Zest gives your team full control over the e-gifting experience — from setting shipping rates and eligible regions to configuring automatic refunds and monitoring unaccepted gifts. Everything is managed directly from your Zest partner dashboard, and you can update settings at any time.
Before you start:
You need admin access to your Zest partner account.
Review your typical shipping costs across common delivery regions before setting a flat e-gift rate.
Before enabling e-gifting for the first time, loop in your finance and IT teams — e-gifts affect revenue recognition timing.
What Are E-gifts and How Do They Work?
An e-gift is a digital gift that your customer (the gifter) sends to a recipient via email or a shareable link. Instead of entering a shipping address at checkout, the gifter pays upfront. The recipient receives a personalized gift invitation and enters their own address when they're ready to accept.
Here's the typical flow:
The gifter selects a product, chooses the e-gift send method, and completes payment.
Zest sends the recipient a gift invitation email.
The recipient accepts, enters their shipping address, and selects any product options (size, color, etc.).
Zest creates the order in Shopify, and your normal fulfillment process begins.
Note: Because the recipient's address isn't known at purchase, Zest uses a flat shipping rate for all e-gift orders. You set this rate yourself in shipping profiles.
Enabling and Disabling E-gifting
E-gifting is controlled per storefront. When disabled, only the direct-ship option appears to customers on that storefront.
To disable e-gifting on a storefront:
Go to Storefronts in your partner dashboard.
Select the storefront you want to configure.
Open Settings, then scroll to Advanced Settings.
Toggle on Disable e-gifting.
Click Save changes.
To re-enable e-gifting, follow the same steps and toggle off Disable e-gifting.
Note: Disabling e-gifting does not affect existing unaccepted e-gifts already in flight. Those continue through their normal flow until accepted, refunded, or canceled.
Heads up! If a storefront is set to single address mode, e-gifting is automatically disabled and cannot be turned on. Single address storefronts are designed for bulk orders to one address and are not compatible with e-gifting.
Setting the Default Send Method (E-gift vs. Direct Ship)
You can control which send method is pre-selected when customers land on your storefront. Customers can always switch between options — this setting just determines the starting default.
To set direct ship as the default:
Go to Storefronts and select your storefront.
Open Settings, then Advanced Settings.
Toggle on Set direct mail as the default send method.
Click Save changes.
To set e-gift as the default, toggle Set direct mail as the default send method off.
Tip: Many brands keep direct ship as the default for most of the year, then switch to e-gift as the default when holiday shipping cutoffs approach, so customers can still guarantee on-time delivery even when carrier deadlines have passed.
Configuring E-gift Shipping Rates (Flat Rate Setup)
Because the recipient's address is unknown at purchase time, Zest cannot calculate shipping dynamically for e-gifts. You configure one flat shipping rate per shipping profile, and that rate is charged for all e-gift orders on that profile regardless of destination.
Best practice: Set the flat rate at an average cost across your most common delivery destinations (for example, continental US) so shipping costs balance out across orders over time.
To configure your e-gift flat rate:
Go to Settings, then Shipping in your partner dashboard.
Select the shipping profile you want to edit (or create a new one for a specific storefront).
Find the E-gifting section within the shipping profile.
Enter your flat shipping rate.
Click Save changes.
The e-gift flat rate is managed separately from your direct-ship shipping rates. Changes to your main shipping zones do not automatically update your e-gift rate.
Need different rates for different regions? Because the e-gift flat rate is one per shipping profile, the only way to support different rates for different regions (for example, US vs. Canada) is to use separate storefronts with separate shipping profiles, each with its own flat rate.
Managing Allowed Countries and Regions for E-gifts
The countries and regions where recipients can accept e-gifts are configured within the E-gifting section of your shipping profile — separately from your direct-ship zone configuration.
To add or update eligible countries and regions:
Go to Settings, then Shipping.
Select the relevant shipping profile.
In the E-gift flat rate section, add the countries and regions you want to support.
Important: If a recipient tries to accept an e-gift and enters an address in a region not included in your e-gift shipping profile, they will not be able to complete acceptance. Make sure all regions you want to support are added to the e-gift section specifically.
Example: To offer e-gifts within the continental US but exclude Alaska and Hawaii due to shipping costs, simply omit those states from your e-gift zone. Customers see upfront which regions are supported for e-gifting.
Setting Up Automatic Refund Policies for Unaccepted E-gifts
You can configure Zest to automatically cancel and refund e-gifts that haven't been accepted within a set number of days. This setting is global across all your storefronts — you cannot set different expiration policies for different storefronts.
Many brands choose to leave automatic refunds off and monitor unaccepted e-gifts manually.
To configure automatic e-gift refunds:
Go to Settings, then Payment in your partner dashboard.
Scroll to the E-gift Refunds section.
Toggle on Automatically refund unaccepted e-gifts.
Set the Number of days before an unaccepted e-gift is automatically canceled and refunded. (Minimum: 14 days. Maximum: 90 days.)
Set the Maximum refund amount per e-gift. If an e-gift exceeds this threshold, Zest sends a notification email instead of processing the automatic refund automatically. (Minimum: $10. Maximum: $10,000.)
Enter a Notification email address to receive refund alerts, including notifications when a refund exceeds the maximum threshold.
Choosing your timeframe: Be mindful of holiday schedules — a 14-day window may be too short for gifts sent around major holidays when recipients may be away. Many brands choose 21–30 days as a minimum; some prefer 60 or 90 days. Align this setting with your existing gift card or return policies and confirm with your finance team, since this affects revenue recognition timing.
Auto-refund threshold alerts: When Zest cannot automatically refund an e-gift because the amount exceeds your configured maximum, it sends an alert to your notification email address. Monitor this email and process oversized refunds manually.
Note about invoice externally orders: For storefronts using the Invoice externally setting (private storefronts where orders are processed at $0), automatic e-gift refund and cancellation does not apply — there is no payment to refund. These unaccepted e-gifts must be canceled manually.
Understanding the Reminder Email Cadence
Zest automatically sends reminder emails to recipients who haven't accepted their e-gift. No setup is required — this happens for every e-gift automatically.
Recipient reminders:
Initial gift notification — sent immediately when the gifter completes checkout.
First reminder — sent 1 day after the initial gift notification.
Final reminder — sent 7 days after the initial gift notification.
Gifter notifications:
First summary — sent 1 day after checkout, showing acceptance status across all gifts in the order.
Final summary — sent 7 days after checkout, showing any gifts still unaccepted.
In addition to automated reminders, gifters can log into their dashboard at any time to manually send an additional reminder or copy the gift link to share directly with the recipient.
Monitoring Unaccepted E-gifts and Manual Management
You can view and manage all unaccepted e-gifts from the Reports tab in your partner dashboard.
To view unaccepted e-gifts:
Go to Reports in your partner dashboard.
Open the Outstanding Inventory base table, or use the Child Orders report with the type column filtered to E-gift.
Filter by storefront, date range, or other criteria as needed.
What you can do:
Monitor pending gifts and follow up with gifters to encourage recipient acceptance.
Copy a gift link from the dashboard and share it with a recipient directly.
Process individual refunds when requested by gifters.
Cancel e-gifts that are no longer needed.
Seasonal products: For limited-time or seasonal products, monitor outstanding e-gifts before the product becomes unavailable. If a recipient accepts an e-gift after the product is discontinued, fulfillment issues may arise.
Out-of-stock items: If products are out of stock as an auto-refund deadline approaches, you can temporarily adjust or pause the refund policy, then follow up with recipients once inventory is restocked.