Cafepress is introducing gift certificates.  But not for shopkeepers to sell.  Seems like a flaw in the slaw there if you ask me.

Gift Certificate 1.0 Details:
  Buyers will be able to purchase Gift Certificates from these 4 places:
  1. A banner on the CafePress homepage (this is not a permanent banner, it will be used intermittently for promotion, holidays, etc.).
  2. A text link in the left-hand navigation bar of the Marketplace.
  3. A banner on the “failed search result” page.
  4. A text link in the footer of all CafePress “branded” pages (These are the pages that have a green bar that runs along the bottom of pages, such as CafePress Corporate pages and Basic Shops. Actually, there’s one at the bottom of this page).

Gift Certificates will not be available for sale in Premium Shops.

During the Gift Certificate purchase process the buyer can add a personalized message to the recipient.

They come in many denominations, starting at $10 and going all the way up to $1,000.

Purchased Gift Certificates are delivered to the recipient via email. See screen shot 3 and 4 below.

Our Unique Gift This Cart™ feature allows a shopper to pick products they think the recipient will like and send a gift certificate that features those products. The recipient can then choose to buy those items (and choose the right sizes) or pick different items. Note – this feature will NOT be present in Premium Shops. See screen shot 4 below.

Seems like an end run around their own shopkeepers. I personally cannot understand why they are not going to be allowing shopkeepers to sell gift certificates through their premium shops. It makes no sense. I certainly won’t be promoting them knowing this.

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts, Uber Gamer T-shirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.