We need an extension that will allow for the following. I realize that I won’t get everything on this list, but this is what we’ve outlined as a perfect model. If you have an opinion on an existing extension that gets us most of the way there and we could cross the finish line with some additional dev, that would be great.
* The user can pay for items with these funds (like a gift card or allowance)
* Unused value remains after a purchase
* Can set an expiration date on some portion of the value ($50 awarded today can expire on Jan 1, $50 awarded next month can expire on Feb 1, for example)
* Ties directly to a customer’s account
* Customer does not need to have an account in the store yet for them to receive their funds (can “link” the amount later via a code and store it in their account) – Our pain point in the past with this is that (using an allowance extension) if someone is awarded these funds but doesn’t yet have an account, we have to download, compare, upload in order to create a new user account for the users who don’t have an account already, then apply allowances for each.
* Funds can be used at checkout (FIFO), and additional balances should be able to be paid for via cc.
The way I’m thinking about it is Amazon’s gift card structure. By default, you have an Amazon Gift Card if you have an account and you can “reload” that gift card with other cards and that main card is directly linked to your account. So, whether or not a user has an account on the store doesn’t really matter, they can add their funds once they do. (The distinction I’m trying to make here is that you don’t have to “carry around” multiple gift card codes and use/ enter them in succession at checkout. They should be able to add funds to their master via a code…that money should be segmented (in transactions anyway), an expiration can be linked to any portion, and the money put in first is used first.
submitted by /u/turtledave
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