Zest gives your brand two powerful ways to deliver a personal touch to gift recipients: a printed note tucked inside the package, and a digital notification sent by email or SMS. You control everything from your partner dashboard — no engineering required. This article explains how each option works, how to configure your setup, and how to make the most of both.
Overview: Printed vs. Digital Gift Notes
When a customer places a gift order through your Zest storefronts, they can write a personalized message for the recipient. That message can be delivered in two ways:
Printed gift note: A physical message included with the package — either printed on the packing slip, on branded cardstock, or as a handwritten note.
Digital gift note: A message sent via email or SMS to the recipient, typically through your Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign flows. Digital notifications can also include package tracking opt-in, marketing list opt-in, and a thank-you note prompt.
Both the printed and digital note use the same gift message the sender writes at checkout. You decide which combination works best for your brand and fulfillment setup.
Before you start: Review this article in full before making changes to your gift note configuration. Changes take effect immediately for new orders.
How Printed Gift Notes Work
Printed gift notes are automatically included with every gift order — your customers do not need to select them separately. Here's how it works end to end:
At checkout, the sender writes a gift message.
Zest passes the gift message as metadata on the Shopify order, using the same field names your existing packing slip or fulfillment workflow already uses.
Your fulfillment team checks for the gift note metadata when packing the order. When the field is populated, they print the message and include it in the box.
No special software is required. Zest formats the data to match your existing process.
Note: There is currently no visual preview of how the printed note will look in the checkout flow. Customers do see a preview for digital (e-gift) cards.
Why printed notes matter
Physical notes add a delightful touch to the gifting experience, reduce "who sent this?" support tickets, create a better unboxing experience, and require zero marketing integration to set up. Zest recommends starting here.
How Digital Gift Notes Work
Digital gift notes can be sent to the gift recipient via link, email, or SMS. They are part of Zest's e-gifting flow.
Important: Digital gift note notifications are only available on e-gift orders, or orders where the sender does not know the recipient's shipping address at checkout. Direct ship orders (where the sender enters the shipping address) collect a gift message for printing, but do not generate a digital gift note notification.
How it works:
The sender enters the recipient's email address (or phone number for SMS) at checkout.
They choose when to send the digital notification: at checkout, when the order ships, or when it's delivered.
The recipient receives a digital card with the gift message, and (optionally) a package tracking link, a marketing list opt-in, and a thank-you note prompt.
If the sender does not enter a recipient email, the order becomes print-only — no digital notification is sent.
Setup note: Digital notifications are delivered through your email provider flows, which your team sets up during Zest onboarding.
Using Both Together
When both printed and digital gift notes are enabled on your storefront:
Every direct ship order includes a printed gift note automatically.
E-gift orders give the sender the option to send a digital notification to the recipient.
If the sender skips the recipient email field on an e-gift order, only the printed note is included — no digital notification is sent.
Digital notifications provide additional benefits like tracking opt-in and email list opt-in that printed notes alone cannot offer.
Zest recommends enabling both for the richest gifting experience. The printed note ensures a great unboxing moment, while the digital notification captures warm leads and keeps the recipient informed.
Note: Currently, the same gift message text is used for both the physical card and the digital card. There is no option to write separate messages for each.
Configuring Your Preferred Setup (Printed Only, Digital Only, or Both)
You can configure your gift note setup directly in your Partner Dashboard — no code changes or engineering needed.
Enabling or disabling printed gift notes
In your Partner Dashboard, go to Settings > Checkout Settings.
Find the Printed Gift Notes toggle.
Turn it on to collect gift notes on all orders (direct ship + e-gift).
Turn it off to collect gift notes only on e-gift orders.
Printed notes are on by default. Zest strongly recommends keeping them enabled.
Enabling or disabling digital gift notes (e-gifting)
Digital gift notes are part of the e-gifting feature on your storefront.
In your Partner Dashboard, go to your Storefront settings.
Under Advanced Settings, find the Disable e-gifting option.
Leave it unchecked to allow e-gift orders with digital notifications.
Check it to allow only direct ship orders on that storefront (no digital notifications).
Recommended configurations
Your setup | How to configure | Best for |
Printed + Digital (recommended) | Keep printed notes on, keep e-gifting enabled. | Most brands — best overall gifting experience. |
Printed only | Keep printed notes on, disable e-gifting. | Brands without marketing automation set up, or those that prefer physical-only. |
Digital only | Turn printed notes off, keep e-gifting enabled. | Brands with paperless fulfillment centers or complex international printing workflows. |
Our recommendation: Start with printed notes first. They're simpler to set up, immediately reduce "who sent this?" support tickets, and don't require marketing integration. Add digital notifications in a second phase once your email or text flows are ready.
Warning: Disabling digital gift notes means you lose recipient email capture, marketing list opt-ins, and the ability for senders to notify recipients when orders ship — particularly valuable during holidays when recipients may be traveling.
Setting Up Physical Printing at Your Fulfillment Center
Zest passes the gift message as metadata on each Shopify order — your fulfillment team uses that metadata to print and include the note. Here's a step-by-step approach:
Simple setup: printing on the packing slip
Work with your Zest onboarding contact to confirm which Shopify order field carries the gift message.
Update your packing slip template to display that field when it's populated.
Instruct your fulfillment team to check for the gift note field on every order.
This is the easiest approach and requires no additional supplies.
Branded card setup
Order blank branded cards from a local printer, complete with logo, pre-printed design, and space for a personalized message.
Keep the cards at the packing station along with a quality printer that handles cardstock.
When an order has a gift note in the Shopify metadata, print the message onto a blank card and drop it in the box.
Optionally, use Shopify order tags (such as
zest-gift) to quickly identify which orders need a card.
Premium handwritten notes
Some brands go a step further with handwritten notes:
In-house: Have staff handwrite notes for orders flagged with the
zest-giftorder tag.AI-generated handwriting: Use a third-party AI-powered handwriting service.
Professional calligraphy: Hire calligraphers for a luxury unboxing experience.
Multi-warehouse tip: If your brand uses multiple fulfillment centers and cannot print personalized notes at scale, consider including a generic branded flyer in gift orders with a QR code that links to a page where recipients enter their order number to view their personalized digital message.
International printing tip: If your fulfillment is split across international locations (for example, printing in one country and shipping from another), real-time printed note integration may not be practical. In that case, starting with digital-only and revisiting physical notes later is the recommended approach.
3PL limitations: If your third-party logistics provider cannot print physical gift notes or modify packing slips, you can bypass physical notes entirely and use digital-only, or as an intermediate step, have your 3PL print the message on a standard packing slip.
Upselling Premium Gift Note Options (Handwritten Notes, Custom Cards)
Native upsell integration within the Zest module is not yet available, but a workaround exists today:
Add a checkbox in your cart that adds a premium gift note SKU (for example, "Handwritten Note — $5.00") to the order.
Collect the actual message text at checkout in the Zest gift message module as usual.
Your fulfillment team processes the premium note based on the SKU in the order.
Character Limits and Formatting Considerations
Character limits
The gift message character limit applies to both printed and digital gift notes — there is one configurable limit per brand. The default limit is 2,000 characters, which your Zest onboarding contact can adjust to fit your fulfillment constraints.
Zest also supports a maximum line limit for gift messages, configurable per brand.
Tip: If your printing setup has space constraints (for example, a small label or specific cardstock dimensions), ask your Zest contact to lower the character limit to something that works for your format. This ensures messages are always print-ready.
Formatting considerations
No visual preview for printed notes: Without a visual preview, some customers accidentally duplicate information — for example, writing "From Kelly" in the message body and also in the From field. Remind your customers in your storefront copy to avoid repeating details.
Printing alignment: Some brands report gift notes printing off-center on labels or stickers. If you experience alignment issues, contact Zest support with your printer and label details — the team can provide formatting tips.
Gift notes vs. monetary gift cards: Ensure your storefront messaging clearly differentiates gift notes (personalized messages included with an order) from monetary gift cards (store credit).