Tracking Gift Certificate Purchases from website?

[cgchris99]

I have been requested to put Gift Certficate Purchases on one of my clients websites.

This will be done via PayPal.

Anyone know a good way to track these purchases and how to possible allow them to print the certificate to bring into the store?

I just don't want everyone to buy one certificate and then copy it and bring it into the store once a week.

Thanks for any info.

[paladin]

If the store has internet access then it is simple:
Create a unique ID number for each certificate
when the customer comes to redeem it at the store, the store looks up the ID number online and marks it as used in the online database.

[SinclairUser]

I have used gift certificates on a website.

I set up a MySQL database to track the paypal purchase and to record the invoice number (unique to that customer).

If the paypal purchase is "Completed" you can then generate an on-screen certificate with the invoice number on it and let them print it off. The store that accepts the gift certificate needs to have a way to check the invoice number against the MySQL database to check that it is valid and has not been used before. This could be a simple website form that runs a query against the database.

Once the gift certificate is accepted they need to update the database to mark that certificate as "used" to prevent fraud.

Hope this helps...

[SinclairUser]

Paladin - great minds think alike!

[cgchris99]

The MySQL sounds like a good solution but I am not sure the customer wants to spend that much considering the time it will take to implement and test.

I was hoping for a more canned or completed solution that I could just drop in place.

Thanks for any further advice.

[paladin]

SinclairUser,
You left me speachless
;)

Paladin - great minds think alike!