Material Gift Cards vs Third Party Gift Cards
Material gift cards are our in-house gift cards that are managed by Material POS. The benefits are that there are no additional fees to use our gift card program, other than ordering physical cards, if you choose.
Third party gift cards are if you want to use a third party company like Factor 4 to run your gift card program. This usually involves a monthly fee and a per-swipe transaction fee.
Only merchants onboarded before April 1, 2026 can use third party gift cards. Most merchants should use Material gift cards.
To order physical gift cards that can be used as Material Gift Cards, click here.
Using Material Gift Cards
A comprehensive guide of the Material gift card system. Learn how to set up the gift card system, sell gift cards, and redeem gift cards.
This article breaks up our new gift card system into 3 easy parts: Enabling gift cards in the back end, Selling gift cards to customers, and redeeming gift cards for customer purchases, so that you can become an expert.
First things first, please update your material Retail POS iPad app to the newest available version
Now, here are the 3 parts of gift cards:
Enabling the new gift card system in the back end:
Steps
- Update the Material Retail POS iPad app to the newest available version.
- Open the Material back end (admin).
- Navigate to Settings.
- Find Gift Cards.
- Ensure Material is selected.
- Confirm the setting is saved and gift cards are enabled for the store.
Before using the iPad POS App, please make sure to update your app to the newest available version
Selling gift cards to customers:
Steps
- In the iPad POS, select Gift Card.
- Enter a custom amount.
- Add the gift card to the cart.
- Take payment to complete the sale.
- Enter the gift card numbers or scan the barcode on the gift card to activate
- Verify the gift card sale:
- The gift card line item shows the correct amount.
- The sale completes successfully.
- A gift card code is generated and visible on the receipt or in the order details.
- The customer receives the code and any receipt.
Customers making purchases using a gift card:
Steps
- Build the cart as usual.
- Tap Checkout.
- Choose Gift Card as the payment method.
- Enter or scan the gift card code.
- Confirm the applied amount.
- Complete checkout.
- Verify the gift card redemption:
- The gift card applies to the order total as expected.
- If the gift card has a remaining balance, the receipt reflects the remaining amount.
- If additional payment is needed, add another payment method and complete the order.
Congratulations! You are now a Material Gift Card Pro