To ship a gift order straight to the recipient, build the label from the order's ship-to address and keep the buyer's billing details and item prices out of the box. Send tracking to the buyer, who is the person waiting to hear that it arrived. Put the gift message on a card, keep your own shop as the return address, and print one test gift order before your holiday volume starts.

What is the difference between bill-to and ship-to on a gift order?

The bill-to address belongs to the person who paid, and the ship-to address belongs to the person who receives the box; on a gift order they are different people in different places. The label must use the ship-to address. The receipt, the prices and the order emails belong to the bill-to side.

Mix-ups happen when an order is copied by hand from a receipt, or when an export puts both address blocks in one row and the wrong columns get mapped. If you build labels from a spreadsheet, confirm that the name and street columns you import are the shipping ones.

Gift addresses deserve a second look. The buyer typed someone else's address, maybe from memory, so a missing apartment number is easy to miss. Fix it before you buy the label, since a box the carrier cannot deliver usually goes back to the return address and the gift arrives late. Our guide to fixing address validation errors covers the usual causes.

Example: one gift order	Buyer (bill-to)	Recipient (ship-to)
Name	Dana Reyes	Sam Reyes
Location	Columbus, OH	Apartment 4B, Denver, CO
Name on the shipping label	No	Yes
Receipt and prices	Yes	No
Tracking emails	Yes	Only if Dana forwards them

In this example, Dana orders a scarf for her brother Sam. The label goes to Sam's apartment with 4B on the second address line, the packing slip lists the scarf without a price, a card carries Dana's message, and the tracking goes to Dana.

How do you keep prices off the packing slip on a gift order?

Turn off item prices on every packing slip you print for a gift, because a marketplace's gift setting controls only that marketplace's own slip. A slip printed from another tool is a separate document with its own settings.

Platform	What its own packing slip does for gifts	What you still check
Amazon	Prices hidden by default when the customer marks a gift; the customer can choose to show them	Any slip you make yourself
Etsy	Gift slip leaves out what the buyer paid and adds a QR code to your shop	Any slip you print outside Etsy
Shopify	A Liquid template you edit; no documented price variable on line items	What your template and apps actually print
eBay	Slips print from Seller Hub Orders	No official gift guidance found; print a test slip

Amazon's Gift Options help page says that by default, when a customer marks an order as a gift, product prices do not appear on the packing slip, but the customer can choose to include them, and the choice shows on the Manage Orders slip. Amazon adds that sellers who make their own packing slips must manage the message and price display themselves.

Etsy's packing slips help article says buyers mark an order as a gift at checkout and the gift packing slip automatically omits the breakdown of what the buyer paid.

On Shopify, the packing slip is a Liquid template under Settings > Shipping and delivery > Documents > Packing slip template. Shopify's packing slip variable reference lists line item variables such as title, SKU and quantity, and no price variable. Do not assume that settles it for your store: print a slip from a test order and read every line, including anything an app adds.

How should you handle gift messages and notes?

Print or handwrite the gift message on a separate card, and check it against the order before the box is sealed. Where the message comes from depends on the platform.

Amazon: Gift Options (gift wrap, gift messaging, or both) need a Professional selling plan and are off by default. You turn them on in Settings > Gift Options and in the inventory file fields IsGiftWrapAvailable and IsGiftMessageAvailable. Messages are free, one per item, with a default maximum of 255 characters and 10 lines that you can lower, and they print on the Manage Orders packing slip. Gift Options are not available for Books, Music, Video and DVD products.
Etsy: according to Etsy's gift services help article, gift messages print on the packing slip with the buyer's message, your shop name and the item purchased. You cannot stop a buyer from marking an order as a gift, and you can mark one yourself from Orders > More actions > Mark as gift.
Shopify: Shopify's order notes guide shows how to turn on "Enable cart note" in the Cart theme settings, and order.note prints that note on your packing slip. Shopify's help center says a "Gift message" field built with Checkout Blocks can save to the order, but creating custom field blocks is available only on the Shopify Plus plan.

However the message arrives, the card step is the same:

Copy the message onto the card exactly as the buyer wrote it.
Check the name on the card against the ship-to name on the label.
Leave the receipt, invoice and any price sheet out of the box.
Place the card on top, where it is seen before the item.
If a gift order has no message, add a short card naming the buyer.

Whose return address should go on a gift package?

Use your shop's address as the return address on a gift label, not the buyer's. The return address is where the carrier sends a box it cannot deliver. If it comes back to you, you can contact the buyer and reship. If it goes to the buyer, the surprise is spoiled and you may not learn the delivery failed. Buyers who want their name on the outside get the same effect from the card.

Returns need the same planning. Etsy's gift services article says gift recipients can message the seller directly, but only the buyer can start a return request. Decide before peak who gets the return label: the buyer, who placed the order, or the recipient, who has the item. Our guide on how to send a return shipping label walks through the steps.

Who gets the tracking emails on a gift order?

Tracking for a gift order should go to the buyer, because the buyer is waiting for proof that it arrived and the recipient may not know a box is coming. The email address on the order is the buyer's, so tracking emails you send from your own tools reach the buyer, not the recipient.

A delivered scan lets the buyer tell the recipient to check the porch. It also means nobody at the address is watching for the box. For a valuable item, a signature service puts the box in someone's hands, but a missed signature means another attempt or a trip to collect it, which can spoil the surprise.

Before you promise a delivery date, check the domestic ship-by dates in our 2026 holiday shipping deadlines post, and run your test gift order by Friday, November 20, 2026, so slip and card problems surface before the late-November rush.

What changes when a gift ships to another country?

An international gift needs a commercial invoice, and that document states what the goods are worth, so the recipient can see a value even when your packing slip hides prices.

Choose the customs reason for export that matches what happened. A buyer paid you, so it was a sale from your shop even if it was meant as a present, and each destination country sets its own rules on what counts as a gift, so check them before you pick gift. Our guide to customs forms for small parcels covers the fields.

The duty choice matters more on a gift. With DDU (delivered duty unpaid), duties and taxes fall on the recipient, who did not plan to pay for a present. With DDP (delivered duty paid), the sender covers them. International cutoffs run earlier than domestic ones; see our 2026 international holiday shipping deadlines.

Where GoatLabels fits

GoatLabels prints packing slips (4x6, Letter or A4), one at a time or in bulk with labels. Item prices on the slip can be turned off, the shipping price is off by default, and you can add a logo and a footnote line. It checks the destination address before purchase and can warn when it could not verify it. Optional branded tracking emails go to buyers and are off until you switch them on. For international gifts, a commercial invoice is generated for every shipment, and the customs reason, including gift, prints on it.

The limits that matter here: tracking emails are off until you switch them on, so turn them on before your first gift order ships. For a gift return, you download the return label PDF and send it to the buyer or the recipient yourself. Print or handwrite the gift card from the order in your store's admin. The Free plan covers 50 shipments a month; see pricing for Pro.