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POS Integration

GiftCard Hero adds a dedicated tile to Shopify POS that gives in-store staff gift card tools without leaving the POS screen.

What staff can do from POS

  • Check a gift card balance — enter or scan a code to see the current balance
  • Reload a card — add funds to an existing gift card
  • Process a refund to a gift card — apply a refund amount to a new or existing gift card
  • View a customer's gift cards — see all cards linked to a customer account
  • Search by code or email — look up cards by code characters or customer email

Setup

Step 1 — Enable the POS extension

  1. In GiftCard Hero, go to POS Tools in the left navigation
  2. Confirm the extension is active

Step 2 — Add the tile to your POS layout

  1. Open the Shopify POS app on your device
  2. Go to Settings → Apps and confirm GiftCard Hero is listed and enabled
  3. Add the GiftCard Hero tile to your POS home screen layout

The tile appears on the POS home screen for all staff at that location.

POS settings

POS extension capabilities

The GiftCard Hero POS extension installs multiple components into Shopify POS:

Home tile

POS home tile

A tile on the POS dashboard that opens the main GiftCard Hero interface. From here staff can check balances and reload cards.

Check Balance

Check balance

Enter or scan a gift card code to see the current balance. The balance is displayed clearly with the currency format from your store settings.

Reload Balance

Reload balance

Add funds to a gift card at the register. Search for the card by code or customer email, then enter the amount to add.

Order Refund

Order refund

When processing a return on an order, staff can access a refund action directly from the order details screen. This lets them issue the refund amount as a gift card instead of returning it to the original payment method.

Customer Gift Cards

Customer gift cards

When a customer is added to a POS transaction, staff can view all gift cards associated with that customer's account — including current balances — directly in the customer details block.

Accepting a gift card as payment

Gift card redemption at checkout is handled natively by Shopify POS — no GiftCard Hero action is needed. When a customer wants to pay with a gift card:

  1. Add items to the cart as normal
  2. Tap Charge
  3. Select Gift Card as the payment method
  4. Scan or type the code

Shopify POS deducts from the balance automatically.

Advanced POS tools

Go to POS Tools in the GiftCard Hero admin (the posTools route, accessible from the main navigation) for legacy check-balance and change-balance tools. These are provided for compatibility with older POS setups.

The current recommended approach is the Shopify POS UI Extension (the tile) described above.

Advanced POS tools

Troubleshooting

The GiftCard Hero tile doesn't appear in POS

  1. Confirm the POS extension is enabled in GiftCard Hero → POS
  2. Update the Shopify POS app to the latest version
  3. Go to POS Settings → Apps and check that GiftCard Hero is listed and enabled
  4. Try removing and re-adding the app in Shopify POS settings
  5. On iPads: force-close and reopen the POS app

"Failed to load" error in the POS tile

The POS device can't reach the GiftCard Hero API. Check: - Is the device connected to the internet? - Is there a firewall or content filter blocking outbound connections? - Try switching from WiFi to cellular (or vice versa) to isolate a network issue

Balance check showing wrong amount

The balance shown is fetched live from Shopify. If it looks stale, check the device's internet connection and try again.