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Order gift cards

Buy your gift-card inventory in one pass: browse the marketplace, pick a card and denomination, confirm the price, and place a funded order. The cards land in a pool you own.

Gift cards on Paylode work like buying inventory. You order a batch of cards against a contract — a specific brand, currency, and denomination range — and pay for them once from your Paylode wallet balance. The cards you buy land in a pool you own, and from there you hand them out to customers one at a time as reward links. You buy in bulk; you distribute over time.

Ordering happens in the Paylode admin app — there's no code involved. This guide walks the flow and the concepts each step rests on.

How it works​

An order moves through four steps, and only the last one moves money:

  1. Browse the marketplace to find the brand you want.
  2. Pick a contract on that offer — a contract fixes the currency, the country it's issued for, and the denominations you're allowed to buy.
  3. Review the price. Before anything is charged you see the exact per-card and total cost, with the discount off face value already applied.
  4. Place the order. Your wallet is debited immediately, and the order is created. The actual cards are fulfilled asynchronously — the order moves from PLACED to PROCESSING, then to COMPLETED or DECLINED.

Orders draw only from your Paylode wallet balance. There's no card-on-file fallback: if the balance is short, the order fails and nothing is charged. Once an order is placed it cannot be cancelled — that's why the price review comes first.

Before you begin​

  • You're signed in to the Paylode admin app with access to the gift-card area.
  • A funded wallet. Orders are paid from your Paylode wallet balance — funding it is handled with your account team. See Wallet.
  • A rough distribution plan. Denomination and quantity are fixed at order time, so know what you intend to hand out before you buy.

Steps​

1. Browse the marketplace​

Open the gift-card marketplace in the app. Each offer shows the brand, its imagery, the redemption terms, and the purchasable contracts — every contract lists its currency, country, denominations (a fixed set, a range, or both), and the discount you pay off face value.

2. Choose the contract, denomination, and quantity​

Pick the contract that matches your market, then the denomination and how many cards you want. Only denominations the contract permits are offered.

3. Review the price​

The app shows the exact per-card and total cost with the discount applied. Nothing has been charged yet — this is the moment to check the numbers, because the next step is final.

4. Place the order​

Confirm to place. Your wallet is debited on the spot and the order starts fulfilment. You don't need to wait around — fulfilment is asynchronous, and Track gift-card orders shows where to watch the order move from PLACED through PROCESSING to COMPLETED, and the cards appear in your pool.

Once you're live​

  • Watch the order and the pool — status and inventory both live in the app. See Track gift-card orders.
  • Start handing cards out — generate reward links from the pool, one at a time from the app or in bulk through the API.

Troubleshooting​

caution

Orders are final. There's no cancellation. Review the price and quantity before you confirm — the wallet debit happens at placement.

note

A short wallet stops the order before it starts. With no card-on-file fallback, an order your balance can't cover simply fails — nothing is charged. Top up with your account team and place it again.

note

A declined or partial order is refunded, not silent. If fewer cards than you asked for are issued, the order completes with the lower fulfilled count; if none are issued, it's DECLINED. Either way the difference is owed back and shows on the order as a pending refund, returned to your wallet. Track gift-card orders covers how to read this.