Articles on: Gifts

Gift subscription

Gift subscriptions allow a customer to purchase a subscription on behalf of someone else, such as a friend, family member, or colleague. It’s a thoughtful way to give recurring value, whether it’s a box of goodies, gift cards, wellness items, or any product delivered over time. Gift subscriptions are popular during holidays, birthdays, and special occasions, offering a simple way to give a lasting experience instead of a one-time gift.

This model works as an extension of prepaid subscriptions, where the buyer pays upfront, but the deliveries go to the gift recipient. These subscriptions are typically set to expire automatically after a fixed number of shipments - for example, a 3-month or 6-month gift plan.

The gift subscription feature is available exclusively on Shopify Plus and Loop's Pro plan.

Gift subscription key highlights

Key features

Loop introduces a new app block-based Gift widget, designed to simplify the gifting flow.
Works with existing products; no need to create separate “gift-only” products.
Gifters can choose to notify the recipient immediately or schedule a notification for a future date (date range configurable by merchants).
Option to include a personalised gift message or even a pen name to keep the gift anonymous.
Built-in validations prevent customers from sending a single order to multiple recipients (as orders can only be delivered to one shipping address at a time).

Storefront experience

Once the gift subscription program is created in Loop, customers will see the following storefront experience on the product page.

The customer lands on the product page and sees the gift subscription checkbox.

Once the gift checkbox is enabled, a detailed form opens, allowing the customer to add the required information.

After filling all the details, click on Add gift to cart or the Buy now button.

On the checkout screen, you need to add the gifter's email ID instead of the recipient's email ID that was entered earlier. Failing to do so will trigger a validation error, as shown.

Upon successful purchase, the gifter will receive the following notification.

To learn more about the gift subscription setup guide, click here

Customer portal experience

On the day of gift delivery, the receiver will receive a notification with the following message, including the greeting that was added by the gifter during the purchase. Recipient will click on the "Unbox your gift" button.

The recipient will be redirected to a dedicated gift customer portal and will experience an "Aha!" moment upon logging in.

The recipient will be presented with two options: "Send thank you message to gifter" and "Manage subscription" buttons.

When the "Thank" button is clicked, a personalized message can be added, which will be sent via email to the gifter.

The recipient can take multiple actions on the subscription portal, like place an immediate order, reschedule the next delivery, swap the product, view scheduled orders, and view past orders.

Note: These options will only be visible to the user if the preferences to enable them are activated in the Loop admin configuration.

Admin portal experience

Admin can access a dedicated gift UI for a seamless experience, providing powerful new pages as defined below.

Gift subscriptions display all gift subscriptions. Merchants can search by Shopify origin order ID (first order ID), gift ID (subscription ID), recipient name/email, and gifter name/email.

Programs: Allows merchants to configure different purchase options for gift products (similar to selling plans). Merchants must define the number of orders, discounts for each order, and future shipping prices per order along with the delivery frequency.

Notifications: Configurable notifications for the gifter, recipient, and admin. Order placed and order delivered notifications will continue to be sent from Shopify like other regular orders.

Preferences: Control the storefront and customer portal behavior using gifting preferences.

Widget: Configure styles and text related to the gift widget. Adding the app block and mapping to product templates works the same as the subscription widget.

Texts: Define the texts to be shown at various customer portal touchpoints for the recipient.

Note: Apart from all the actions that the recipient can take, brands can also: Change shipping address; Cancel the gift subscription In case of cancellations, merchants will have to process the refund manually in case of remaining credits.

Shopify order admin

Merchants can filter the gift checkout and recurring orders with order tags - "Loop gift checkout order" & "Loop gift recurring orders"

Note: Customers for the checkout order will be the gifter; however, customers for the recurring order will be recipients.

Considerations

Gift subscriptions are set up as non-renewing prepaid subscriptions and cannot be run on "Pay as you go" or "Auto-renewing prepaid" subscriptions.
Flows, bulk actions, quick actions, and other general functionalities won’t work for gift subscriptions.
Recipients cannot add or edit products in their gift subscription or change delivery details (delivery method and address). However, customers can contact the store's customer support team to get things done (except for delivery frequency changes).
The recipient and the merchant cannot change the delivery frequency. However, they can reschedule the next order as needed, eliminating the mandatory nature of the delivery frequency.

FAQs

[FAQ-START]

► Can I send same or multiple gifts to multiple recipients in a single checkout process?

No, If a gift is already in the cart, the customer can only add another gift product if it meets all the following criteria:

The next product is mapped to the same gift program.

When the customer clicks on “This is a gift purchase” on another product page, it will auto-fill all the information, meaning the customer can’t change any gifting information. The details will remain the same for both products, as only one gift subscription will be created, containing both products, which will be delivered on the same date with the same gifter message.

[FAQ-END]

Here are some related articles that may offer additional insight and context.

Need help?

No worries - we're here for you!

If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to email us at support@loopwork.co or chat with us using the support beacon at the bottom right of your screen.

Regards,

Loop Subscriptions Team 🙂

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Updated on: 28/08/2025

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