Card9 Process Overview

People LIKE gift cards! It's a psychological thing, something about holding that little plastic card in your hand. We don't really know what it is, but what we do know is how to make them and how to allow YOU to accept them in YOUR STORE! All of the big retailers offer gift cards in their stores, and most of them work online too, but if you're a small store owner it's often too difficult and too expensive to offer any kind of customized gift cards for your customers. So we changed the rules - here's how the process works:

How do I create the cards?

Log in and click to Create Cards.
Enter the number of individual cards you want to create, the initial dollar value of the cards, and when they should expire.
Upload your artwork for the front of the card (1014 x 639, 300 DPI JPEG).
Verify that everything looks good and submit.
A batch is created in the system which tell us your cards are ready for print. Our system will generate each card with your graphic on the front and a unique card number and verification code, as well as usage instructions, terms, and your store name and web address on the back.
Within 48 hours, your plastic gift cards will be on their way to you!

That's it! You don't have to put up any real money for the face value of the card! Since it's all handled internally by our system, it works just like an account credit between you and your customer - you tell our system what the card is worth, and when your customer presents the card on your site our system authenticates it, logs the transaction history, and keeps track of the balance. If they've used up the balance, their transaction will be declined, and if their order is greater than the balance on the card you can configure whether you want to decline the transaction or approve it and our system will show you the difference that you'll still need to charge them. When your cards arrive, they'll look as good as the artwork you uploaded and will be active and ready to use.

So how do I make these cards work in my online store?

Contact your shopping cart vendor - Ask the company that created the shopping cart you're using to add Card9 support so you can start accepting gift cards. Our service is a feature their other customers may want too, so there is incentive for them to build support for our API right into their cart. We'll even help them build and test it.
Contact your webmaster - If your webmaster or programmer understands XML, they'll be able to integrate our API easily.
Contact our implementation team - We can put you in touch with a programmer who can connect your cart to our API for you. There is a one-time fee for doing this, so we recommend checking with your own webmaster first. In most cases the price to implement is around $75, but e-mail us and let us know what shopping cart you're using or what language it's written (ASP, PHP, Perl, etc.) so we can connect you with the right developer. Also, if you are a developer and would like us to refer clients to you who need help implementing our gateway, contact us and we'll get you on the developer list.

Enhance sales and revenue

Believe it or not, something as simple as plastic gift cards can elevate the perception of your store in ways you haven't imagined. In a world where everyone and their brother has an online store, to be able to hand out something tangible lends credibility to buyers. Some of our merchants give them away with purchases as a way of saying thank you, or hand them out at events because they want people to come spend them at their stores later. Others sell them online among their other products. Whatever you decide to do, there isn't any easier way to create a high quality plastic gift card than through our system. And by offering customers more options and incentives to remain loyal to your business, sales will automatically increase.