Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

Last post 12-16-2009, 7:59 PM by Stefan Barlow. 15 replies.
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  •  09-08-2009, 6:12 PM 2269

    Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Hi All,

    We're looking for community support to build this module.

    Q. Who will benefit?
    A. Every AC customer that sells products and would like a new sales/income stream.

    Basic brief:
    To enable customers to purchase gift certificates, which can be emailed to a recipient, and used as a form of payment on the AC storefront.

    Benefits:
    - Capture gift sales, particularly during Christmas period
    - Customer acquisition: Gift recipients become NEW customers!
    - Capture corporate sales (staff incentives etc)
    - Use certificates as sales incentives for your existing customer base. i.e. Spend $x and receive a $x certificate for your next purchase.
    - Certificate redemption reporting - measure certificate profitability

    Example uses:
    1/ Send [GIFT CERTIFICATE EMAIL TEMPLATE] ,to [all customers that have opted in to newsletters.] AND [all customers that have not purchased for], [greater than 180 days] of [STORENAME]

    2/ Bulk generate certificate codes and merge them into an offline or online direct mail piece.

    Example orders:
    - A corporate customer would call us and say: Please send out (via email or print mail) 50x $50 vouchers for store 'X' with an expiry date of 'X'. (i.e. 50 different recipients/cert-codes generated on the one order)

    - Alternatively, a customer could simply buy multiple certificates on the front-end storefront (add them to their cart), and assign an email address (a recipient) to each of the certificates and checkout.

    Notes:
    To be clear, these are NOT coupon codes. (although they do share some similarities)

    Unlike an existing coupon code - the gift certificate is a unique code, and a form of tender (like a credit card). It is tied to a customer account, therefore if a customer only spends a portion of their certificate the balance is retained for their next purchase.

    Security & limited liabilty: unlike a coupon code, a certificate code can only be used once - period. Whereas a coupon code can only be set to be used once 'PER CUSTOMER'.

    Unlike an existing coupon code - a gift certificate can be purchased by a customer and sent/given to a NEW customer!

    Funding:
    We are prepared to contribute several thousand dollars to get this completed by end of Oct 09 in order to take advantage of this years peak holiday/gifting period. That is approximately 25% of the dev share estimate.

    Please register you interest below (within the next week, so we can hit the deadline) and AC will report back on whether this is a go for immediate development.

    Cheers

  •  09-09-2009, 3:36 PM 2271 in reply to 2269

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I think this would be extra beneficia if you could put 'credit' on a cutomers accoutn (ie to make up for a problem they experienced, or something).  All tehy would need to do is login and it woudl show the details of their credit on teh My account page, and also have this credit show as a partial form of payment on the checkout page (if they choose to use it)
    Article on Me & Americommerce
  •  09-14-2009, 7:54 AM 2275 in reply to 2271

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I would agree with Murdock...that would be a great addition.  As long as we could accurately report information like credits outstanding, credits redeemed and also having reporting information in the API would be excellent!
  •  09-14-2009, 7:59 AM 2276 in reply to 2275

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I agree, we are ready to contribute as well. Having this ready for Holiday '09 would be very beneficial. Having a robust system and accessing the data via the API are critical.
  •  09-17-2009, 12:44 PM 2277 in reply to 2276

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    We are working on the specifications for the base Gift Certificates functionality and we are looking for Dev Share contributions.  Target to launch is early November.
    Stefan Barlow
    Co-Founder, VP of System Operations
    AmeriCommerce
  •  11-09-2009, 8:32 PM 2391 in reply to 2277

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Has this been released yet?  I'm a little confused by the comment about it's release under "news and announcement" but I can't seem to find it on my Dashboard anywhere. 

     Thanks!

  •  11-09-2009, 9:15 PM 2392 in reply to 2391

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    If you're on the latest version, you'll see 'Gift Certificates' (beta) under the 'customers' menu and there's also a Gift Cert set up link in the left-hand nav on the stores > store sttings: page.

    Cheers 

  •  11-11-2009, 7:13 PM 2398 in reply to 2392

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I've got the Gift Certificates (beta) under the Customers menu, but I'm not finding the set up link in the store settings.  Can you point me to that again?

    Never mind, I finally found it.

  •  11-17-2009, 8:45 PM 2405 in reply to 2392

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Okay, I guess we don't have the latest version because I don't see that anywhere.  How do I get the latest version?
  •  11-18-2009, 12:41 PM 2406 in reply to 2405

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I put in a Support Ticket and asked for it.  They had it installed a few hours later.
  •  12-13-2009, 8:58 PM 2490 in reply to 2269

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Okay, we got the new version and set up a gift card category in our store.  I bought one and sent it to my business partner as a trial run, but he did not recieve the GC email.  I also don't see the GC listed in the GC tab under Pending or Active.  Is there another action I have to take in order to send the GC out?
  •  12-14-2009, 9:28 AM 2491 in reply to 2490

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Jennifer:
    Okay, we got the new version and set up a gift card category in our store.  I bought one and sent it to my business partner as a trial run, but he did not recieve the GC email.  I also don't see the GC listed in the GC tab under Pending or Active.  Is there another action I have to take in order to send the GC out?

     I didn't set it up in the store, just added them through the back end.  I'm ok with emailing this myself, but it looks like the system should be mailing it out (otherwise why would it ask for recipient email?).  However, after two tests with two different email addresses, no email appears to be sent.

  •  12-14-2009, 9:38 AM 2492 in reply to 2491

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Did you enable Gift Certificates on the Store settings?  There's a configuration link for it on the left column of Store settings.

    Stefan Barlow
    Co-Founder, VP of System Operations
    AmeriCommerce
  •  12-14-2009, 1:39 PM 2493 in reply to 2492

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Here is a new KB item on Gift Certificates:

    http://www.americommerce.com/kb/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=356


    Stefan Barlow
    Co-Founder, VP of System Operations
    AmeriCommerce
  •  12-16-2009, 4:53 PM 2506 in reply to 2493

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    I didn't have it enabled under Store Settings.. but after enabling it and testing numerous times, it's still not sending an email.
  •  12-16-2009, 7:59 PM 2508 in reply to 2506

    Re: Gift Certificates / Gift Vouchers

    Kathy, please submit a support ticket with some details and we'll see if we can find out what the issue is on your site.

    Thanks!


    Stefan Barlow
    Co-Founder, VP of System Operations
    AmeriCommerce
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