Can I Restrict Gift Cards to Certain Items on Squarespace?

How Squarespace Gift Cards Work at Checkout

When a customer redeems a gift card, the balance is subtracted from the full order total. This includes product prices, taxes, and shipping fees. There is no option to flag specific products as "gift card eligible" or "gift card exempt."

This means if you sell a $200 product you would rather not have paid for with a gift card, and a customer has a $200 gift card, there is nothing in the Squarespace system to prevent that transaction. The gift card balance applies to whatever the customer puts in their cart.

The Subscription and Membership Exception

There is one automatic restriction that Squarespace enforces: gift cards cannot be used toward recurring subscription payments or recurring membership fees. This applies to any product or membership area where the customer is billed on an ongoing cycle (weekly, monthly, yearly).

However, if you sell a membership with a one-time fee - meaning a single payment rather than a recurring charge - customers can use gift cards for that purchase. The restriction only applies to recurring billing.

This matters for store owners who run membership sites. If your memberships use recurring billing, gift cards are already excluded from those payments automatically.

Workaround 1: Separate Stores for Restricted Products

If you have specific products you never want purchased with a gift card, consider selling them on a separate Squarespace site. Gift cards are tied to the site where they were issued - they cannot be redeemed on a different Squarespace site.

By moving restricted products to a second store, you create a natural barrier. Customers can only use gift cards on the original store, and the products on the second store require standard payment. This works best when the restricted products are a distinct category, such as premium services, custom orders, or consultation packages.

Workaround 2: Do Not Offer Gift Cards

If gift card restrictions are critical to your business model, you can disable gift cards entirely. This is the simplest approach but comes with a trade-off: you lose the sales and customer acquisition that gift cards generate.

Before removing gift cards, consider how much revenue they bring in. If gift card sales are a small fraction of your total and the unrestricted usage is causing problems, removing them might make sense. If they drive significant traffic or holiday sales, the cost of removing them likely outweighs the control you gain.

Workaround 3: Accept It and Reframe the Concern

For many store owners, the best option is to accept that gift cards apply store-wide and stop treating it as a problem. Here is why:

• The money from a gift card purchase has already been collected - the buyer paid you when they bought the card
• When the recipient redeems the card, you are fulfilling an order that was already paid for, just by a different person
• Gift cards often bring new customers to your store who might not have found you otherwise
• Recipients frequently spend more than the gift card value, paying the difference with their own money

From a cash flow perspective, gift card redemption is not a loss. The revenue was already recognized when the card was sold. The recipient choosing a high-margin or low-margin product does not change that.

Communicating Gift Card Policies to Customers

Regardless of which approach you take, clear communication prevents confusion. Add a short note to your gift card product page explaining that gift cards can be used on any product in your store (except recurring subscriptions). Include the same information in your FAQ page and terms of service.

If you use the separate-store workaround, make it clear to customers which store their gift card is valid on. This avoids frustration at checkout when a code does not work on the wrong site.

Tracking Gift Card Usage

Squarespace lets you monitor gift card balances and redemption history in the Commerce panel. Review this data regularly to understand how gift cards are being used. If you notice gift cards being redeemed disproportionately on low-margin products, that data can inform whether you need to adjust your approach.

You can also track which products are purchased with gift cards versus other payment methods. This gives you a clearer picture of whether unrestricted gift card usage is actually affecting your margins or if the concern is more theoretical than practical.