http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/ecommerce/gift-card-holidays-1007.htm Ecommerce, web marketing and development news and research by Michael Bloch of Taming the Beast.net Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:36:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/ecommerce/gift-card-holidays-1007.htm#comment-47173 Michael Bloch Sat, 20 Oct 2007 07:28:33 +0000 http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/ecommerce/gift-card-holidays-1007.htm#comment-47173 Hi Jim, thanks for your input and the detailed explanation of the challenge and your solution! I'll dive out and take a peek soon - I wish your business a prosperous shopping season! Hi Jim, thanks for your input and the detailed explanation of the challenge and your solution! I’ll dive out and take a peek soon - I wish your business a prosperous shopping season!

]]> http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/ecommerce/gift-card-holidays-1007.htm#comment-47124 Jim Brotherton Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:44:33 +0000 http://www.tamingthebeast.net/blog/ecommerce/gift-card-holidays-1007.htm#comment-47124 Hi Michael, I saw your research article and was compelled to respond. This could get very in depth, but I'll try and keep it as short as possible. I'm in the gift card resell business and run an ecommerce site, extremelygifted.com. We are really hoping gift cards are strong online this holiday season. We offer a long list of brand named cards. Our unique offering is extreme gift wrap. We are introducing packaging that offers a better opening experience specifically to solve the ho-hum presentation problem we all experience with gift cards. Technically, we had a challenge finding a shopping cart solution that worked for what we offer. Our problem is that any gift card can be matched to any gift wrap, and that one order could have any combination of product associations. What I mean by this is easier explained when we think about how someone might shop for gifts. They are actually buying for someone else and many times for several people at a time. Sally would like a Barnes and Noble gift card inside a pop-up greeting card, David would like Home Depot gift card in a concrete brick (Block Party) and Mom would like a Spa Finder gift card, but she doesn't want it wrapped because they want to do something else at home. So, five total products but very specific groupings. This might not seem like a complex issue at first glance, but in my experience most shopping carts try to solve this grouping through attributes. We could not make gift cards an attribute of gift wrap, nor gift wrap an attribute of gift cards since in any situation, they might be purchased independently. Today, we elected to have every product a unique, independent item. To help customers and help us map the right gift card to the correct gift wrap we have provided a space where they can add who is to receive the gift card. As in any gifting situation this is our "TO:" gift tag. For the gift wrap we provide a "TO:, FROM:, and MESSAGE:" form. We then map the TO: of the gift card to the TO: of the gift wrap. So, although not a highly technical solution it works well operationally. Our next steps will be to implement a tighter set of rules so there are fewer ways to make mistakes, like ordering gift wrap that can only be produced in our warehouse with no gift card in the gift wrap. Come see it in action and try one of our one of a kind gift wraps...we'll provide the stethoscope. Thanks, Jim www.extremelygifted.com Hi Michael, I saw your research article and was compelled to respond. This could get very in depth, but I’ll try and keep it as short as possible.
I’m in the gift card resell business and run an ecommerce site, extremelygifted.com. We are really hoping gift cards are strong online this holiday season. We offer a long list of brand named cards.
Our unique offering is extreme gift wrap. We are introducing packaging that offers a better opening experience specifically to solve the ho-hum presentation problem we all experience with gift cards.
Technically, we had a challenge finding a shopping cart solution that worked for what we offer. Our problem is that any gift card can be matched to any gift wrap, and that one order could have any combination of product associations. What I mean by this is easier explained when we think about how someone might shop for gifts. They are actually buying for someone else and many times for several people at a time. Sally would like a Barnes and Noble gift card inside a pop-up greeting card, David would like Home Depot gift card in a concrete brick (Block Party) and Mom would like a Spa Finder gift card, but she doesn’t want it wrapped because they want to do something else at home. So, five total products but very specific groupings. This might not seem like a complex issue at first glance, but in my experience most shopping carts try to solve this grouping through attributes. We could not make gift cards an attribute of gift wrap, nor gift wrap an attribute of gift cards since in any situation, they might be purchased independently.
Today, we elected to have every product a unique, independent item. To help customers and help us map the right gift card to the correct gift wrap we have provided a space where they can add who is to receive the gift card. As in any gifting situation this is our “TO:” gift tag. For the gift wrap we provide a “TO:, FROM:, and MESSAGE:” form. We then map the TO: of the gift card to the TO: of the gift wrap. So, although not a highly technical solution it works well operationally. Our next steps will be to implement a tighter set of rules so there are fewer ways to make mistakes, like ordering gift wrap that can only be produced in our warehouse with no gift card in the gift wrap. Come see it in action and try one of our one of a kind gift wraps…we’ll provide the stethoscope.
Thanks,
Jim
http://www.extremelygifted.com

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