Gift Card

A salon gift card holds a prepaid monetary value that a recipient can apply to any service or product purchase at the issuing venue. The purchaser pays the full face value upfront; the recipient spends it over one or more visits.

Gift cards are a revenue-positive product for salons. From a cash flow perspective, they generate revenue before any service has been performed — the business receives the payment when the card is sold, not when it is redeemed. In accounting terms, the sold value is initially recorded as a liability (the obligation to provide the service), which converts to revenue when the card is used.

Gift cards also function as a marketing tool. They introduce new clients to the salon — many gift card recipients have not visited before — and they bring existing clients back when they might otherwise have lapsed. The average gift card also results in the recipient spending slightly above the face value of the card, as they often book a slightly more expensive service than the card covers.

Physical gift cards require stock management and a mechanism to track the remaining balance. Digital gift cards are simpler to manage: they are sent as a code via email, the balance is tracked in the system, and there is no stock to manage.

On OpenChair, gift cards are digital and managed within the platform. They can be purchased through your storefront and sent directly to the recipient by email. The balance is tracked automatically and applied at checkout when the client presents their code.