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A gift card is a prepaid payment product, physical or digital, loaded with a fixed or variable monetary value that the holder can redeem for goods or services at one or more participating retailers. Balances are tracked in real time, and modern cards work across in-store, online, and mobile channels.

Breakage is the portion of prepaid or gift-card value that is never redeemed by the customer, including expired balances and small leftover amounts. Retailers track breakage closely because, depending on local regulation, unredeemed value can eventually be recognised as revenue or must be remitted to the authorities.

Stored value is money held on a card, account, or wallet that can be spent later without a linked bank account. Gift cards, prepaid cards, and transit passes are common examples. The balance decreases with each transaction and can often be reloaded, making stored value central to prepaid commerce.

Activation is the moment a gift or prepaid card becomes usable. At the point of sale or through an API call, the card's unique number is switched on and its starting balance is registered in the issuer's system. Until activation, the card holds no value and cannot be redeemed.

Omni-channel redemption lets a customer use one prepaid balance seamlessly across every sales channel — in a physical store, on a website, or inside a mobile app. The balance and transaction history stay synchronised in real time, so spending in one channel is instantly reflected everywhere else.

Float is the total outstanding prepaid balance a company holds on behalf of its customers before that value is redeemed. It represents both a liability and a source of working capital, so managing float responsibly is a core compliance and treasury concern for any large gift-card program.