You, the Store Owner, makes Products that are Gift Certificates ... these Products need to have a Product Model (products_model) that starts with:
GIFT
in caps ...
And the Product should be marked as:
Product is Virtual: Yes, Skip Shipping Address
Then, the customer buys this Product ... you, the Store Owner, then release the Gift Certificate amount, after confirming that you, the Store Owner, have received the payment for this ... and the amount of the purchased Gift Certificate is credited to the Customer's GV Balance ...
Next, the customer can either use this Gift Certificate balance on a purchase by Applying all or a portion of the GV Balance on the Checkout Payment (checkout_payment) page ... Or, the Customer can send all or a portion of this GV Balance to another person ...
This person is sent an email with a Gift Certificate redemption code and a link in the email to redeem it ...
The person receiving this email can either use the link in the email or ... then can go to your store and redeem it from the GV FAQ page ... or they can redeem it on the Checkout Payment (checkout_payment) page and then, the Apply to Balance will appear on the Checkout Payment (checkout_payment) page where they can apply all or a portion of the GV balance to their order ...