OnLine Gift Certificates

Client wants to allow gc purchase online..wants to avoid using paypal

[msfabalous1]

I have a client that wants to add the "Purchase Your Gift Certificate Online" to their site. I suggested to use PayPal and they would like to avoid that. Is there a program out there other than PayPal that is both easy to use and cost effective? This site will also eventually become ecomm site in the very distant future.

Thanks for any feedback....

Ms Fab

[GaryS622]

If you're buying something online, it's gonna have to be handled through an e-commerce package, unless you do something simple like the PayPal idea you suggested. Credit card acceptance online requires an e-commerce package to do it securely. You probably know this, but DO NOT TAKE CREDIT CARD NUMBERS BY AN E-MAIL FORM or anything like unto it. If you aren't using SSL and running the CC data into a secure database environment, you or your client will get busted by your merchant provider for big-time fines.

[webwoman]

I have a question regarding Paypal and gift certificates - if I sell the gift certificate through paypal, how does the customer redeem it for specific products at my site?

I don't see a way for the receipient of the certificate to then use the certificate in the Paypal shopping cart...I asked this question of Paypal but never got an answer.

Thanks for any info you have on this.

-webwoman

[SuperLite17]

Hello to all. This is a reply to webwoman:

The simplest way I've used in the past for customers to redeem Gift Certificates is at the checkout page BEFORE it's submitted to PayPal.

When a shopper wants to redeem a gift certificate, they enter the ID of the gift certificate (which is associated with the value amount) and it is subtracted from the Total Checkout Price.

[GaryS622]

I kind of assumed that the gift certificates in this case were meant to be redeemed in person, since the site apparently isn't a full-blown e-commerce site from the original poster's description of it.

If you're going to sell gift certificates, your shopping cart has to support that function. I'm only familiar with MIVA, but in MIVA it's done through 3rd party modules. The GC is a saleable item which can be paid for by any payment method. If I accepted PayPal, you could buy a gift certificate at my store and pay for it that way, but once it's purchased PayPal has nothing further to do with it.

The cart has to keep up with gift certificates and their values. When a shopper redeems one, they have to be able to enter their GC code at checkout and this value has to be deducted from the sale.