What are Gift Receipts?

A payment receipt that is issued as proof of a purchase is often called a gift receipt. Gift receipts are usually printed before the printing of a customer sales receipt at the point of sale. Retailers allow customers to return or exchange a purchased gift by providing a gift receipt.

Gift receipts show the description of each item but encode the price of the items to protect the cost information from being shown. A retailer can print either one item or several items on the gift receipt. After processing, a retailer has the ability to change or issue different configurations of gift receipts. For example, the same gift item may be shown on one receipt by itself or with other items.

As a courtesy, retailers should determine prior to finalizing their sale whether the purchaser would like a gift receipt; however, the POS application may also be programmed to automatically print gift receipts.

What is the difference between a normal receipt and a gift receipt?

Gift receipts differ little from normal purchase receipts, with the exception of the purchase price listed on them.

Though a normal receipt, or itemized receipt, will give a detailed breakdown of the purchased merchandise, a gift receipt will show no details about the merchandise purchased other than its description, while the price remains hidden.

Many retailers offer their customers the ability to create a gift receipt for their purchases so that you can provide your gift recipient with the gift receipt information without indicating the cost to you.

The gift recipient may then use that gift receipt to return the merchandise or exchange the gift at the retailer's stated return policy.