales are often accounted for differently from product sales. Ask your accountant before you set revenue goals around them.
• Unused balances. Federal rules limit fees and expiry. Don't plan around cards going unspent.
• Stacking. If a recipient pays with a gift card and a discount code, you're giving away margin twice. Know what your January offer looks like before you send it.

On loyalty, a related point: when I set up cash back, it's claimed as store credit, not a gift card, so the brand isn't paying out a gift card. Keep the two separate in your head and in your setup.

How does this fit the holiday calendar?

I send about 25% more emails in November than December. Early November and December are softer gifting and cutoff messaging. Then come the event promos: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas Eve and Day, Boxing Day and New Year's. Gift cards slot in between your shipping cutoff and Christmas Eve. The whole season is laid out in my ecommerce holiday email calendar, and who to target is in holiday gift buyer emails.

FAQ

WRITTEN BY Jack White

Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.

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