What Gift Cards Work with Lizzy?

First off, you don’t need to buy gift cards from nizeX (we don’t actually sell them). You can buy gift cards anywhere you like! There’s just a few specifics to let the gift card company know:

1) Gift cards can be processed directly through Lizzy, your Point of Sale software. You don’t need to pay an additional fee to have your credit card processor process gift card transactions for you. (There’s no reason you can’t just let your credit card company process your gift cards, but it will cost you more in the long run, and we know most merchants are looking to save money wherever they can.)

If you’re going to process your gift cards via Lizzy, you can either hand-enter the card number at the time of purchase and the time of redemption, or you can get an unencrypted card swiper (like the Magtek Dynmag swiper) that you’ll use for processing your gift cards. The card swiper MUST be unencrypted or Lizzy will not be able to read the gift card information.

2) You don’t have to have barcodes or magnetic stripes on your gift cards in order to use them with Lizzy. However, both features can make selling gift cards easier.

If using a magnetic stripe, we would recommend encoding on track 1. Encoding cards for Track 2 data is somewhat cheaper, but the downside is the magnetic stripe can be more easily erased and/or destroyed, so the cards need to be replaced more frequently. It’s also VERY important to confirm with the gift card provider that the number on the card and the information in the magnetic stripe will match exactly. We’ve encountered some issues recently with gift card companies inserting special characters into the magnetic stripe data (like dashes and semi-colons) and this will cause issues with Lizzy’s gift card tracking.

Please ask your gift card provider to ensure they are using the following format: %B12345678^. If you’re used to reading the layout of a credit card swipe, that’s exactly what we’re looking for here. When a credit card is swiped, the track data always starts with %B, and is followed by the actual gift card number. This is followed by an end sentinel, a carat (^). If your gift card provider follows this format exactly, it does not matter what else is contained in the magnetic stripe data; Lizzy will be able to read your gift card successfully.

We have also partnered with Plastic Resource to have them produce gift cards for Lizzy customers that meet the exact specifications needed to work with Lizzy. For more information or to order gift cards, please use the link here: http://www.printingplastic.com/nizeXinc

3) The starting number you choose for your gift cards is completely up to you. Your gift cards can be any number you like, as long as each number is unique.

If you have ever sold gift cards before, you will want to avoid reusing any of the numbers from the gift cards you sold previously, as that could cause confusion in tracking the cards’ value. Lizzy has the ability to “recharge” an existing gift card with more funds, so your gift cards can be used over again. If you stopped selling gift cards at number 1495, for example then you could start the new batch at 1496, 1500, or any higher number you like.

If you’re selling gift cards for the first time, Lizzy can use single digit cards if you choose, so the number you pick is entirely up to you.