Possible to create two kinds of gift vouchers?

[lyricwings]

I am wondering if this is possible, and if so, how I might go about doing it:

I'd like to have two different types of gift certificates. The first would be good on everything for sale in the store, and the second would have a restriction so that it could NOT be used on one particular category.

The reason I want to do this: we want to be able to reward people for participation in our online community by exchanging the "points" they earn on our forums for gift voucher credit. However, I want to exclude one category from this type of credit, so that they can use the credit in 3 out of 4 categories.

This modification - restricting the gift voucher so that it can't be used on one category - is most important. However, if possible, I'd still like regular gift certificates to be available for purchase by any customer. (But if that's not possible, I can live with it -- as long as the category restriction I've described above can work.)

Is this possible? Any thoughts on how I could set this up?

[lyricwings]

Just wanted to "bump" this message to see if anyone had any insights about this? thanks!

[Ajeh]

Gift Certificates are cash ...

A person comes in and spends money to make the purchase so you have the cash in your bank account ...

Why wouldn't you want them to spend that "cash" on everything in your shop?

[lyricwings]

Hi Ajeh -
thanks for the response.

To further clarify my original post - we would like to be able to use gift certificates as a reward program, where we would add cash to people's accounts as their "points" in our online community accrue. so, for example, once a week we would send a certain amount of dollars to add to their gift voucher account, which they could use on our products as they wanted.

For our own products, this works fine, because we want to absorb the costs for this reward program. However, one of the categories in our store is for drop-shipment by other manufacturers, and so obviously it wouldn't make sense for us to be giving away cash for people to use for products by these other manufacturers.

Does that help clarify what I'm looking for?
thanks -

[lyricwings]

One more clarification, Ajeh. I'm meaning to say that for this rewards program, the gift vouchers would be completely managed on our end, in admin. They wouldn't be purchased by customers. We would be using Zen Cart's gift voucher management system to manage this accrual of "free cash" that could be used anywhere EXCEPT for in the category for drop-shippers.

That's why I still wanted to also offer "normal" gift certificates, where a customer can purchase them for themselves or someone else, to be used as cash.

[schoolboy]

...we would like to be able to use gift certificates as a reward program...

You may be able to achieve what you want using Discount Coupons. I realise this does not ADD credit to a customer's account in the manner you are keen to have, but customers aren't dumb. They can do simple arithmetic. If I had been advised that I have a coupon worth $10 for your store (applied to specific products and possibly even subject to a date deadline), I would know immediately that if I shop for $100 worth of appropriate product, I'll only end up paying you $90.

The key is in the way you promote it to your customers.

[lyricwings]

Thanks, Schoolboy. I know that discount coupons work well for giveaways and such, but what I'm really after is the idea that every week, the amount in the customers' account grows, based on their participation. So that they keep getting an ongoing incentive, and any time they log into the store, they can see how much credit they have which they can exchange for goods, and it keeps growing every week.

To try to do this with coupons, I'd have to send someone a $5 coupon one week, and then send them a $3 coupon the next week, and then send them a $7 coupon the next week -- etc. But then they can't combine those to use for more expensive items, since only one coupon can be used at a time. And they can't ever check their "balance" to see how their credit increases with their increased participation in the community.

See what I'm getting at?

[schoolboy]

Hmmmm... this then looks like a "from the ground up" project. I don't know of any standard or 3rd party mod that achieves what you require.