How to limit gift card purchases on Shopify

Short answer: Cap how many gift cards can be bought in one order — gift cards are a common target for fraudsters using stolen cards. In Checkpost, choose “Limit gift card purchases” from Templates, adjust the values, test it, then save and enable the rule.

The problem

Gift cards are a favourite target for fraudsters using stolen cards, because they convert straight into resellable value. Capping quantity limits the damage of a single fraudulent order.

How to set it up

1. Install Checkpost from the Shopify App Store.
2. Open Templates and choose Limit gift card purchases.
3. Set the maximum gift-card quantity.
4. Use Try this rule to test a sample cart, then click Save rule.

The rule

Checkout is blocked when all of these conditions is true:

• Combined quantity of products (products gift cards) is greater than 3

Shoppers see: “You can buy up to 3 gift cards per order.” at the top of checkout, in the cart and at checkout.

{
  "name": "Gift cards: max 3",
  "match": "all",
  "conditions": [
    {
      "kind": "line_number",
      "field": "matching_quantity",
      "op": "gt",
      "value": 3,
      "filter": {
        "giftCardsOnly": true
      }
    }
  ],
  "message": "You can buy up to 3 gift cards per order.",
  "target": "cart",
  "runOn": "always"
}

Where this rule works

These are cart and checkout validations, including supported accelerated checkouts. They are current-cart policies; they do not track previous purchases of a SKU. Shopify excludes POS, recurring subscription orders and native pre-order/Try Before You Buy flows from this API. See Shopify's validation compatibility.

Tips

• Combine with "Customer's previous orders is exactly 0" to only restrict first-time buyers.
• Use "Combined subtotal of products" with gift cards selected to cap the value instead of the count.

FAQ

Does this include digital and physical gift cards?

Yes. Every product Shopify marks as a gift card is counted.

Will legitimate corporate buyers be blocked?

Tag trusted business customers and add a "has none of" condition so they can buy in bulk.

Related rules

Add limit gift card purchases to your store