1. POS Tasks | |
1. Follow the POS standard product setup requirements from Configuration: Product Shell |
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2. Aspenware Commerce Tasks | |
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Configure Core Product 1. Configure Core product according to product shell standards Configuration: Product Shell with the following additional setup:
2. Add product classification(s)
Update Settings
Additional commonly utilized setup
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Dynamic Pricing Module Configuration 1. Configure Season Type(s) 2. Assign Season Type to product 3. Create Pricing Season(s) 4. Configure Products for Dynamic Pricing
5. Price Product Using Pricing Tool
6. Export/Import Excel Pricing Spreadsheet |
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Follow the standard product setup requirements from Configuration: Product Shell.
The following types of products can be set up for dynamic pricing:
Products where price changes depending on the reservation date (e.g. during a certain season, a product is sold at a higher price).
Products that are not available every day of the season but do not use inventory pools to narrow available dates.
Products that you wish to display the pricing calendar in order to display how much inventory is left throughout the season.
Before dynamically pricing a product, ensure the following is true:
The product is fully set up and prepared for dynamic pricing:
The attribute “Start Date” has been added with “[Date] [Dynamic]” added to the Text Prompt field and the control type is “Date picker”. And if utilizing the large pricing calendar view then all required attributes have the text prompt [Pricing Calendar]
All attributes and values are configured on the product, and the product attribute combination table is built out fully. Ensure the attribute combination table has the absolutely correct attribute combinations before proceeding.
If the attribute is required to book the core product, such as Age and Number of Days, it is a Required attribute.
If the attribute is an add-on attribute and does not impact the price or SKU (RTP|One product header) of the core product, it should not be Required. (e.g. An add-on rental to a ticket or lesson should not be required or included in the product attribute combination table.)
The SKUs have been entered in the product attribute combination table.
Only combinations that require dynamic show in the combination table. Add-ons should not be included in the combinations.
WARNING: This step should be fully complete before beginning to dynamically price the product. Making additional changes to the core product after dynamically pricing it will cause unwanted behavior. |
Go to Aspenware Commerce > Product Classifications and click Add assignment.
Select the product you created above.
Scroll to ‘Dynamic Pricing Days to Arrival’ and click Assign.
Optionally if you’d like to show the large pricing calendar view, scroll to ‘Show pricing calendar view’ and click Assign.
Optionally you can decide if you want to allow non-consecutive multi-day selection or if you’ll allow consecutive multi-day selections. If neither option is necessary for your product, skip to the next step.
If you’d like to allow non-consecutive multi-day selections, scroll to ‘Is Non-Consecutive Multi-Day Product’ and click Assign.
If you’d like to require consecutive multi-day selection, scroll to ‘Is Consecutive Multi-Day Product’ and click Assign.
Click Add.
The following steps are optional but are commonly used for dynamically priced products.
Set up inventory pools for the product. See Inventory Configuration for instructions.
Add reloadable media for the product. See Pass Media Reload Configuration for instructions.
Set up [Cutoff Days] and/or [Cutoff Time] in product attributes if you'd like to limit the availability of products within a certain number of days/hours from purchase. See Product Attributes Configuration for instructions.
See Store-wide Settings (All settings) Library for the latest up-to-date settings, examples, and configuration.
Setting | Use | Image example (click to enlarge) |
|---|---|---|
CatalogSettings.DynamicPricingCalendar.PricingCountMessageThreshold | For dynamically priced products utilizing the large calendar view, if the number of products left at the current pricing tier is less than this setting amount, then a message will display notifying guests of how many products are left at the current tier’s price. (note: this setting’s messaging will be replaced with low inventory messaging if the minimum quantity setting “shoppingcartsettings.minimumquantity.quantitymessage” is triggered) |  |
catalogsettings.dynamicpricingcalendar.inventorymessagethreshold | For products utilizing the large calendar view and inventory pools, if the number of available reservations is less than this setting amount, then a message will display notifying guests of low availability. |  |
seasonsettings.startdate | Defines the first day that date-based products are available for reservation. Note: If you operate multiple stores through Aspenware Commerce then this setting is required to be set for “All stores” and each individual store may have a unique setting if desired. | n/a |
seasonsettings.enddate | Defines the last day that date-based products are available for reservation. Note: If you operate multiple stores through Aspenware Commerce then this setting is required to be set for “All stores” and each individual store may have a unique setting if desired. | n/a |
Configure Season Type(s)
Assign Season Type to product
Create Pricing Season(s)
Configure Products for Dynamic Pricing
Price Product Using Pricing Tool
Export/Import Excel Pricing Spreadsheet
Season Types group seasons together to assign to products (e.g. a Lift Ticket season type may be assigned to lift ticket products and include a Lift Ticket Weekdays season and a Lift Ticket Weekends season.)
Go to Aspenware Commerce > Dynamic Pricing > Seasons
Click Seasons (button in the upper right corner)
Click Season Types (button in the upper right corner)
Specify the Season Type Name and click Add.
NOTE: Currently, each season can only be assigned to one season type. If product A and product B both use the Saver Season, but product A’s seasons are Saver, Off-Peak, and Holiday, and product B’s seasons are Saver and Regular, then create a different season type to assign to product A and B. Two Saver seasons will also need to be created, one for the season type that will be assigned to Product A, and another for the season type that will be assigned to Product B. |
^Jenni? what is this?
Go to Aspenware Commerce > Dynamic Pricing > Seasons > Season Types > Assign Products to Season Types
Select the desired Product
Select the Season Type
Click Add
Pricing Seasons are created so that dates can be blocked together when updating pricing for a product in the dynamic pricing tool. These should be set up prior to pricing the product. Pricing seasons are assigned to pricing season types that are assigned to products.
Go to Aspenware Commerce Plugins > Dynamic Pricing
Click Seasons (button in the upper right corner) and specify:
Name: Enter the name for the season (ie: weekends, weekdays, whole season, etc)
Display Order: Enter the display order for the season.
Season Type: Select the Season Type created above.
Click Add.
Select Set Dates beside the newly created season (table is organized by display order).
Navigate to the first month and year with dates included in this season. Highlight the appropriate dates in the left column.
Select multiple dates in a row using the Shift key; select multiple non-consecutive dates using the Command key on a Mac and Control on a PC. When all the desired dates in the month are selected, select the > arrow key in the center of the modal.
Continue for each month within the season you are planning to have sales for and when complete, select Save.
Season names, display orders, season types can be edited and de-activated/activated by selecting Edit. To edit dates, select Set Dates.
WARNING: Once a product has been dynamically priced it cannot be un-dynamically priced. |
Setup Override Windows
On the Seasons page, click Dynamic Pricing and search for the desired product.
Select Edit Override Windows within the desired product’s row.
Days to arrival windows are defined here (e.g. rules like unique pricing for day-of purchasers, within 48-hour purchasers, outside of 48 hours, etc.)
Override Window setup depends on pricing window rules. Specify the following for all of the days to arrival windows for the product:
Window Title: Enter a descriptive name for the window.
Display order: Set to 101 for the window that is closest to the start date, 102 for the next furthest window out, and so on. For example, 101 for Day of Pricing, then 102 for the 7 days out until the day before pricing, 103 for the 14 days to 8 days before pricing, etc.
Days out start: This is the number of days from the arrival date when the pricing will apply. For example, if setting up an ‘outside of 48 hours’ window, set this to 2 and it will apply two days out from the arrival date if there isn’t a more specific (closer to arrival date) level set that applies to the reservation date.
Days out end: Set to 100000. Do not set this to a value higher than 100000.
Track Quantity: Check this for all override windows. Checking this will cause a Type drop-down to appear, select ‘Price’ rather than 'Percent.'
Click Add.
Once all Override Windows are added, and if you are not using tiered pricing, the product can be priced.
The order for override windows is very important. When all of your override windows have been added, they should be ordered from closest to arrival date to furthest from the arrival date and should look something like the example below if using multiple override windows. Notice Base is first, then the closest window to the arrival date is second, and so on.
NOTE: If all “Days Out Start” date ranges are not fully encompassed then the earlier date will be used. For example, in the screenshot above if a guest buys a product 3 days prior, then the pricing will fall under the “3 - 2 days out price” window. |
^Jenni - Does this note make sense? And are there any risks to not have all dates overlapping? Like could $0 tickets be sold? I feel like I’ve seen $0 tix sold with this config.
Setup Pricing Tiers (Optional)
Pricing tiers can be set up by returning to the Dynamic Pricing Editor page, scrolling to the product, and clicking Edit Tiers.
Enter the Tier Title, Description of the Tier, and Display Order, and click Add. Once all of your tiers have been created, you will see a list of them in order of display.
Go to Aspenware Commerce > Dynamic Pricing in Admin.
Search for the product using the Product name field (e.g. Type “ticket” to find lift tickets).
Find the desired product’s row and click Edit Pricing.
Set Base Pricing
Base pricing is used to show the %savings the customer is receiving by buying online. Configuring base pricing is required.
WARNING: Base pricing is required and if not configured may cause unwanted product behavior. Base pricing is also never used as a selling price. |
1. Select the attributes listed under “Select Product Variant(s)”
2. Ensure “Base” is Selected
3. Click Show Schedule
4. Choose your Season under “Select Season”
5. Check off the attributes to price in the calendar
6. Click the button that matches the name of your Season Type
WARNING: If you clicked “Edit Date(s)” in the screenshot above you are only pricing for a few dates instead of the Season you set up. |
In the pop-up enter the price that will be used as the base price aka ‘window rate’ and click Update.
NOTE: Depending on the amount of attributes and the number of dates being input this can take a few minutes for the data to save into the system. |
Repeat this process if you have additional Seasons that need to be priced for. You can also “dummy” price the entire season and use an Excel spreadsheet to change pricing which is covered in step 6 below.
Individual date(s) can also be modified by selecting the date(s) on the calendar then clicking Edit Date Range. There is also a “Month View” toggle on the calendar that can be used to see a wider set of date ranges.
Set Override Pricing
Override pricing is the price that guests will purchase the product at. This is where pricing window prices are set, tier pricing is set, and each tier's quantities to be sold are set.
WARNING: If Override pricing quantities are exhausted then products will be sold for $0 thereafter. Dynamic pricing is compatible with inventory pools but it is not used to control inventory. |
1. Select the attributes listed under “Select Product Variant(s)”
2. Ensure “Override” is Selected
3. Select the Pricing Windows
4. Click Show Schedule
5. Choose the Season under “Select Season”
6. Check off the attributes to price in the calendar
NOTE: avoid selecting too many combinations at once as the system can only process so many simultaneously |
7. Click the button that has the name of the Season Type
In the pop-up window complete the following:
Price: this is the price that customers will pay based on the override window
Quantity: enter 10,000. If sales surpass this number then products will be sold for $0.
(see BLUE highlighted area in screenshot below)
If you are using tiers complete the following for each tier:
$: the price for this tier
#: the quantity to be sold at this tier
(see GREEN and BLACK highlighted areas in the screenshot below)
Once all fields are completed click Update
NOTE: If you are using multiple override windows and tiers, tiers always have their own individual available quantities. So if 1 day out sells through tier 1 and begins selling into tier 2, day of pricing will still start at Tier 1. |
Repeat this process if you have additional Seasons that need to be priced for. You can also “dummy” price the entire season and use an Excel spreadsheet to change pricing which is covered in step 6 below.
Individual date(s) can also be modified by selecting the date(s) on the calendar then clicking Edit Date Range. There is also a “Month View” toggle on the calendar that can be used to see a wider set of date ranges.
Jenni - Does “Show Grid” do anything and should we bother mentioning here?
In order to speed up dynamically pricing products, and to enable quickly changing pricing on the fly, use the dynamic pricing export/import tool to export pricing into Excel and re-import pricing spreadsheets to make changes to pricing quickly. Import works for all variations of dynamically priced products, including products with tiers restricting the quantity of certain prices, override windows, and more.
Before a Pricing Spreadsheet can be exported or imported, the product must first be set up for dynamic pricing using the steps above, the pricing import spreadsheet can only pull back and update dates that already have pricing defined for them. When entering pricing using the dynamic pricing tool, you can enter “dummy” pricing and quantities, which is usually $1000 with 1000 quantity. As long as something is set up, the pricing export can overwrite it with actual prices added through the import. For help “dummy” pricing a product at the start of your season, contact your Aspenware representative.
Once a product is “dummy priced,” or priced with real values, the pricing export can be pulled and re-imported. Pricing exports and imports can be configured in the new Import Pricing plugin.
Go to Aspenware Commerce > Import Pricing search for the desired product using the product name, category or both.
A product must set up for dynamic pricing and priced for the season, even if the prices added are “dummy prices.” If this setup is not first done it will not work.
You can identify if a product is set up for dynamic pricing if you search for a product and the “type” is set to Override. If it is set to none, first set up the product for dynamic pricing using the sections above.
If the product is set up with tiered pricing, there will be two buttons under Import Pricing. Products that have tiers require two upload spreadsheets to be exported and imported:
Import Pricing: This will be used whether the product has tiers or not. If tiers are not set up on a product, this is the only option you will see. Use this link to import pricing for Base pricing, and all override (list) pricing that is not tiered (inventory-based pricing)
Import Tiered Pricing: Will be used only if the product has tiered pricing to import. This does not import list pricing or base pricing, but only values that are defined as “tiered prices”. If a product should have tiered pricing, but the Import Tiered Pricing button doesn’t appear, first setup the product for tiered dynamic pricing using the steps above.
Guidelines for preparing the Import Pricing (without tiers) spreadsheet are outlined below.
Before importing pricing spreadsheets is possible, preparing the correct pricing export sheet is required. This sheet has specific values that must be present for the import to work, so creating the spreadsheet without first exporting is not possible. To prepare your export spreadsheet, define the start and end date for the date range that will be updated. This can be an entire season.
Click to Prepare Import Spreadsheet.
When the export is done, the spreadsheet will look something like this. Find the variant(s), override window combination(s) and date(s) you wish to update, and update the price, setting the inventory using rules outlined below.
For all “Base” prices, do not set Available Inventory, leave it at 0
For ALL other Override windows, set the available inventory to either 1000 or 9999. This will set the quantity to be unlimited essentially.
Once the pricing spreadsheet is completed with desired data updates, it’s ready to be re-imported.
Define the same start and end dates as what was defined for the pricing download spreadsheet
Find the recently updated pricing download spreadsheet on your computer. Ensure it’s saved as a csv.
Select Import Pricing Spreadsheet.
NOTE: If only a set of dates or combinations are being updated, pricing imports can be trimmed down to only have relevant rows in them. This will not cause issues with the upload, but only data that is defined in this spreadsheet will be updated with the import. |
If the product being priced doesn’t have tiers, the import is complete. Be sure to check the product in the Dynamic Pricing plugin to ensure prices were properly updated as expected.
To prepare the Import Tiered Pricing (WITH tiers), follow the same steps as above, however, define the “available inventory” quantity to have the inventory that is available at that price before the price bumps to the next tier.
NOTE: If some override windows should not have tiers (such as Day of Pricing), they will still appear in the export. Filter out or remove pricing rows for invalid Override Windows that should not have tiers when updating the pricing spreadsheet. |