A gift certificate is a substitute for a gift that can be cashed in for a product at a particular shop and can be given to any person irrespective of age, sex or relation. Some people prefer to give gift certificates, mostly due to the convenience it offers. They need not go through the hassle of shopping around and take pains to select the gift, in a busy schedule.

Gift certifications are available in denominations ranging from twenty dollars to thousand dollars or more. There are no expiration charges or shipping charges and can be purchased online, too. Gift certificates have an edge over the actual gifts because sometimes it may so happen that people choose gifts that are not useful to the recipient or not liked by them. So, they may return them to the store or keep them somewhere, out of their eyes never to see them again. Hence, the purpose of giving and receiving the gift becomes futile.

But, the gift certificates offer the convenience of selecting gifts that are useful and liked by the recipient. Gift certificates are of many types and most of the retailers like restaurants, clothing stores and electronic stores, offer gift certificates. It is a win- win situation for both, where the retailers also stand to benefit through selling gift certificates.

When people utilize the gift certificates, the general tendency is to spend more than the face value of the certificate, since while shopping, they may find other items that they would like to purchase. Retailers encourage the use of gift certificates as it is a way of promoting their products and is a sales gimmick.

Generally, the time limit to utilize these gift certificates is about six months and is used in more numbers during festival seasons like Christmas and Valentine's Day. For even lazier mortals, there are online gift certificates, which by the click of the mouse can be mailed to the recipient. Such people would prefer online gift certificates because they would not like to shop at the malls in crowd or drive through the busy traffic and find a suitable parking space and deal with the crowds.

Online gift certificates can be obtained from the comfort of the home saving a lot of time. If the recipient is a frequent online shopper, it poses no problem. But the disadvantage is that, there is very little interaction in this process and a lack of personal touch. But in spite of the down sides, online gift certificates are being used in increasing numbers.