Instant Gift Certificates from your website

[Questioner]

I was wanting to add gift certificate sales to my website. I have been looking at giftcardmassageplanete.com. From what I can gather, they charge 4.95% and then you have to pay either paypal or authorize.net to process the credit card payments. Paypal seems to be the cheaper at 2.95%. That would mean the total charge is about 8%.

Does anyone have any experience with either giftcardmassageplanete or a different service?

Since I am a sole practioner, I can't be available for people to drop by and buy gift certificates so I thought this might be a good alternative.

Angie

 

[Intern Jessica]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I just started using giftcardmassageplanete.com. I like it. As far as I'm aware I paid a setup fee of approximately $30 and pay 4.95% on transactions.

 

[That Guy!]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I've been using Spaboom for a long time now. They charge 5% of the transaction (not sure what their setup fee is) and they've always been fantastic to work with. I JUST added Amazon Payments thru Amazon.com to handle the credit processing - haven't had anything run thru it yet, but setup was easy and free! They charge 2.95% also but have no monthly fees/minimums.

 

[Nathan M. Holden]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I've been using Spaboom for a long time now. They charge 5% of the transaction (not sure what their setup fee is) and they've always been fantastic to work with. I JUST added Amazon Payments thru Amazon.com to handle the credit processing - haven't had anything run thru it yet, but setup was easy and free! They charge 2.95% also but have no monthly fees/minimums.

Same with me also. I pay for the marketing suit for $29

 

[Stacey]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I looked at Spa Boom a month ago, and now I will admit that I "sped read" through it, but it looked like a hefty set up fee was required to establish a website.
Did either of you have this? Should I just call them and speak to them in person and see what the deal is? Moogie, I am agonizing over the same thing, trying to figure out how to sell gift certs where they can have them immediately to download..I am currently playing with the website through Vistaprint but while I can sell certificates through Paypal, the purchaser doesn't get the certificate to print out.. I would still need to mail it or email them and that could be a full day's time lag.

 

[dairy queen]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I looked at Spa Boom a month ago, and now I will admit that I "sped read" through it, but it looked like a hefty set up fee was required to establish a website.
Did either of you have this? Should I just call them and speak to them in person and see what the deal is?

Spaboom's Instant Gift Certificates can be integrated into your existing website. I don't think the setup fee is too much though I can't recall exactly how much. The setup fee for their Dynamic Website is higher but inline with the fees any professional web designer would charge.

You might want to call them - they'll be able to answer all of your questions and they're not aggressive sales people.

 

[DarkMagix]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

Thanks Pete! I will call them, your info was very helpful to me.

 

[ALEX!!!!!!!]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I just started using giftcardmassageplanete.com. I like it. As far as I'm aware I paid a setup fee of approximately $30 and pay 4.95% on transactions.

When I was reading giftcardmassageplanete's website today it said that in addition to the 4.95% you had to use either paypal or authorizenet which had an additional fee (and setup charges) but I don't know why you need those? Are you saying that you don't use either one of those and you are only charged the 4.95%?

Angie

 

[blank]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I've been using Spaboom for years as well and have been very happy with them. I don't have one of their websites, I integrated the gift certificate page into my existing website and, like Pete, can't remember what setup fees were at the time.

Give them a call, they're always happy to help.

 

[I love Gerard Butler]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I use giftcardmassageplanete with paypal. It adds up to almost 8%. I can sell packages with them.

I had gone to Spaboom first to ask about setting things up with them. I think I had bad luck with the person (not) helping me so I went with giftcardmassageplanete. I haven't had any problems with them.

 

[twilight fan team edward]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I've tried to resist mentioning it because I think it's out of the price range of this thread and perhaps over-qualified, but MindBodyOnline gives you the ability to purchase gift certificates online and print them out (or the purchaser can email them to the recipient). It would also be your credit card processor (I find the fees very reasonable, usually around 2%), and your online scheduling system, as well as do a lot of your bookkeeping. The cost is $70 per month for 1-5 practitioners with a physical location ($45 if you're a single practitioner just doing outcalls).

So anyway, it might be overkill for what many of you are looking for. However, if you want a very powerful business management tool with many integrated features, including a bunch of auto-email features and integrates with Constant Contact (can you tell i like it? lol) it's worth looking into.

 

[jenna - TBraaays fan!xo]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

Since I am a sole practioner, I can't be available for people to drop by and buy gift certificates so I thought this might be a good alternative.

Angie

This is the exact same reason I started using giftcardmassageplanete. I've only had two GC's purchased so far and I do have it set up to use with Paypal so I lose the 2.95% as soon as the GC is bought and paid for, but giftcardgmassageplanete takes their cut at the end of the month from my credit card I keep on file. 8% is a big chunk but to me it is well worth it right now for me to be able to get GC sales and also sell packages online. (I signed up during a special when they were waiving the set up fee.) I've had no issues as of yet and I like that they let you create "Deals" that you can completely control and post to your social media profile. I did one for Small Business Saturday and even though I didn't have any takers, it was a neat learning experience!

Previously I just created a blank GC with instructions as a PDF, posted it on my website with a Paypal button and told people once I received notice of their payment, I'd give them a authorization number to put on the GC, this way they could print/fill it out themselves. I didn't have it up long so never had anyone give it a try, but I thought it was a nice compromise.

 

[Dances with Buddha]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I used to go through SpaBoom for certificates, but during the holidays I was paying so much for the volume of certificates that I was selling.

I recently (March 2011) switched to SnapCerts http://www.snapcerts.com/home.htm - same concept as spa boom but so much simpler.
It's only $10/month and you can sell an unlimited amt of certificates.
This is what my clients see: https://salusstudio.snapcerts.com/purchase.asp

It's easy to add and delete services offered- say you're running a Black Friday weekend special, you can add it for just a few days then delete it when your sale is over.
You can edit the "fine print" on the certificate also, so I put something along the lines of 24 hr cancellation policy or certif is void, & allow 2 weeks for scheduling.

I've had no problems with them at all.

Also (just thought of this)- when they order the certificate, there is a field for them to enter the 3 digit security code. I believe spaboom doesn't offer that. I use Square for cc processing, and they require the 3 digit code for manual entries.

 

[Random Hangman]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

I recently (March 2011) switched to SnapCerts http://www.snapcerts.com/home.htm - same concept as spa boom but so much simpler.
It's only $10/month and you can sell an unlimited amt of certificates.
This is what my clients see: https://salusstudio.snapcerts.com/purchase.asp


You can edit the "fine print" on the certificate also, so I put something along the lines of 24 hr cancellation policy or certif is void, & allow 2 weeks for scheduling.

I really like this format. It looks absolutely simple.

Although it is not something I am interested in at this time, I have a few questions for future reference:

• Do you have to use she service for a pre-determined length of time, or could someone use if for just the holidays?
• Do you know if it allows you to put an expiration date for the certificates?
• Do you have an example of what the certificates look like when they are "sent" to the recipient?
• Is there an option for the buyer to only be allowed to select "services" only (not an "amount")?

 

[carmencita120]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

• Do you have to use she service for a pre-determined length of time, or could someone use if for just the holidays?
• Do you know if it allows you to put an expiration date for the certificates?
• Do you have an example of what the certificates look like when they are "sent" to the recipient?

I'm not sure if you can just use it for the holidays- I wouldn't see why not, really. It would be just a matter of opening an acct and closing it when you're done using it??

Yes- you can set the exp date. I think it goes by days- so mine have a 365 day exp date on them.
Here's a link to a pdf, hope you can see it:

https://www.snapcerts.com/PDFCerts/71-5320111214132955.pdf

 

[tlk2ul8r]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

The snapcerts option sounds really good for someone who is just starting up a website ( me!) But, I don't understand one important point,, how would I get the payment from snapcerts? I can call them shortly but figured I might see a reply here sooner than when I can call..

 

[Kelvin]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

The snapcerts option sounds really good for someone who is just starting up a website ( me!) But, I don't understand one important point,, how would I get the payment from snapcerts? I can call them shortly but figured I might see a reply here sooner than when I can call..

you take the credit card payment when the certificate is bought- snap certs doesn't process the payments

 

[Rick A]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

ok, now i see, I DO need to be able to handle cc processing. I think square is my first choice.. gosh, this is keeping me busy! :

 

[DanP]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

ok, now i see, I DO need to ba able to handle cc processing. I think square is my first choice.. gosh, this is keeping me busy! :

I've got Square & I am a big fan of it!

 

[Kernow Lady]

Instant Gift Certificates from your website

Update: I am now using the Square One card swiper and I love it! I haven't had to use it much, but it is nice to be able to offer it as a service. I like that I can manually enter the credit card info, too.