Overview
Consumers love using gift cards in-store or online. Retailers may love gift cards even more as it creates loyal customers. This omnichannel experience is what both consumers and business owners crave in this demanding world of commerce. However, keeping these in-store gift cards secured online has been a bit problematic because many POS systems, including Counterpoint, do not have a concept of a gift card pin. Pins are common on credit cards are the 3 or 4 digits on the front or back of the card, which provide an extra layer of security.
How do you create and issue gift card pins when Counterpoint doesn't natively support them? This article discusses Modern Retail's approach to supporting gift card pins in Counterpoint.
Gift Cards Pins in Counterpoint
Counterpoint does not natively support gift card pins, therefore, Modern Retail needed to invent a way to support them in Counterpoint. The way we've decided to support them was by storing the pin in the Selling description field in Counterpoint.
In order to be able to support Gift Card Pins, we need to work together to ensure these pins are properly recorded in Counterpoint in the Selling description field. There are 3 components to making sure this works correctly:
- Pin
- The Selling description field must start with the Pin. This Pin can be any number but is typically just 3 or 4 digits. Only numbers can be used with the Pin. No letters, dashes, special characters, etc. will be accepted.
- Space
- You can add a Message after Pin but you must include a Space. This Space is vital as it denotes where the Pin number stops and the Message starts. You do not need to include a Space if you do not have a Message.
- Message
- This Message can be whatever you like and will be completely ignored by the integration.
Online Gift Cards & Pins
Modern Retail supports the selling of Gift Cards from your website. When a consumer purchases a gift card, our technology will automatically create a Pin for the card when one does not already exist. This Pin will be recorded in the Selling description field as described above.
If you need more information on how our Gift Card Integration works with Counterpoint, please read:
As always, please submit a Support Request in the Admin Panel if you have any questions. Thank you.