The Gift Certificates application can be very useful for website visitors that are looking for gifts for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. This is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase your sales and attract new customers.
Configuring the Gift Certificate add-on
The application can be enabled by activating the Local Promotions add-on. You can choose from either the Lite or Premium version, depending on your current plan.
To place the Gift certificate on the page, simply drag-and-drop the element on a blue area of the page.
To edit the element on a page, simply hover over it and click on the cogwheel icon:
The following pop-up window will load, where you can configure the application:
Options
In the Options tab, you can define up to 5 preset amounts for gift certificates. An additional option would be to allow purchasing a certificate with a custom amount. The custom gift certificate appears with an empty field on the page, where users can insert any amount within the minimum-maximum price range. Defining the Description and the Fine Print, will create a link above the Buy Now button, which upon selecting it, will load a pop-up with the input information.
In the Options tab, you should as well add your payment details - the email associated with your PayPal account and the preferred currency. You may as well configure your Branding.
Enabling the Service based certificates option, enables an additional tab - Services, located next to Options. There you will be able to add services
Services
The Services tab allows creating and managing services that certificates for, can be purchased. If you have the Appointment Scheduler app enabled and configured, the Services set in it, will automatically propagate in the Services tab within the Gift Certificate. The same applies to the Daily Deals app as well.
Rollover on an existing service to edit its properties or delete it from the delete button. Make sure to check the Active check box to make the service available for purchase via a gift certificate. Creating new services is feasible via the respective Add Service button. An important note would be that changes in the Name, Description, Duration or Price for any of the services in either the Appointment Scheduler, the Gift Certificates or Daily Deals apps, will apply the same change for the other ones. This is as well applicable for deleting services.
Managing the gift certificates
You can manage the certificates that have been purchased and monitor your statistics, alongside your recent activity, via the Manage option of the application in the left menu. The Dashboard tab displays statistics for Gift certificates and Deals this month - amount of sold, redeemed. The option to display can give you a graphic for Gift Certificates or Deals only. You can search by ID. The ID is assigned as soon as a customer selects, generates and purchases a certificate. You can find the IDs in Recent Activity on the Dashboard, and in Manage tab. Recent Activity lists sold items, and contains a link to a preview of the item.
Under the Manage tab, you will be able to locate all deals and certificates, which are arranged by purchase date. The tab lists title of the item, its recipient and balance. Rollover an item to see the options to Redeem, Edit, Print, Resend and Delete each of them, via the cogwheel dropdown. You can use the Redeem option if you desire to partially redeem a certificate.
Using the View Options dropdown, you can filter which certificates or deals, from the Daily Deals app, to be visualised. There is a search bar as well.
The Lite version of the application has 10 certificates limit, which applies to the number of currently active certificates. Fully redeeming a certificate, will reduce the current count. In case of having 10 active certificates - the following message would appear on your website - Gift Certificates are SOLD OUT! Please check again later.
User Experience
On your website, the gift certificates appears listed for your customers to select. Once a certificate has been selected, the Buy Now button will open the options to enter the customer's name and email address as well as the name and email of the recipient. Your customers can select from 3 stock certificate designs. An optional message can be included. Once the required information is inserted, your clients can choose to Preview the certificate or Proceed to Payment.
Note: The design style of the application on the page follows the design style of your site. This mostly impacts the colours of the add-on.