Selling packages

selling packages

Selling packages in the context of rental is really just a commercial tool to win more business.  Packing up your stuff into a more commercially attractive bundle to be more appealing to a certain group, or to compete better with other businesses.

Here are just three examples: 

(that people have implemented on BRM / RSM system)

"Family Ticket"  

two adults and two children for a set price (rather than paying for 4 bikes individually)

here the package is 4 bikes, but only if you are eligible.

variable time durations

"Season Ski Package"

keep your gear all winter long

exchange for different sizes (perhaps)

"performance Ski package"

bundle to include;

skis, boots, poles, etc

How you make this work?

So the concept here is the following.

The thing you 'sell' is the package, which has a set price.

So you need to set up 'dummy' inventory to represent the packages.  It has a special inventory type of 'package' to make it behave differently from inventory (the physical product you have).  We don't 'book out' packages, we book out inventory so you don't need to enter multiple versions into your inventory.  You just never run out of packages - unless you want to stop selling them.

But of course, the customer doesn't walk out your store with a package - no they walk out with some physical inventory: a ski, a bike etc..

so when you allocate stuff you assign items to packages to put the right inventory in there.

The other clever bit is that BRM doesn't change the price when you allocate physical inventory to a package.

Optionally if you want you can have a different reservation type for the packages you sell too, just to differentiate them.

here is a diagram to further explain that you sell packages, and yet fulfil the order with actual inventory:

here is an example of a package in your inventory.

please note that it is of type: "package" (Product Line and Product Family)

When you sell a package online.....

(or make a GBAL booking from back-office, if you have that feature enabled)

When you include a package in a reservation it will look like this:

[package icon] to denote that it is a package.  Please note it still has a price.

Items assigned to the package (yellow items) do not have a price but are part of that package.

Please Note - to end up with a package booking to be subsequently fulfilled you can do one of two things:

1. make an online booking against a package
2. or make a GBAL booking against a package from the back office.

Here is a diagram showing that you need to be booking Generic Bookings in order for this functionality to work:

See Also

Video: Creating reservations using packages

Inventory Type (setting type to "Package")