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Issuing gift certificates as event credit to your ticket buyers

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Covid-19 has had a dramatic effect on the event industry worldwide, at Vanco Events we are here to help our event organizers through this challenging time.

While ticket buyers who purchased tickets to events that are now cancelled or postponed are entitled to a refund under consumer law, you may wish to offer a credit for future performances as an alternative. Vanco Events offers the ability to issue gift certificates to ticket buyers, who are then able to use this credit for future performances. You will then issue the gift certificate to the ticket buyer using a 100% gift certificate promotion code.

This article takes you through:

  1. Create gift certificates for store credit
  2. Create a gift certificate promotion code
  3. Using a gift certificate promotion code to issue credit to your customer

 

Create gift certificates for store credit

There is no limit to the number of gift certificates you can set up on your account, allowing to you have a range of values for your patrons to choose from. You may wish to set up gift certificate per customer that you are issuing credit to, per ticket type or for common credit amounts.

To create gift certificates:

  1. From the left menu, click Dashboard
  2. From the left menu, click Gift certificates then click Manage gift certificates
  3. Click ADD. Enter a name for your gift certificate and a value, then click OK. 
  4. Enter or adjust the following fields:
    • Description: Suitable for providing an explanation of what the gift certificate can be redeemed against ex. Event credit for cancelled event. Redeemable on all 'Name of Your Organization' events
    • Months of validity: By default, this is set to 12 months. You will be able to use the drop-down menu to select from 1 month up to 3 years 
    • Gift Certificate Style: The system default style will be automatically applied. Should you wish to customize your own style please see the article Gift certificate styles
    • Terms and Conditions: Add your own terms and conditions for use ex. stipulate conditions around name changes, changes around validity periods, refunds etc.
  5. Click Save and Close
  6. Repeat for any additional gift certificates you wish to create

 

Create a gift certificate promotion code 

Gift certificate promotion codes allow you to issue a gift certificate at a reduced price but retain the value of the gift certificate to be used against events. In this case, we'll use promotion codes to issue credits for future events without the ticket buyer needing to pay again.

To set up a promotion code for gift certificates:

  1. From the left menu, click Dashboard
  2. From the left menu, click Gift certificates then click Gift certificate promotion code
  3. Click Add
  4. Give the promotion code a unique name. This will appear on your reports
  5. Enter in the code that is to be used on checkout to apply the discount
  6. Select Yes to Percentage. 
  7. Set the Value to 100%
  8. Indicate the date period that the code can be used in (this is optional)
  9. Set Auto apply to your preferred option. Set this field to NO. If you select YES, your customers will automatically receive the discount without needing to enter the code on checkout.
  10. Set Inclusive to other promotion (discount)? to NO
  11. Click Save and close

 

Issue store credit using the gift certificate promotion code to purchase a gift certificate

To issue store credit, you will now purchase a gift certificate using the 100% promotion code you just created:

  1. From the left menu, click Dashboard
  2. From the left menu, click Gift certificates then click Manage gift certificate
  3. Copy the gift certificate URL and place it into the address bar of your web browser
  4. On the gift certificate purchase page, add the number of gift certificates you wish to issue to the customer and press Next
  5. Enter the ticket buyers name in the 'To' field and your business's name in the 'From' field. Press Next
  6. Fill in the booking details using the ticket buyers’ details. Add the gift certificate promotion code to the shopping cart on the right-hand side of the page (at the top of the page on mobile). Press Apply
  7. Proceed with the booking. The ticket buyer will be emailed the gift certificate voucher code automatically once the booking is finalized
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