I find that gift giving seems to get harder and harder each year – or maybe I just have less time to think about, much less go out and purchase, the many presents that I need to. I like to find the “right” gift for people, but sometimes I’m at a loss for what that person would like or have no clue what they already have. Thank goodness for the gift certificate! Even better, the gift certificate that I don’t have to leave my house to buy!

We find that more and more of our clients are offering online gift certificates for their customers. With Magento, this requires an added extension; and fortunately, Magento has an Extension Marketplace (MagentoConnect) that has extensions in abundance.

For gift certificates, we like uGiftCert by Unirgy. We've found that this extension is easy to install and the interface and backend are easy to use. For our clients that have existing gift certificates, we are able to import the information so that customers can still use them.
UGiftCert allows you either an electronic or printed gift certificate. The retailer has the flexibility to determine how the gift certificate will show on the front end. There’s a one-time set-up where they can select the dollar increments or allow the purchaser to select a denomination, set expiration dates, generate numbers, pins or status. If the recipient only uses a partial amount, the system keeps track of the balance.

Key Features (read more for a full list of features...) 

• Create or import Gift Certificates (GC) to be purchased from your store(s)
• Offer fixed or selectable ranges of value denominations
• Full support for virtual or physical GCs
• Allow you customers to supply custom gift messages to be included on GCs
• GCs could be delivered via email or physical mail
• Virtual GC delivery can be scheduled by shopper or auto-delivered at the time of purchase
• Customize your branded certificate template
• Shoppers can check GC balance from within their account or dedicated webpage
• Ability to import all GC data from external sources
• Comprehensive reporting on GC usage

We're always trying to improve our capabilities and offerings to our clients and uGiftCert by Unirgy is a great addition to our arsenal. If you have a Magento site and are considering adding gift certificates, take a look at Unirgy.