June 18, 2025

Gift Card Activation Software Helps Reduce Fraud. Here’s How to Easily Integrate It 

Gift card fraud remains an issue in 2025. However, by integrating the right gift card activation software, resellers can protect their customers and resell confidently.

gift cards

In 2020, one in four fraud reports in the US involved sending money to scammers via gift cards, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The commission also reported in its 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book that $212 million was lost to gift card fraud in 2023. It’s 2025, and they still remain  a “persistent threat.” 

As gift card fraud has become more prevalent, gift card retailers, resellers, and other stakeholders are recognizing the need to protect users and ensure they receive value for their money. 

A safe, secure, and yet simple gift card activation system is a key point of emphasis. Strategies like point-of-sale verification, multiple-step verification, and delayed activation for high-value cards have been promoted and adopted. 

For gift card resellers who want to protect their customers, choosing the right gift card activation software is a necessity. Such software will provide: 

• A quick and simple activation process
• Fraud protection strategies like multi-step authentication and point-of-sale verification
• Customer behaviour tracking to easily detect possible fraudulent activities
• A secure platform that protects users’ money and data

zendit’s gift card activation software provides you with all these and more, making it easy for you to securely resell a wide variety of gift cards to your customers without fear of fraud. 

In what follows, we will consider why gift card activation is a big deal, why you should choose zendit as your gift card activation software, and how to get started with the zendit API. 

Looking to resell digital gift cards to increase your revenue or use them to implement your loyalty and reward programs? Book a demo today to learn how zendit works and how it can benefit your business. 

1. Why gift card activation is necessary

Gift card activation has been embraced as one of the ways to minimise gift card fraud. 

It involves assigning a value to a gift card (equal to the gift card balance) and registering it in the system. Before this value assignment, a gift card is just a worthless physical card or a digital code. 

Gift card activation helps to reduce fraud by ensuring that only the person who bought the gift card can activate it. Thus, the gift card remains useless to anyone who steals it before activation. 

Some of the measures deployed to ensure this include: 

• Activation at checkout: Do gift cards get activated at self-checkout? Yes. One advantage of this is that the activation process is done at the point of sale (POS), which means the card cannot get into the wrong hands before activation. 

Immediate activation has gone beyond in-store purchases to include digital gift cards. 

• Multiple-step authentication: If a gift card is not activated immediately, then it can get into the wrong hands.

Because of this, the activation process must require more information than what is available on the card (usually the gift card number, a security code, and an expiration date). 

In this respect, personal details like name, email address, and phone number can also be used to confirm that the activator is also the purchaser. One-time passwords sent to mobile devices have also become popular as a means of confirmation.  

Similarly, retailers and gift card platforms have focused on how to activate a gift card without scanning it (through barcodes or QR codes). This can involve a phone call from the phone number that made the purchase, or any of the multiple-step authentication methods above. 

• Customer monitoring and fraud prevention: Many scammers don’t depend on getting unauthorised access to purchased gift cards. Instead, they gain unauthorised access to someone’s account details and use the stolen funds to buy gift cards. 

Some gift card management platforms have systems in place to flag repeated or multiple gift card transactions and delay the activation process until they are confident that the purchases are genuine. 

Do you have to activate a Visa gift card? 

Yes! 

Given its importance to gift card security, all types of gift cards – open loop, closed loop, reloadable, non-reloadable, physical, and digital – need to be activated.

But how do you handle this as a gift card reseller? This is where a gift card activation software comes in.

2. Why choose zendit’s gift card activation software?

A gift card activator software is a platform where buyers can activate purchased gift cards. These platforms handle the activation process on behalf of various card issuers, making them a one-stop shop for gift card activation. Some of them will allow you to automate the entire process such that every new purchase request is also an activation request. 

A gift card activator software is usually available as a part of a gift card management platform that you, as a reseller, can integrate into your website, POS system, e-commerce platform, customer relationship management (CRM) system, or mobile app.

With this software, you can initiate a real-time activation process for any gift card purchased on your platform so that your customer won’t have to bother with it. Alternatively, you can activate gift cards in bulk before selling them to your final customers. 

zendit is an example of a gift card management platform that provides gift card activation software as part of its functionalities. When you integrate the zendit API into your platform, you can activate a wide range of gift cards in real-time or batch. 

So, why choose zendit’s gift card activation software?

• Multiple activation options: You can choose to activate a gift card in real time at the point of purchase or do it in bulk before selling them. 

• Quick activation: zendit offers a quick and seamless activation process for both real-time and batch activation. 

• Safe and secure activation: zendit ensures safe integration of any of its API endpoints to your platform. Security best practices include API keys regeneration, IP addresses whitelisting, transaction authentication with ShieldWall, and webhooks authentication. 

We also require that you set up multiple-factor authentication to protect your account from scammers.  

• Hassle-free for your customers: The best gift card activation software hack for your customers is to take the burden off them. By handling the activation process, your customers don’t have to worry about it. Instead, they can focus on redeeming the gift card at the point of purchase. 

In addition to the benefits you enjoy with the gift card activation software, zendit’s gift card or gift voucher management platform provides many more perks: 

• Customer reports: By monitoring customers’ orders, you can understand their usage patterns and put a stop to suspicious gift card transactions until you have confirmed it’s the customer making the purchase. For example, an order for a $1,000 gift card from a customer who purchases gift cards with an average card value of $100 every month should raise suspicion. 

• Customizable offerings: zendit provides a white-label solution that allows you to customize gift cards with your brand identity – name, logo, image, and color. 

• Diversity of gift card options: zendit provides access to more than 15,000 gift card products from a diverse range of retailers. Your customers will be spoilt for choice. 

• No upfront cost or inventory requirement: While you can purchase gift cards in bulk, you don’t have to. You can wait for your customers to create an order before purchasing gift cards on the platform. 

• Secure payment gateway: With our secure payment gateways, you will never have to worry about the security of your money or data.   

• Seamless integration: You can quickly and easily integrate zendit’s gift cards API to your web and mobile platforms with minimal programming knowledge. (See the API documentation page for more information.) 

• Excellent support team: Our excellent support team is always available to help if you encounter any problems during the integration process. Our aim is maximum customer satisfaction. 

3. How to get started with zendit’s gift card activation software

You can start enjoying the benefits of zendit’s gift card activation software and the larger gift card or gift voucher management platform by following these steps: 

1. Create an account

The first step is to register for an account with zendit. All you need is an email address and a password. After the initial setup, you will need to activate multiple-factor authentication to protect your account.  

Once the registration is complete, you will have access to a dashboard from which you can continue with the integration process.    

2. Start with the test mode

After your account has been created, you can access your dashboard in test mode, as shown below:

This test mode helps you get familiar with the platform’s features before making purchases.  

3. Activate your account to go to production mode

To go live, you will need to complete a business, security, and payment setup. This involves providing your business information, adding more security features, and including a payment method (wire transfers, credit cards, debit cards) through which you will purchase gift cards on the platform. 

4. Access the gift card catalog

There is a Product Catalog tab on the left-hand side of the dashboard. If you click on it, you will arrive at the following page, where you can choose digital gift cards: 

This shows all the available gift cards, the region where they are applicable, the issuer, the card’s denomination, and the price in your local currency.

One interesting feature is that you can filter this list by any of the elements (region, country, brand, etc.). This is useful if you are looking for specific items based on your customer’s request.   

5. Complete API integration 

To offer any of the items on the product catalog to your customers (via web or mobile), you need to integrate the zendit API.

You can complete the integration before making any purchase, since zendit does not require you to have an inventory before using the platform. Once you have an order on your platform, you can come back to zendit to make the purchase. 

It’s also fine if you prefer to purchase the products before offering them to your customers. 

Whichever one you prefer, completing the API integration is essential. 

Everything you need for this process is available on the API Settings tab on the left-hand side of the dashboard. 

6. Purchase gift cards

When you click on a gift card, you will get more information about it, like the productID. 

You can also set the price at which you are reselling to the final customer. zendit will suggest a particular price and margin based on the competitive landscape. But you can choose to ignore this price and set yours. 

If your account has been activated, you can go on with the purchase. 

7. Activate gift cards

After a successful purchase, you can activate the product immediately. 

As said above, you can do real-time or batch activation. 

Also, every new purchase comes with a redemption code with which your customers can redeem gift cards. 

8. Manage transactions

Once you have started buying and selling gift cards, you can gain insights into your activity through the Summary, Transactions, and Account Statement tab.

The summary section looks like this: 

The transactions section looks like this: 

And the account statement section looks like this: 

With the summary section, you get details of your business’s revenue and profit from all transactions within a defined period. The transactions section provides a deeper dive into all purchase and sale transactions. Finally, the account statement section is like a bank account statement (contains opening balance, amount spent, amount received, and remaining balance) covering a stated period. 

Get started with zendit’s digital gift cards reseller API

zendit is the gift card activation software and management platform you need if you want to gain new customers for your business, cross-sell to existing customers, or implement gift card programs (for customer loyalty and employee rewards). 

We provide you access to thousands of gift card products from brands across the globe and an opportunity to customize these offerings with your brand identity and choose your preferred template. The API integration process is simple and safe, allowing you to seamlessly offer our products to your customers. 

Are you ready to make money from gift card reselling? Book a demo to see how our product works, or contact us to learn more about how gift card reselling can help your business.