We’ve set up a new category for Gift Vouchers for anyone who wants to take advantage of those last-minute shoppers - and also those who want to avoid postal delays.
It’s under the Cards & Stationery section. There are two sub-categories in there - one for actual vouchers and one for wallets and cards.
We will be promoting Gift Vouchers (and linking to that category) in our newsletter to buyers on Thursday 22 December so if you want to list any gift vouchers in your shop, or move your existing vouchers, into that new category before then, that would be great
Hi Camilla @folksycontent
I use to have gift vouchers but took them out of my shop as I wasn’t sure whether we would pay commission twice, once on the sale of the gift voucher and again when the customer redeems the voucher and the sale goes through for an item in our shop. Please can you advise how fees will be calculated for them, do we only pay once or am i right in thinking we will be charged twice.
Had a thought would it not be better for the customer to be able to add a personal code, added to the voucher by us and printed on the voucher. This would then take off the exact amount and give them the facility to leave feedback. The discount code would have to have set amounts added instead of percentages.
Can see customers not bothering if they have to email the order and what happens if an item is sold before we get to the email selection.
I tend to make OOAK. Could be a logistic nightmare. Plus as we know has to be easy for customers to activate.
I think the only way it would be beneficial to put them back in the shop would be for the gift voucher to be exempt from commission fees. Then when the customer uses the gift voucher we pay fees on the actual sale of goods.
I havn’t looked at the new listing Caroline @Caroleecrafts so notn sure how it works as yet. I made gift vouchers and each had a unique number, I kept a register of the numbers and who I sold them to with their value. I havn’t sold any online these were for my local customers so not sure how it would work online yet but do agree it needs to be an easy process for customers to redeem them.
Hi Debby. We imagined that the easiest way for the gift vouchers to be redeemed was for the recipient to get in touch with you (you can tell them how on the gift voucher) and tell you which product from your Folksy shop they would like. Then you would remove that listing from sale and post their gift to them. So the commission is only paid on the sale of the gift voucher, not when it’s redeemed.
HI Camilla
Ah yes, it would work in the same way we ‘Hide’ items from our shop when selling elsewhere, that makes sense .
I havn’t had chance to look at them yet, been a very busy week but when I get chance I will be adding mine back to my shop and with the note on how to redeem them…thank you for explaining x
I agree with @Caroleecrafts that the system isn’t ideal for sellers whose items are OOAK - and the need to send an email is a possible barrier to the recipient redeeming the voucher. And it’s all very well if the value of the voucher is the same as the product they choose, but what if they want to use their voucher as part payment towards a more expensive item? Do we then have to turn that item into a custom listing? Or invoice them for the difference (and how would that work with the commission?) Or just sell them the item and refund them the value of the voucher (in which case there is the issue of trust - another potential barrier).
These days buyers are used to seeing a box at the checkout where they put their voucher or discount code and it’s then automatically applied. I can see this might be a coding nightmare for the site’s developers though…
I’ve been looking at doing an email gift voucher again and followed the instructions for setting up a listing but got stuck when it wanted a value in the Price/Quantity section near the bottom - I’m offering variations of £15 - £30, so what would I put in the £ box? Won’t let me get past that. There’s nothing in the instructions that I can see. Or is it me?
You would set it up the same way you would do any listing with variations - set up the listing with the lowest price first and once it is listed go back in and add a drop down menu variation with price differences. Or set up multiple listings - one for each price you want to offer so it is obvious to buyers that there are different values available.
