Proper Gift vouchers - anyone? please...

[russell king]

Hi all

Have just gone live with our new site - http:www.CanvasEtc.com

We still need to sort out selling and redeeming gift vouchers.

By gift vouchers I mean ones that we can sell online (with no postage costs) and that can be fully or partly redeemed online (only once upto their value!).

Some example scenario's of how we would need this to work;

Joe bloggs buys a £50 voucher online for his brother. We email the voucher details to his brother including a unique voucher code (and send Joe an email confirmation). This would need to happen instantly. Joes brother comes to our site, buys a print for £70, uses the voucher code and gets £50 discount, we take the remaining £20 in the usual way.

Or Joes brother buys a print for £40, we charge him nothing and email him a gift voucher for the balance of £10....


Our entire business model is based on the fact that 20-25% of our business will be in gift vouchers. When researching ecommerce software Actinic appeared to have this covered. But it doesn't.
All our major online competitors offer online gift vouchers - but until we find a robust solution we can'!!!'

Are there any 3rd party or plug-in programmers willing to take this on?? I'm sure I'm not the only Actinic user who would be interested in an add on.

In the mean time I would be interested to hear how other Actinic users deal with gift vouchers, as im looking to implement a stop-gap solution for now

Many thanks

Russell King
www.CanvasEtc.com
fashion for walls...

[jont]

Thinking on the fly ......

One solution is to use the Digital Download feature for a range of products (1 for each gift voucher value) which downloads a specific file containing the coupon code ... a PDF file for example.

As the coupon code is not person specific you would need to add a rider to the bottom along the lines of "even though we take you money the coupon code entered is subject to COMPANY NAME approval prior to full authorisation" ... or whatever ... that would stop people using the same code over and over.

You could rotate the codes on a weekly basis etc to help prevent attempted fraud.

The major downside is that you would need to verify the coupon has been paid for. You need to tie the money paid to the actual coupon????

Hmmmmm..... needs thought about the later part ... not an issue if you are going to post the details out seperately (a la CD WOW) as you can create a unique code for that customer as set in Actinic and the voucher accordingly.

[russell king]

Mmmm....

That could work I guess. Could someone with experience of user accounts and discount coupons please verify if the following is feasible...

1) Customer buys gift voucher online as they would any other product

2) We post (snail mail) them (or their named recipient) an actual paper voucher.

3) We setup a user account on a per voucher basis, and a discount coupon too. (The gift voucher has the account user name, password, and an amount code (discount coupon code) on it).

4) We direct voucher users to a separate login page, they login, and enter the amount code (discount coupon code).

5) They shop online as normal - but when they get to the checkout they will get the discount applied.

Now I know this means that we'll have to check the code isnt used more than once, which I guess means checking gift voucher codes/deleting coupons regularly. But, could the rest work??.....

Regards

Russell King
www.CanvasEtc.com
fashion for walls...

[wjcampbe]

If I had the time - I think I would explore using a cookie creation script IP/date/time, emailing the output to customer and self, and creating a simple number/value database on the local PC fed from parsing the email.

[russell king]

Thanks for the suggestion, but Im afraid that's way technically over my head Bill ;-)

Does anyone know if the paper voucher with customer account + discount coupon method i detailed above would be viable??

thanks

Russell King
www.CanvasEtc.com
fashion for walls...

[RuralWeb]

There is another current thread on this - do a search for it. This and other ideas have already been discussed.

[russell king]

Malcom
My searches for a gift voucher solution or fully relevant discussion on this forum have either drawn a blank or more dead ends.

Can you please post URL's to the threads you mentioned?

Many Thanks

Russell

[RuralWeb]

Ive just looked and it was started by you!! http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=19328

Why start another on the same subject

[russell king]

Sorry for the duplication of thread topics, but my original thread died/ went off on a tangent...

And i'm still searching for an answer to what is a very serious issue/problem for our business...

SO serious that we may be looking at dropping Actinic because of it.

Russell

[RuralWeb]

I have exactly the same problem with a site I am developing www.TennisFox.co.uk and it is looking like setting up a customer account will be the only option - once setup then the login details are emailed with the voucher. I am also going to state that the voucher/coupon must be used completely. Also looking at % off vouchers that will be for sale on the site and given as prizes at club events.

I have tried vouchers with numbers and placing the order over the phone/online and paying by phone but some clients want it automated.

[Bruce]

Russell,

1) Customer buys gift voucher online as they would any other product

2) We post (snail mail) them (or their named recipient) an actual paper voucher.

3) We setup a user account on a per voucher basis, and a discount coupon too. (The gift voucher has the account user name, password, and an amount code (discount coupon code) on it).

4) We direct voucher users to a separate login page, they login, and enter the amount code (discount coupon code).

5) They shop online as normal - but when they get to the checkout they will get the discount applied.

Now I know this means that we'll have to check the code isnt used more than once, which I guess means checking gift voucher codes/deleting coupons regularly. But, could the rest work??.....

This is possible with Actinic, you can use the work around on the Knowledge Base here, to create the product that the customer buys and you download to create the account, the tracking will have to be done manually.

Kind regards,

[completerookie]

just an idea,
what about having a voucher "xyz123" as the number, and it is bought, as part of the acknowledgment process, create an account called "xyz123" and issue a password.
then when the user logs into that account, issue him with a discout to the value of the voucher.
It also encourages him to buy more, its also unique, and when he has taken the first order, remover the discount offered (or disable the account)

please don't get me wrong, I may not have thought through all the implications, its jsut an idea as I read it.

kev

[Jan]

I think that smart decisions dot net offer a voucher scheme for Actinic.

Regards,

[afm]

I'm looking for a voucher scheme that works too. Unfortunately, although Smart Decisions have a very nice advert on their site about a wonderful Actinic plugin to do this their sales people can't be bothered to ring you back with the details. The website doesn't give you any information either - despite providing a clickable link for the info.

If they have a product that actually works I've got money ready to buy it, but I'm assuming lack of interest from sales people and lack of info on the website is a big red flag to tread carefully. Pity.

[Robert Johnston]

Hello,

I'm currently working with smartdecision.net who are installing the electronic voucher / loyalty scheme for me. It will do everything you need and give you change from £400 + Vat. I have always found them very quick to answer any queries I may have and no hesitation recommending them.

Regards, Robert