Plastic Gift Cards Printing for Retailers and Cafes

A Gift Card is money in the till before the customer has bought anything. When someone buys a $50 Gift Card for a friend, you are paid today, and the friend usually comes in later, discovers your business and often spends more than the card is worth. That is why cafes, salons, restaurants, gyms, florists and retailers right across Australia sell them, and why they sell hardest around Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Valentine's Day.

Plastic Gift Cards feel like a real present. A paper voucher looks like a receipt; a full-colour 86 x 54mm plastic card in a printed holder looks like something worth giving. It is the same size as a credit card, so it lives in a wallet instead of a drawer, and every time the recipient opens their wallet they see your logo.

Gift Cards also smooth out your cash flow. Sales made in December are redeemed in January and February, which are quiet months for many small businesses. And because each card can carry its own barcode or number, you always know which cards are live and what balance is left.

Most modern POS systems, including Square, Lightspeed, Kounta, Shopify POS, Vend and many salon and hospitality systems, can sell and redeem Gift Cards. The POS keeps the balance; the plastic card simply identifies the account. That identification is usually one of three things:

• A barcode or QR code that your scanner reads at the counter. Unique barcodes are $50 per run. See Barcode Gift Cards.
• A magnetic stripe for systems with a swipe reader, from $60 with encoding included. See Magnetic Stripe Plastic Cards.
• A printed card number that staff type in, which works with almost any system. Sequential numbering is $50 per run.

Tell us which system you use when you order. If your POS needs card numbers in a set format or range, send us the list or your last number and we lay the codes out on your free proof so you can test them before anything prints. Barcodes always print black on a white panel with clear space around them, because that is what scanners read best.

The front of a Gift Card is a little advertisement for your business, so keep it bold and simple: your logo, one strong image or colour, and the words Gift Card. Leave the detail for the back. Good backs usually include:

• The barcode, QR code or card number
• A value panel or signature panel so you can write the amount or the recipient's name (signature panel from $50)
• Your website, phone number or address
• A short line of terms, such as how to check a balance

Full-colour printing on both sides is included in every price. If you would rather we design it, design help is $79 with no changes or $149 with up to two revisions, including GST. Templates for the 86 x 54mm card are on our Artwork Templates page.

A Gift Card in a printed holder or wallet looks like a finished gift and gives you somewhere to write a message or the card value. Holders also make cards easy to display near the register, which is where most impulse Gift Card sales happen. Every holder style and price is on our Plastic Card Holders page, and you can add them to the same order as your cards.

Plastic Cards from $264, including GST. Because your artwork stays on file, reordering is quick and you only need to tell us the quantity. If you number your cards, give us your last number and the new run carries on from there.

Busy retailers and multi-site businesses often move to 2,000 ($790), 5,000 ($1,744) or 10,000 cards ($2,855), where the price per card drops to 34.9c and then 28.6c. Every price includes GST and free delivery Australia-wide, with a free proof before you pay.

Cafes and restaurants sell Gift Cards as last-minute presents and corporate thank-yous. Salons and beauty clinics pair them with printed holders for treatments and packages, see salon and beauty cards. Gyms sell Gift Cards for memberships and personal training, see gym cards. Retail stores use them all year, see retail and cafe cards. If you also run a rewards program, matching Plastic Loyalty Cards can share the same design.

• Check your POS. Log in to your POS settings and look for Gift Cards. Note whether it scans barcodes, reads a swipe stripe or needs a typed number, and whether it issues its own card numbers.
• Choose your quantity. A good rule of thumb is to order enough for a year of sales. If you sell around 40 cards a month, 500 cards covers you. If you have several sites or sell to businesses, start at 2,000 or 5,000.
• Design the front and back. Logo and imagery on the front, code and terms on the back. Use our templates or ask for design help.
• Approve your free proof. Check the codes, numbers and spelling. Nothing is charged or printed until you approve.
• Display and promote. Put the cards in holders by the register, add a line to your receipts and social posts, and train staff to offer them, especially in the weeks before a gifting holiday.

That last step matters more than anything else. Gift Cards that sit in a drawer do not sell. Gift Cards on the counter, in a holder, with a staff member saying "Did you know we do Gift Cards?" sell every day.

Paper vouchers are cheap to print but easy to copy, easy to lose and look like a receipt. Plastic Gift Cards cost from 39.5c each at 2,000 Plastic Cards and give you a unique code that your POS controls, so a card cannot be photocopied and spent twice. They also look and feel like a premium gift, which encourages people to buy higher values.

Digital Gift Cards sent by email are useful for online sales, but most people still prefer to give something they can hold, wrap and put in a card. Many businesses run both: a plastic card for the shop counter and a digital option on the website, both linked to the same POS balance.

Australian law requires most Gift Cards sold to consumers to have an expiry period of at least three years, and the expiry date must be clearly shown on the card. Keep the terms short and clear. A typical back-of-card line reads: "Valid for three years from date of purchase. Not redeemable for cash. Check your balance in store." If you are not sure what applies to your business, check the consumer law guidance before you finalise your artwork. We are happy to make the panel bigger or smaller to fit your wording.