Selling Gift Cards

[nig]

I need to be able to sell gift cards and in order to do this properly I need the customer to be able to enter the value they want on the card.

Can this be achieved in Actinic?

** I am currently using multiples of €1 to allow them to purchase what they want.

[NormanRouxel]

If "value" means a number like an age, then see the Help for Attributes and Choices.

If you mean a textual greeting then see the Help for Other Info prompt.

There's also a Knowledge Base article on converting this from single line into a text area.

[Duncan Rounding]

...
** I am currently using multiples of €1 to allow them to purchase what they want.

...and if Value is the amount of the gift card in € then what you are already doing is the solution. You can't enter a variable amount directly.

(That said I suppose in theory it may be possible to use some javascript to split an amount entered into the component parts but I suspect it would be a lot of effort)

[NormanRouxel]

It's not clear what you're doing at present. If using a £1 item and the Quantity field for the number of £1's to buy you will have problems. Actinic combines identical items in the Cart so if a customer orders a gift card at £10 (quantity 10) and then later another at £20 (quantity 20), you'll end up with a single £30 (quantity 30) item in the Cart.

Instead consider using a Component and Permutations to have a drop-down list of all likely values. £1, £2, £3,,,,£9, £10, £15, £20, etc. See the Help for Choice Dependent Pricing.

If you really need the penny field, then a second Component with Permutations for 0p, 1p,,,99p could be used.

[nig]

It's not clear what you're doing at present. If using a £1 item and the Quantity field for the number of £1's to buy you will have problems. Actinic combines identical items in the Cart so if a customer orders a gift card at £10 (quantity 10) and then later another at £20 (quantity 20), you'll end up with a single £30 (quantity 30) item in the Cart.

Mmmm....good point and this is what I am currently doing.

As gift cards are electronic and can contain any value, I want the customer to be able to enter the value (in euro) for the gift card they want. From your point above I would also need each purchase to be unique.


If the above is not possible then your below suggestion may actually be a cleaner one.

Instead consider using a Component and Permutations to have a drop-down list of all likely values. £1, £2, £3,,,,£9, £10, £15, £20, etc. See the Help for Choice Dependent Pricing.

Thanks Nigel

[NormanRouxel]

My Component / Permutations is the way to go.

If someone orders 2 identically priced products it will clearly appear as quantity 2 at (say) 20Euro each. What's ordered will be clear to both the shopper and you.

Try it and see.

[Sean Williams]

As gift cards are electronic and can contain any value, I want the customer to be able to enter the value (in euro)

In our experience, the more choices you give the customer, the harder it becomes to satisfy them.
I'd limit the available choices to 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and possibly 50. Pretty well any combination of those basic amounts would provide them with what they want.