People who received Dick Smith gift cards for Christmas are losing out after Dick Smith's receiver confirmed it will not be honouring outstanding gift vouchers or refunding deposits.

The announcement comes after the electronic retail outlet was placed into receivership when its banks refused keep it afloat amid weak sales.

Dick Smith has gone into receivership. ROBERT KITCHIN/FAIRFAX NZ

The company - which has nearly 400 stores in Australia and New Zealand - has been trading as normal, as receivers Ferrier Hodgson ponder the options, although gift vouchers will not be honoured at this stage.

"We are immediately calling for expressions of interest for a sale of the business as a going concern," Radio NZ reports one of the company's receivers saying.

The company's directors had warned that sales in December had been below forecast and it had been unable to find cash as its banks pressed for their money back and refused to prop up the retailer any longer.

An update was expected sometime over the next few days, staff at the stores said, with one describing the current situation with gift cards as being a "freeze" rather than the stores refusing to honour them, reports Stuff.

The embattled electronics retailer announced it had gone into voluntary administration on Tuesday morning, following a trading halt on Monday pending an announcement about its "funding position and debt financing covenants".

Voluntary administration is a short-term procedure where an external administrator is appointed to take over the company's affairs and decide on its future.

McGrath Nicol was called in as the voluntary administrator and Ferrier Hodgson appointed as receiver.

In a statement, Ferrier Hodgson says it would try to sell the company as a going concern.

A going concern is a company that is operating and making a profit.

"Affected customers will become unsecured creditors of the group," it said in the statement.

Ferrier Hodgson says it would continue to pay Dick Smith's 3300 employees and the chain's 393 stores would operate as normal while it restructured the company and tried to sell it.

Ferrier Hodgson partner James Stewart said it was too early to tell what caused Dick Smith's current dire financial situation, other than noting it had become "cash constrained in recent times".

Stewart said the New Zealand arm of the business was profitable and expected it to be attractive to buyers.

A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesperson says customers wanting refunds for gift cards or vouchers should contact the receiver or liquidator to register a claim. Customers would need to put their claim in writing and provide evidence of what it owed, for example, a receipt.

Consumers with a deposit on an item became unsecured creditors, the spokesperson said.

"This means they may not get their goods or money back."

The Ministry says customers may still have rights under warranties provided by a third party company, for example extended warranties, which were covered under the Fair Trading Act.

The Ministry would not comment on customers left out of pocket from Dick Smith online purchases, or whether it was legal for Dick Smith to refuse gift cards but to continue accepting upfront payments for items.

Dick Smith cut the value of its stock by at least $65.9 million across Australia and New Zealand late last year.

At that time, the company's director of investor relations, David Cooke, said its New Zealand sales were declining but the rate of decline had halved in the last second half of the year.

Its shares on the Australia Stock Exchange plunged 57 per cent after the company announced it could not guarantee profit guidance given in October and warned of possibly more writedowns.

Additional reporting by Stuff.co.nz