[RetailEdge Moderator]

Gift Cards can be discounted in one of the following two ways:

1. By adding the discounted value back on to the Gift Card manually
a. Sell the gift card(s) at the discounted rate.
b. Choose Issue Gift Card Manually from the Customer|Gift card menu.
c. Scan or enter the gift card number you want to adjust and add the discount amount back onto the gift card.

2. Discount the Sale with a Non-Entered Item.
a. Sell the Gift Card(s) for the full amount with no discount.
b. Then add a non-entered item with a negative qty onto the sales screen for the amount of the discount. This will make the sale total match the amount that would be charged if the gift cards were discounted.

The first method will show the proper adjustment to the gift cards. The second method will show the adjustment to sales but if you are processing many cards will be faster.

[RetailEdge Moderator]

Why discount Gift Cards? We see a number of people doing this for promotions. So for instance a spouse wants to by a stand up paddle or ski package, and they are a good customer and you want to be able to extend a discount to them. This way you provided a discount to the person actually doing the purchasing.

You do need to be aware that this can lead to double discounting if the person purchasing the items buys something on discount. One way to control this is to have a disclaimer that the Gift Card is not usable for discounted items. Or better yet do the discounting for larger gift cards, so that the total dollar markup on the items being purchased with the gift card supports this type of double discounting.

The issue with discounting a gift card, is that you are selling an item for a dollar value that is to be used as a payment method later. So if you discount the price of the gift card you will be also discounting the payment. And if you are purchasing a $100 gift card discounted 20%, you don't want to give the person the Gift Card for $80. These solutions solves this problem.

If you are discounting using method 2 and think you might be doing it a lot, you could setup a discount rule that would automatically be applied (dollar or percent amount off).