Introduction
There are business scenarios where it makes sense to require a purchase every time, once ever, once within x days of purchase, once within x days of a specific start date, and once between a specific time frame. Whatever the scenario, the product must be purchased, and you can choose whether it needs to be purchased again or if you ever have to purchase it again. This may be easily accomplished in Configio, which enables Products to be setup for a every-single-time purchase, one-time-only purchase, one-time within x days purchase, or a one-time purchase between a set date of your choice. This article will show how to do this and will explore the four required product scenarios of "Every Time", "Once Ever", "Once Within", and "Once Between" .
Note: If you choose to use the Required Product assignment we suggest you also configure the product to be in Single Page Checkout.
Getting Started
Log into your administrative console, navigate to Products -> Create your Primary Product and your Required product -> Navigate to your Primary Product's Assignments -> Apply your required product via assignments (dragging the required from Unassigned to Assigned, as seen in picture) -> Navigate to your Required Product's Advanced Tab -> Observe "Required Product" section.
Scenario 1: Requiring Product "Every Time"
This is the general preset for required products. By requiring the required product to be purchased every time with the primary product, your customers will have to purchase the required product every single time in order to have the access to buy the primary product.
Note: If you choose to use the Required Product assignment we suggest you also configure the product to be in Single Page Checkout.
Step 1: On the advanced tab of your required product, scroll down to the required product section, and you will notice the required product is pre-set to "Require Purchase Every Time"
Step 2: Save changes
Scenario 2: Requiring Product "Once Ever"
By requiring the required product to only be purchased once ever for the primary product, as soon as your customers have purchased the required product once, they can then purchase the primary product as many times as they would like without being prompted to purchase the required product ever again.
Note: This setting is only supported in Single Page Checkout.
Step 1: On the advanced tab of your required product, scroll down to required product, select the drop-down menu for "require purchase" and select "Once Ever".
Step 2: Save changes
Scenario 3: Requiring Product "Once Within"
Option 1: "Once Within" x days purchase date
When you set the requirement to purchase the required product once within x amount of days from the purchase date, after purchasing the required product your customers will only be prompted to purchase the required product after the window of "x days" closes. For example: if you set the required product purchase to require the product "once within" 1 day of the purchase date, after the first purchase of the required product, you can then purchase the primary product on it's own until the end of the following calendar day.
Note: This setting is only supported in Single Page Checkout.
Step 1: On the advanced tab of your required product, scroll down to required product, select the drop-down menu for "require purchase" and select "Once Within"
Step 2: Determine how many days the customer will have after the initial required product purchase before they will be required to purchase the required product again and enter that number in the "Number of Days" field
Step 3: In order to make the "once within x days" apply to the purchase date of the primary product, you must select "purchase date" from the "From Primary Product" drop-down options
Step 4: Save changes
Option 2: "Once Within" x days event start date
When you set the requirement of purchasing the required product "once within" x amount of days from the event start date, the product requirement will be directly associated to the date you set on your primary event. Your customers will only be prompted to purchase the required product once, similarly to the "Once Ever" scenario. However, there is one key difference from the "Once Ever" scenario, which allows you to assign the same required product to multiple events, in this case, Event A and Event B. Once the required product is purchased with Event A and if Event B is within the same x days as Event A, then the required product would not have to be purchased again with Event B. For example: if you set "once within" to require the required product purchase once within 1 day of the event start date, if the event start dates are within 1 day of each other, and your event lands on next Monday, you can purchase your required product anytime between now and next Monday and if there's a second event Tuesday, which has the same required product, then you will not need to purchase the required product twice. (*Note if you attempt to purchase any primary event which shares a required product, but is outside of your "within x days start date" time frame, then you will be prompted to purchase the required product again.)
*Note: you must assign the same required product to two different primary products in order to use the "once within" x days event start date
Step 1: create a second Primary Product and be sure to assign the same required product to Primary Product 2
Step 1: On the advanced tab of your required product, scroll down to required product and select the drop-down menu for "require purchase" and select "Once Within"
Step 2: Determine how many days you want to allow between requiring your customers to purchase the required product and enter the number in "Number of Days"
Step 3: In order to make the "once within x days" apply to the event start date of the primary product you must select "event start date" from the "From Primary Product" drop-down options
Step 4: Save changes
Scenario 4: Requiring Product "Once Between"
If you choose to require a product once between two specific dates, then the required product is going to be more directly related to the dates of your primary product. Your customer will have to purchase the required product for the primary product once between x and y. If they wish to purchase the primary again between those dates then the required product will not be necessary (*Note if you attempt to purchase the primary product outside of your "between x and y" time frame, then you will be prompted to purchase the required product every time.).
Note: This is only supported in Single Page Checkout.
Step 1: On the advanced tab of your required product, scroll down to required product, select the drop-down menu for "require purchase" and select "Once Between"
Step 2: Enter both a start date and an end date from which you wish to require the required product purchase
Step 3: Save changes