Free gifts are a marketing tactic proven to boost sales and improve customer satisfaction. With the Shopify app "Gift Box," you can easily start offering them in your own store.
"My Shopify store's sales have plateaued — what should I do?"
"I want to try running a 'free gift with purchases over $X' promotion in my own shop!"
"What kind of app is Gift Box? How is it different from other apps?"
Reading this article will resolve questions and needs like the ones above.
Gift Box is an app that lets you easily set up appealing free-gift campaigns, such as "get a free gift with purchases over $X." Its settings screen supports Japanese and is simple to operate.
This article explains Gift Box's benefits, points to watch out for, and how to use it in detail. If you want to boost your store's sales and improve customer satisfaction, please use this as a reference.
What Is Shopify's Free Gift App "Gift Box"?
Image source: GB: Free Gift with Purchase｜Shopify App Store
Gift Box is a marketing app for offering customers free gifts on your Shopify store. By introducing a free-gift campaign with this app, you can encourage customers to make additional purchases, which can be expected to boost sales.
Gifts are automatically added to the cart once the conditions are met, so there's no extra effort required from the customer. It can also be used to offer product samples, helping raise product awareness. Beyond physical products, gifts can also be set up as free shipping or a free upgrade to paid protection/coverage.
No coding or design knowledge is required, so anyone can easily set up a free-gift campaign. Several such gift apps exist on Shopify, but many of them don't support Japanese. Gift Box's distinguishing feature is that it does.
Two Things to Watch Out for With the Shopify App Gift Box
Gift Box makes it easy to start offering free gifts, but there are two things to watch out for.
The first is that it can "only do free gifts." Similar marketing apps often offer not just free gifts, but various upsell features such as amount-based discounts (e.g., 10% off for purchases over $100), quantity discounts (e.g., 20% off when buying a certain number or more), and product bundles (e.g., 10% off a shampoo + conditioner set).
Gift Box, on the other hand, only offers a free-gift feature, so unlike other more feature-rich apps, it can't run a variety of other campaigns.
The second is that pricing is on the higher side. Compared to other apps, Gift Box offers fewer features, yet its pricing is about the same or sometimes a bit higher. Being able to configure it in Japanese is appealing, but for shops on a tight budget, using a lower-cost, more feature-rich app elsewhere may offer better cost performance.
In summary, this app is a great fit for shops that only need a free-gift feature, prioritize Japanese-language support, and have a bit of budget to spare.
Gift Box's Main Features and Capabilities
Here are Gift Box's main features and capabilities.
Campaign Pop-up Display
A pop-up notifies customers that they can receive a free gift. When you set up "buy X, get Y as a gift," a link to product X can be inserted into the pop-up, smoothly guiding customers to the product.
The pop-up's design can be freely customized to match your brand's colors and image. The timing of its display can also be configured.
Automatic Gift Addition to Cart
With Gift Box, once a customer meets the conditions for a gift, it's automatically added to the cart. Since customers don't need to take any extra action, their shopping experience isn't disrupted.
The cart clearly shows that the item is a free gift and displays its price as $0, so there's no confusion.
Flexible Gift Condition Settings
You can set a variety of gift conditions to match your store's sales strategy. For example, detailed rules such as "purchase of a specific product" or "purchase over a certain amount" are possible. You can also apply gifts only to specific collections or run limited-time campaigns.
This lets you build strategies for promoting products you want to clear from inventory, or for encouraging the purchase of high-priced items.
Letting Customers Choose From Multiple Gift Options
Rather than limiting the free gift to a single product, you can let customers choose their favorite from among several products. This not only increases customer satisfaction by giving them the enjoyment of choosing, but also serves as an opportunity to showcase your product variety.
This feature can also be used as marketing research to learn about customer preferences.
Combining Free Gifts With Discount Codes
A major feature of Gift Box is that it lets you apply a free gift and a discount code at the same time. With some other free-gift apps, you can only use one or the other, but with Gift Box customers can receive both benefits.
For example, during a sale season, customers can use a 10%-off coupon while also receiving a free gift for purchases over a certain amount. This heightens the sense of a great deal and can boost purchase intent.
Benefits of Adding Gift Box to Shopify
Here are the benefits you can gain by adding Gift Box to Shopify.
Increased Average Order Value (AOV)
Introducing Gift Box can be expected to increase your average order value. For example, by setting a condition such as "get a free gift with purchases over $50," you can encourage customers to buy additional products in order to receive the gift.
Stimulating purchase intent in this way leads to a higher amount spent per order. Gift settings tailored to seasonal products or sale periods in particular can have a significant effect.
Effective Promotion of New Products
If you set the product offered as a free gift to be a sample of a new product, it can serve as an opportunity for customers to discover that new product. This can be expected to encourage future purchases.
If you're unsure how to roll out a new product, you can offer multiple options and collect data on customer choices. This lets you understand which products caught customers' interest, which can be put to use in future product development and marketing strategy.
Improved Customer Loyalty
Free gifts can also be offered to specific individuals only. Being singled out for an offer makes customers feel they're receiving special treatment, which raises their favorable impression of and loyalty to your store.
Running campaigns such as birthday perks can leave customers with a positive impression, leading to repeat purchases.
Easy to Introduce and Operate Thanks to Japanese-Language Support
Gift Box supports multiple languages, including Japanese, so Japanese shop owners can introduce it with confidence. Setup is easy and can be operated intuitively even without technical knowledge.
Since you can also inform customers about the free gift in Japanese, there's no confusion. You can carry out effective marketing measures without feeling a language barrier.
Shopify App Gift Box's Pricing Plans
Here's an explanation of Gift Box's pricing plans. There are two pricing plans, tied to the Shopify plan you're subscribed to. Shops on any plan other than Shopify Plus use the "STANDARD plan," while shops on the Shopify Plus plan use the "PLUS plan." There is no difference in the features available.
| Pricing Plan | STANDARD | PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible plan | Any plan other than Shopify Plus | Shopify Plus plan |
| Price | $29.99 | $99.99 |
| Features | All features | All features |
| Support | 24/7 chat & email | 24/7 chat & email Onboarding call |
As of April 2025
Gift Box offers a 3-day free trial. If you're interested, it's worth trying out.
How to Set Up and Configure the Shopify App Gift Box
Here's how to set up and configure Gift Box.
First, install "GB: Free Gift with Purchase" from the Shopify App Store.
Image source: GB: Free Gift with Purchase｜Shopify App Store
An installation confirmation will appear again in your Shopify store, so click "Install."
Image source: Shopify admin
Once installation is complete, the setup guide is displayed right away. Click "Enable" next to "Enable Gift Box in the theme editor."
The store's customization screen is displayed automatically, so turn on the "Gift Box" switch and click "Save."
That completes the initial setup.
How to Use the Shopify App Gift Box
This section continues from the setup in the previous section and explains how to use Gift Box in detail.
Click "Create a Gift" next to "Set up your first gift offer."
The following four gift types are displayed.
- Free product: Offer one product for free
- Free gift selection: Let customers pick one free product from several
- Free shipping: Offer free shipping as a perk
- Custom free gift: Offer any perk you like (e.g., free paid protection)
Click "Select" next to the gift type you want to set up. This walkthrough covers "Free product."
The gift setup screen appears. Settings are shown on the left half, and a preview on the right half. Enter any name you like into "Gift Name."
In the "Free Gift" field, select the product to offer as the gift.
In "Gift Conditions," choose one of four conditions for offering the free gift.
- Spend X: Offer a gift when the customer spends more than a certain amount
- Buy product X: Offer a gift when the customer buys X
- Spend X in collection Y: Offer a gift when the customer spends more than a certain amount within a specific collection
- Buy any product from collection X: Offer a gift when the customer buys any product within a specific collection
In "Gift Quantity," set how many gift products to offer when the customer meets the condition.
In "Customize Text," set the title and subtitle displayed in the pop-up. Other wording and the overall design can be changed under "Settings" in the app screen.
Checking "Show product name as a link" improves usability.
In "Additional Conditions," you can restrict who is eligible for the gift.
- Access the gift via a specific link: Only those who know the link are eligible
- Target a specific country: Only residents of the target country are eligible
Finally, in "Active Dates," set the start date/time and (optionally) the end date/time for this gift.
Once set up, click "Save" at the top of the screen.
Finally, let's check the behavior on your store. Click "Go to your store" or open a preview of your online store.
In this article's example, the setup is "Buy jeans, get a T-shirt for free."
A free-gift pop-up appeared in the bottom right of the screen. If "Show product name as a link" is checked, the product name in the pop-up becomes a link.
When the jeans are added to the cart, the T-shirt is also added, as shown in the image. Its price is set to free. The pop-up also changed to show that the condition was met.
That concludes the usage walkthrough.
[Bonus] An Easy-to-Use, Japanese-Made Gift Distribution App
RuffRuff Order Bonus
RuffRuff Order Bonus is a Shopify app that lets you run a variety of perk campaigns (discounts and gift distribution) under any condition.
Compared to Gift Box, both its help pages and customer support are available in Japanese, so you can use it with confidence whenever you run into trouble. It's also appealing that all features are available even on its low-cost pricing plan.
Using RuffRuff Order Bonus, you can run campaigns such as the following:
- Free shipping exclusively for VIP members
- Discounts by membership rank
- Volume discounts
- Discounts when a specific product is included
- Discounts for customers with 10+ past purchases
- First-come, first-served discounts (20% off for the first 10 customers)
- Gift distribution exclusively for members
- Sample distribution with the purchase of a specific product
- Distributing summer samples during a spring-only campaign
- Novelty gift distribution for purchases over $100
and more.
Because this app was developed by a Japanese company, it offers robust Japanese-language support, so it can be used with confidence even by those who aren't comfortable with English.
RuffRuff Order Bonus Pricing Plans
- Monthly billing: from $9.9/month
- Annual billing: from $99/year ※ a savings of 2 months' fee compared to monthly billing
The blog article below introduces how to distribute novelty gifts using RuffRuff Order Bonus. Please use it as a reference.
Gift Box Is a Free-Gift-Focused App That Shines Thanks to Japanese-Language Support and Easy Setup
This article explained "Gift Box," an app for starting free-gift campaigns on your Shopify store, covering its benefits, points to watch out for, and how to use it.
Gift Box is a rare app whose settings screen supports Japanese. It's also simple to use, so even those without web knowledge can feel at ease. On the other hand, if you want to run upsells or cross-sells beyond free gifts, you'll need to introduce another app.
If you feel "a free gift is all I need" or "I want Japanese-language settings even if it costs a bit more," please consider introducing it.
The blog article below introduces Shopify apps other than Gift Box for distributing gifts and novelties. Please use it as a reference.
