[thelist] Ambiance site

Heya

<snip>
Immediately 2 concerns come to my mind. 1. Selling gift certificates online,
can this be done securely? For example, how could I stop the user from
printing out multiple copies of it?
</snip>

I actually like the gift certificate (cert) idea.. being able to buy certs
without having to actually go to the place would be a real timesaver. As for
the cert implementation, a low-tech + database approach would work fine...

I'd implement using an HTML cert template containing a cert number field
(filled from the database). The cert number is displayed on the final cert
screen, and is printed on the customer copy. Every retailer that handles
certs keeps a book of cert numbers, the amount of the gift, and who it's
for. When that cert number comes in, it gets crossed off (or a boolean value
in the database gets switched). No praaahhhhhhb.

As for the product ordering, and the fulfillment headaches that it can
generate, I'd nix the idea (based on the company details you provided).

</james>