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Gift Card Promotions

Menu Location: Customers > Settings > Gift Cards Promotions (also labeled "Gift Certificates Promotions")

Last Updated: 2026-07-26

Overview

The Gift Card Promotions page lets you create time boxed discount and bonus offers that apply automatically to gift card purchases while they are active. There are two promotion types:

  • Percent Off: customers pay less for the same gift card value (for example, 20% off).
  • Purchase Bonus: customers pay full price and receive extra value on top, based on tiers you define (for example, buy $100 get $20 more).

A one click Create Holiday Deals button can generate a standard Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday / December bonus set for you.

Important: only one promotion can be active at any given moment. If two active promotions' date windows overlap, the system uses whichever one has the higher internal ID (generally the most recently created), and the other is silently ignored during that overlap. Avoid creating overlapping active windows.

Page Layout

  • A live current date/time display, so you can see exactly what the system considers "now" when judging whether a promotion is active.
  • Create Holiday Deals button (see below).

Create / Edit Promotion Form

The same form is used to create a new promotion or edit an existing one (via the "Edit" link on a promotion card).

All Promotions List

Every promotion, ordered by start date (most recent first), shown as cards with:

  • Promotion name
  • Type badge: PERCENT OFF or PURCHASE BONUS
  • Status label: ACTIVE NOW, SCHEDULED, EXPIRED, and/or INACTIVE (if the Active checkbox is off)
  • Start and end date/time
  • Discount percentage, or the bonus tier breakdown ("Buy $X get $Y")
  • Redemptions: a count of how many gift card purchases used this promotion
  • Edit and Delete buttons

There is no search box, status filter, revenue dashboard, or export on this page.

Creating a Promotion

Promotion Types

Percent Off

  • Customer pays less for the gift card they buy.
  • Configured with a single Discount Percentage field (must be between 1 and 100).

Purchase Bonus

  • Customer pays full price and the order gets extra value added on top.
  • Configured with one or more tiers, each a Min Purchase amount and a Bonus amount (for example: $50 minimum gets a $10 bonus, $100 minimum gets a $20 bonus).
  • At checkout, the system matches the purchase amount against the highest tier it qualifies for and applies that tier's bonus (not a sum of all qualifying tiers).

Steps

  1. Fill in Promotion Name (required).
  2. Set Start Date & Time and End Date & Time (both required, separate date and time inputs).
  3. Choose Promotion Type: Percent Off or Purchase Bonus.
  4. Leave Active checked to have it apply once its date window arrives, or uncheck it to save without activating.
  5. Depending on type:
    • Percent Off: enter the Discount Percentage.
    • Purchase Bonus: click Add Tier for each minimum purchase / bonus amount pair you want (at least one tier is required).
  6. Click Create Promotion.

There is no gift card design assignment, promotional message field, per customer purchase limit, minimum purchase threshold (for Percent Off), maximum discount cap, or promo code on this form.

How a Promotion Applies

  • A promotion applies automatically, with no code entry, on the gift card purchase pages once its status is Active and the current time falls within its start/end window.
  • Percent Off: the discount is calculated as purchase amount times the discount percentage, taken off the price the customer pays.
  • Purchase Bonus: the bonus amount for the highest qualifying tier is added to the order as bonus value; the customer still pays full price.
  • Every completed gift card purchase made during an active promotion is logged as a redemption (purchase amount, discount or bonus amount, customer, and gift certificate). The only place this shows up in the admin is the Redemptions count on each promotion's card, there is no separate analytics or ROI view.

Create Holiday Deals (Quick Action)

Clicking Create Holiday Deals generates four promotions in one step, calculated automatically for the current (or next) holiday season:

  • Black Friday: 30% off, from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Black Friday
  • Small Business Saturday: 20% off, all day
  • Cyber Monday: 10% off, all day
  • December Bonus: a Purchase Bonus promotion running December 1 to 25, with tiers of $50 gets $10, $100 gets $20, and $150 gets $40

Before creating them, the system checks whether any existing promotion's date range overlaps any of these four windows. If a conflict is found, none of the four are created and you'll see a message listing which existing promotion conflicts with which holiday window; delete or adjust the conflicting promotion first, then try again.

Managing Promotions

Activating / Deactivating

  • The Active checkbox on the form controls whether a promotion can ever take effect. A promotion with a future start date and Active checked will show as SCHEDULED and switch to ACTIVE NOW on its own once its start time arrives, no manual step needed.
  • Unchecking Active on a promotion (via Edit) takes it out of consideration immediately; it will show as INACTIVE.

Editing

Click Edit on any promotion to change any of its fields, including name, dates, type, discount percentage, or bonus tiers. There is no restriction on which fields can be changed after a promotion has started.

Deleting

Click Delete and confirm. This permanently removes the promotion row; there is no undo, archive, or "duplicate" feature. Past redemption records for that promotion remain in the system even after the promotion itself is deleted.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Standard Holiday Season Setup

Goal: Set up the usual Black Friday through December promotions with minimal effort.

Steps:

  1. Click Create Holiday Deals.
  2. Confirm the prompt.
  3. Review the four promotions created in the list below and adjust dates or percentages with Edit if needed.

Use Case 2: Custom Percent Off Sale

Goal: Run a one-off discount for a specific window.

Steps:

  1. Click into the Create Promotion form.
  2. Enter a name (for example, "Spring Sale").
  3. Set start and end date/time.
  4. Choose Percent Off and enter the discount percentage.
  5. Click Create Promotion.

Use Case 3: Purchase Bonus with Tiers

Goal: Reward larger gift card purchases with bonus value instead of a discount.

Steps:

  1. Enter a name and date range.
  2. Choose Purchase Bonus.
  3. Click Add Tier for each purchase level, entering the minimum purchase and the bonus amount for that tier.
  4. Click Create Promotion.

Troubleshooting

Promotion Not Showing to Customers

Check:

  1. The promotion's Active checkbox is on (it will show INACTIVE otherwise).
  2. The current date/time (shown at the top of this page) falls within the promotion's start and end date/time.
  3. No other promotion has an overlapping active window with a higher ID, only one promotion applies at a time.

Bonus or Discount Not Matching Expectations

Check:

  1. For Purchase Bonus, confirm which tier the purchase amount actually qualifies for, the system applies the single highest tier the amount meets or exceeds, not a sum of all matching tiers.
  2. For Percent Off, confirm the Discount Percentage value saved on the promotion.
  3. Confirm there isn't a second promotion whose window overlaps and is taking priority instead.

Creating Holiday Deals Fails

Symptom: Clicking Create Holiday Deals shows an error instead of creating promotions.

Check: the error message lists which existing promotion conflicts with which holiday date window. Delete or edit that promotion so its dates no longer overlap, then click Create Holiday Deals again.

  • Gift Cards (admin-edit.php?table=gift_certificates) - view and manage individual gift certificates
  • Gift Cards Settings (gift-card-images.php) - gift card page images, default amounts, and min/max purchase settings

Quick Reference Card

Task Action/Location
Create a custom promotion Fill in the Create Promotion form, click "Create Promotion"
Generate standard holiday promotions Click "Create Holiday Deals"
Change a promotion Click "Edit" on its card
Turn a promotion off Edit > uncheck "Active"
Remove a promotion permanently Click "Delete" > confirm
See how many purchases used a promotion "Redemptions" count on its card

FAQs

What's the difference between Percent Off and Purchase Bonus?

Percent Off reduces what the customer pays for the same gift card value. Purchase Bonus keeps the price the same but adds extra value on top, based on the tier the purchase amount qualifies for.

Can I run more than one promotion at the same time?

You can create overlapping promotions, but only one is honored at any given moment, the system picks the one with the higher internal ID (generally the newer one) when windows overlap. Keep promotion date ranges from overlapping if you want predictable behavior.

Is there a faster way to set up the usual holiday promotions?

Yes, use the Create Holiday Deals button to generate the standard Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and December bonus promotions in one step.

What happens if I delete a promotion by mistake?

There is no undo. You would need to recreate it manually (or via Create Holiday Deals if it was one of the standard holiday promotions).

End of Documentation

For additional help, contact your system administrator or Kiva Logic support.