Selling Gift Certificates Online

[MDixon]

I have done quite a bit of searching through this Forum about credit card processing, 3rd party processing, Paypal pros and cons... but still have not figured out what is the best option for me.

Basically I am setting up a way for people to buy gift certificates from my girlfriend's spa (www.espacenomad.ca). At this point there will only be one type of gift certificate available - so only one thing to purchase (although the customer can purchase more than one and send to multiple people). I will need to pass the variables ; Email address (to send certificate to) and Personalised Message (textarea).

Has anyone setup a simple shopping cart like this?

I have setup it up using a Paypal shopping cart (for tests) but I am not sure if Paypal seems professional enough. Does the fact of having to sign-up for a Paypal account deter people? It seems to me that simply entering your contact information and the credit card info is much easier.

Thanks for any feedback and/or stories of your experiences,
Mark