Choice Gifts let you offer recipients the gift of choosing. Instead of sending a single predetermined product, you create a curated collection of products at a fixed price point. Recipients receive a link to browse your collection and pick the product they want most.
Think of it like a beautifully curated gift menu — you set the budget, select the options, and your recipient gets the joy of choosing exactly what they'd love.
Choice Gifts are created and managed entirely within Zest. Once configured, they appear as a single product in your storefront that gifters can purchase like any other item.
How Choice Gifts Work: Gifter and Recipient Experience
What the Gifter Sees
When browsing your storefront, the gifter sees the Choice Gift as a single product — complete with the name, description, and images you've configured. They do not see the individual product options inside the collection before purchasing. The gifter simply adds the Choice Gift to their cart and checks out at the fixed price you've set.
What the Recipient Experiences
After the gifter sends the Choice Gift, the recipient receives an email with a link to open their gift. Here's what happens when they click through:
Browse the collection — They see all the products you've included, displayed as a visual grid with product images and titles.
View product details — They can click into any product to read its full description and see additional images.
Select their gift — They tap "Select Gift" on the product they want. If a product has multiple variants (like size or flavor), they'll be prompted to choose one.
Enter shipping details — They provide their shipping address and email.
Choose a shipping date (optional) — They can optionally request a preferred "ship after" date.
Marketing opt-in — They'll see an opt-in checkbox for your brand's marketing communications, if you've enabled this in your settings.
Note: Zest checks Shopify inventory when the recipient opens their gift link. If a product has gone out of stock since the gift was sent, it will appear grayed out and marked as "Unavailable" — the recipient simply picks from the remaining options.
Can gifters see what the recipient chose?
No. The recipient's product selection is not visible on the gifter's dashboard. This applies to both Choice Gifts and standard e-gifts where the recipient swapped for a different product.
Setting Up Choice Gifts
Before you start
Your organization needs a default shipping profile configured in Zest. If you haven't set this up yet, reach out to the Zest team for assistance.
Creating a Choice Gift
Navigate to Choice Gifts in your Zest partner dashboard.
Click Create to start a new Choice Gift.
Fill in the details:
Title — The name gifters will see in your storefront (e.g., "The Gourmet Selection" or "$100 Gift Collection").
Description — A compelling description of the collection. This is what gifters see before purchasing. (Maximum 2,000 characters.)
Images — Upload at least one image. You can add multiple images to create a carousel. These should represent the collection as a whole, not individual products.
Price — The fixed price gifters will pay per recipient.
Tax type (optional) — Select the appropriate tax category if applicable (e.g., Food & Beverages, Wine, Groceries, or General Merchandise).
Select products — Choose at least two products from your catalog to include as options. You can drag and drop to reorder them.
Save your Choice Gift.
Adding Choice Gifts to a Storefront
Once created, your Choice Gift becomes a product you can add to any of your storefronts through the storefront's product listings settings. You can include both Choice Gifts and regular products in the same storefront.
Tip: Custom Images Matter. When creating multiple themed Choice Gifts (e.g., "The Sweet Tooth Collection" and "The Savory Sampler"), design custom hero images for each. This helps gifters quickly distinguish between different collections in your storefront catalog. Don't rely on individual product images — create something that represents the theme.
Creating multiple price points
Each price point should be its own Choice Gift. For example, if you want to offer a $50, $100, and $150 option, create three separate Choice Gift products — each with its own curated set of products appropriate for that price range.
Pricing and How It Flows to Shopify
Choice Gifts use a single fixed price that you set when creating the collection. Here's how that works:
The gifter pays the fixed price you set — regardless of the retail prices of the individual products included.
When the order flows to Shopify, Zest uses your fixed price (not the product's Shopify price) in the order. This means the Shopify order reflects the price the gifter actually paid.
No refunds or recharges are needed for price differences between products in the collection.
Tip: Keep Product Values Similar. Choice Gifts work best when all included products are at or near the same retail value. Since the gifter pays a single fixed price, including products with significantly different retail values can create a perceived inequity — even though the fixed price is what appears to the recipient. The individual Shopify prices are overridden, so the price difference is not visible to the recipient, but it's good practice to keep values aligned.
Choice Gifts vs. E-Gifts With Swapping: Which to Use
Zest offers two ways to let recipients have a say in what they receive: Choice Gifts and E-Gifts with Swapping. Here's how they compare:
| Choice Gifts | E-Gifts with Swapping |
How it works | Recipient must choose one product from a predefined collection | Recipient receives a specific product and can optionally swap it for alternatives |
Product options | Only the products you select for the collection | Any product in the storefront within the price range (90–100% of the original product's price) |
Product descriptions | Visible when recipient clicks into a product's detail view | Visible directly in the product list and in the swap modal |
Price handling | Single fixed price, no price-range restrictions between options | Swap options must fall within 90–100% of the original product's price (including shipping) |
Setup | Create a dedicated Choice Gift product with curated options | Send any e-gift product and enable swapping on the storefront |
Our recommendation
For most use cases, we recommend E-Gifts with Swapping. The swapping experience has received significant UX investment — recipients see richer product descriptions upfront, the flow feels more intuitive, and it's the approach we're actively developing and improving.
The recommended approach: Send a specific product as an e-gift, enable swapping on your storefront, and curate a storefront with products at similar price points. This gives recipients the same flexibility as a Choice Gift but with a more polished experience.
When Choice Gifts make sense: Choice Gifts are a strong fit when you need recipients to make an explicit selection before anything ships — for example, when product options are meaningfully different (dietary restrictions, product categories) and you want the recipient to actively confirm their preference rather than passively accept or swap a default.
Organizing Choice Gifts in Your Storefront
You can include Choice Gifts alongside regular products in the same storefront. Here are a few approaches:
Mixed storefront — Add Choice Gifts and regular products together. This works well when you want to give gifters the option of either sending a specific product or letting the recipient choose.
Dedicated Choice Gift storefront — Create a separate storefront just for Choice Gifts. This is a clean approach when your audience primarily wants recipient-selected gifts.
Multiple themed collections — Create several Choice Gifts within a single storefront, each with a different theme or price point (e.g., "The $75 Collection," "The $125 Collection").
Note: If you separate Choice Gifts and regular products into different storefronts, gifters will need to complete separate orders for each storefront. Consider your audience's needs when deciding how to organize things.
Common Use Cases
Employee gifting programs — Let employees choose their own gift from a curated set, making company-wide gifting feel personal.
Dietary and preference accommodations — Create collections that account for different needs (e.g., a vegan option alongside a non-vegan option) and let recipients self-select.
Sample sales and promotions — Offer a curated selection at a fixed promotional price.
Gift card alternative — Instead of sending a monetary gift card, let recipients choose a real product from a curated collection. It feels more thoughtful while still giving them agency.
Customer service recovery — Some brands train their customer service teams to offer Choice Gifts instead of traditional gift cards or refunds, allowing a dissatisfied customer to select a curated replacement product.
Large-scale campaigns — Generate unique gift links in bulk and distribute them through your own email systems, CRM, or internal tools for company-wide or event-based gifting.
Limitations and Things to Know
E-gift only. Choice Gifts only work as e-gifts where recipients provide their own shipping address and select their product. They cannot be used for pre-addressed physical shipments.
Brand-configured only. Choice Gifts must be set up by your team in the Zest dashboard. Gifters and recipients cannot create their own collections.
Minimum two products. Each Choice Gift must include at least two product options.
No nested Choice Gifts. A product that is already part of a Choice Gift collection cannot itself be a Choice Gift.
Description character limit. Choice Gift descriptions are limited to 2,000 characters and cannot contain < or > characters.
One image minimum. You must upload at least one image, and multiple images are supported as a carousel.
Inventory between send and accept
Because Zest checks Shopify inventory in real time when the recipient opens their gift, a product could become unavailable between when the gift was sent and when the recipient opens it. If all products in a Choice Gift become unavailable, the recipient will see a message asking them to contact support. Make sure your Choice Gift collections include enough options to handle occasional stock changes.