Online Gift Vouchers

[russell king]

I have raised this issue before in this forum, but I still desperately 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 also be fully or partly redeemed online (only once up to their value!). Like the schemes that Amazon and other online retailers run.

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

Customer buys a £50 voucher online for her mother. We email the voucher details to her mother including a unique voucher code (and send customer an email confirmation). This would need to happen automatically. Customer's mother then chooses a print for £80, uses the voucher code and gets £50 discount, we then take the remaining £30 in the usual way.

Or customer's mother buys a print for £40, we charge her nothing and email her another gift voucher for the balance of £10....

All of our major online competitors offer online gift vouchers, but until we find a decent solution that works in/with Actinic we can't !...
I would be very interested to hear how other Actinic users deal with gift vouchers, is anyone here using the PayPal gift voucher system?

Actinic: Is this feature something that will ever make it into the product?

Many thanks

[RuralWeb]

I would be very interested to hear how other Actinic users deal with gift vouchers, is anyone here using the PayPal gift voucher system?

I use it on one site and uptake this Christmas has been impressive. I have also seen that people are actively searching out websites that use it.

[jont]

Is this feature something that will ever make it into the product?

This is a long standing wish list and until the systems moves over to a live database not one that can be effectively resolved. There have been between the lines hints at it moving that way for v9 from the Actinic guys but as ever it stays tight-lipped until product release.

[jamesah]

gift voucher idea...

This may not work for you but I seem to have found a way. Sadly it seems to have some shortcomings so it may not be suitable.
I am using version 8 designer and my client uses 'client' to update.

In Marketing > Discounts and Surcharges Settings
Select Cart Contents and click new (to enter a code). In the general tab check enabled and 'requires coupon code'. Place a Trigger in the field.
Underneath there is a 'Rewards' section. Select '£off' and enter the reward amount. The restrictions tab is self explanatory. My vouchers are valid for 6 months.
I have used this for two vouchers that were bought online. The unique number of the voucher is sent to the client along with the voucher (so they can use it in store as well).

The field for entering the code is in the shopping pages.

Hope that helps....

Now for the shortcomings. When my client comes to doing updates - which she does fairly regularly - she seems to wipe the voucher code. For some reason in her version (Catalog Client) she doesn't seem to have the optiopn to create a code. ie. the 'Cart Contents' tab is not available. Therefore actinic thinks that one doesn't exist.
I have not asked anyone why this is but to me it seems errr well ummm stupid!

Hope that helps. If not sorry!

James

[RuralWeb]

Now for the shortcomings. When my client comes to doing updates - which she does fairly regularly - she seems to wipe the voucher code. For some reason in her version (Catalog Client) she doesn't seem to have the optiopn to create a code.

This is because coupon codes are not available in catalog client - while you are using designer to create them they are being removed by her version - this is not allowed under the terms of your licence! Your client must have business client for this to work correctly.

The other problem is that the code will be able to be used multiple times and by multiple customers eg post your coupon code on a forum or the customer gives it to their mates and your client will go bust.

[russell king]

So basically this can't be done in Actinic at present...

So, it looks as if i'm stuck, there is simply no way of running a reliable gift voucher scheme in Actinic 7 (or 8 it appears). I appreciate that as there is no online live database this is difficult, but i assume Actinic users have similar problems with live stock control??

Anyway looks like I'll either have to wait until Actinic add it in v9 (maybe??), use the PayPal gift voucher scheme, pay a good developer to write an add-on, or switch to another ecommerce package

Does anyone have working knowledge of the PayPal gift vouchers scheme? is it easy to implement and manage, and was there a decent take up by customers?

thanks

[RuralWeb]

Does anyone have working knowledge of the PayPal gift vouchers scheme? is it easy to implement and manage, and was there a decent take up by customers?

Yes its easy to set up, there is no management to do and customers do use it.

[jamesah]

gift voucher

Thanks malcom. Most informative. I knew it was too good to be true. I have informed my client that i was likely to make her bust. Fortunately she sells bespoke worm cages so the market is small. She only sells a voucher a year and therefore they are easy to track and remove but just in case we have removed the facility. I think you will agree too many imprisoned worms would be bad for the soil. Thanks again.