1. In the Admin, make a new category called Gift Certificates. Add a product to the category called Gift Certificates.
2. On the Product Information Page fill in the blanks as follows:
- Products Status: In Stock
- Date Available: leave blank
- Products Manufacturer: leave blank
- Products Name: Gift Certificate
- Product is Free: No
- Product is Call for Price: No
- Product Priced by Attributes: Yes No
This is up to you, if you choose to price by attributes you only need a single 'product'. - Tax Class: choose appropriate
- Products Price (Net): Your price or zero if pricing by attibutes.
- Products Price (Gross): figured automatically
- Virtual Products do not have a shipping charge and do not require a shipping address such a Services, Gift Certificates, etc. Always Free Shipping does not have a shipping charge, but do require a shipping address Downloads are assumed to be Virtual Products - Neither option needs to be marked
- Product is Virtual: Yes, Skip Shipping
- Always Free Shipping: No.
- Products Quantity Box Shows: Yes, Show
- Product Qty Minimum: leave blank
- Product Qty Maximum: 0 = Unlimited, 1 = No Qty Boxes or Max ##
- Product Qty Units: leave blank
- Product Qty Min/Unit Mix: leave blank
- Products Description: Your description.
- Products Quantity: leave blank or put in a large number to track number sold.
If you are finding that you cannot add a Gift Certificate to your cart while shopping, try adding a quantity here! - Products Model: GIFT-xxxxx
- The model MUST begin with GIFT
- Products Image: Upload an image
- Upload to directory: choose directory
- Products URL: leave blank
- Products Weight: leave blank
4. Now go to Modules->Order Total and click Install to install and/or Edit to configure the ot_gv Gift Certificate module.
HOW DOES IT WORK THEN ?
After the Administrator has approved the Gift Certificate (There's a "release" button in admin area if someone buys one), THEN the Gift Certificate funds are made available to the customer.
Upon release/approval, they are immediately added to the Customer's Gift Certificate balance.
The customer can then USE those funds for themselves, OR they can email them to friend(s) via the links provided automatically in the store (esp shopping cart sidebox). They can email as much as they want, to various people, up to the amount they've purchased. Whoever they email it to will receive a new redemption code and can follow the redemption process, either redeeming via the email link, going to the Gift Certificate FAQ page or redeeming during checkout. The customer can email the funds again if they wish or use the GV Balance for themselves.
How do I sell Gift Certificates?
1. Create Gift Certificate products as described above
2. Enable the Gift Certificate order-total module, as described above
3. Draw attention to gift certificates on your store, perhaps by creating a home-page graphic with a link to your gift-certificates category. Sometimes people will create a new sidebox just for drawing attention to this sort of thing.
4. When Gift Certificates are purchased, be sure to log into your Admin area and release them if you've configured it to queue them rather than auto-release them.
