How to Set Up Usage Restrictions for WooCommerce Gift Cards

To set up usage restrictions for WooCommerce gift cards, navigate to Gift cards > Gift card products, edit or create a new gift card product, and go to the Usage Restrictions tab to limit usage to specific products or categories, exclude certain items, or set maximum spending per transaction. These options help you protect profit margins, run targeted promotions, and ensure gift cards are used in line with your store policies.

This article explains how you can embed some usage restrictions on your gift card products to make them exclusive. With the usage restriction, you can create different varieties of gift cards, such as:

• Applicable only to selected product categories.
• Applicable only to selected products.
• Gift cards with a maximum usage value.
• Gift cards with an expiry date.

1. Install and activate the plugin. From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Gift Cards.
2. When installed as an add-on to the Smart Coupons for WooCommerce plugin, the settings page can be accessed from Smart Coupons > Gift cards.

1. Go to Gift cards > Gift card products.
2. Make sure you have a Gift card product that is ready to apply the restriction; if you are a new user, create a new gift card product for your store.

3. Once the gift card is all set, go to the Usage Restrictions tab from the Add/Edit Gift Card page. Here, you will find many restriction options that can be applied to your gift card product.

The restriction options include:

When you select a product from here, the gift card applies only to that specific product. However, you can choose multiple products.

The gift card cannot be used to purchase any of the products selected here. However, you can choose multiple products.

When you select a category here, the gift card will apply only to products in that category. You can choose multiple categories.

The gift card cannot be used to purchase products from the selected category. However, you can choose multiple categories.

By entering a value here, you can specify that the gift card can only be used for up to that amount on a single purchase, even if it has a higher value. For example, if you have a $1000 gift card and set the maximum spend at $300, you can use it only for orders with a cart subtotal of $300 or less. The remaining amount must be used in separate purchases, with this same restriction of up to $300 per purchase.

4. Once you have set the desired usage restrictions, click on Publish/Update to make the product available in your store.

The given example is a gift card with usage restrictions set to only the category Women and a $300 maximum limit.

These usage restrictions are also available for the Send product as a gift option.

In addition to adding a gift card product to your store, you can also send a gift card to a user from the backend. When doing this, you will have an additional usage restriction that lets you set an expiry date for the gift cards you send.

• To manually send a gift card from the backend, navigate to the Send gift card tab on the plugin home page.
• Once the gift card is configured, scroll down to the Usage restrictions section.
• In addition to the usage restrictions we discussed in the earlier section, you can find an additional option: Set expiry for generated gift cards.

• The expiration date of the gift card is determined by the number of days set. For instance, if you choose 10, the gift card will expire exactly ten days after it is generated.
• Finally, click on Send mail to share the gift card with the user.

The example below is of a gift card being used after its set expiration date.