What is needed for an offer creation?

    Content of this article

    1. Preliminary Notes
    2. The relationship between shopping carts, offers and products
    3. What is needed for an offer creation?
    4. Subsequent information
    5. Summary: Preparation for the offer creation

    1. Preliminary Notes 

    The plenigo backend allows you to flexibly create various offers, combine products and offers individual customization options. In order to present the offer creation system as comprehensibly as possible, this article explains the relationships between individual components of the plenigo backend. Basically, all sub-items that open in the menu item Products are either required in the offer creation, or represent optional details and additional functions for offers.

    2. The relationship between shopping carts, offers and products 

    In the plenigo backend, there are three levels related to offers:

    1. Products
    2. Offers
    3. Shopping Carts

    An offer always consists of at least one product, a shopping cart on the other hand consists of at least one offer. A product itself cannot be sold.

    Note: A product is not created separately from the offer, such as a pricesheet, but is created during the offer creation process. This means that several products can be created in an offer during its creation, such as a digital product and a print product. For the reason that an offer can contain several products, this conceptual distinction is made.


    Fig: The relationship between shopping card, offers and products 

    3. What is needed for an offer creation? 

    What is the composition of offers?
    In order to be able to create an offer, a few components must be created for it beforehand. This section only refers to components that must/could be created before the offer is created.

    When preparing to create an offer, it is advisable to work through the upper subitems (1) in sequence. The price segments, price sheets and access rights (1) are always required for the offer creation, which is why they should be created first. Wallets (1) are only needed for credit-based offers and Event Lists can be added to a wallet, if needed. Subsequently, the sub-items from (2) can be processed, if necessary, since these represent optional information in the offer creation.

    Shopping carts and almost all sales rules can be created or added to the offer only after the offer creation.


    Fig: Menu item Products 

    Step 1:
    Necessary components
    If your company sells products in other countries at different prices, then price segments should be defined first. If this does not apply to your company, this step is skipped. Next, price sheets must be created. In the price sheet the created price segments will be visible and different prices can be set for the different segments.

    You may be asking yourself: why not just put a price right when you create the offer?
    The idea behind this follows the building block principle. The individual building blocks are built first, so that they can be assembled in any combination at the end.
    Example: You have several products with a free initial phase. For this you create a price sheet with the name "Free of charge" at the price of 0,00 €. When creating the respective offers, you can now simply select the "Free of charge" price sheet for the initial phase and do not have to keep entering the price manually.

    It becomes even more practical if your company sells abroad, because as described, prices for several segments can be set in one price sheet.
    Example: You have two price segments "Germany" and "EU". In a price sheet, you specify €5.00 for Germany and €10.00 for the EU. You then use the price sheet for a print subscription, for example. If someone from France buys the print subscription, this customer is automatically charged €10.00. If a customer from Germany buys the subscription, he will be charged 5,00 €. Because all prices used for this offer are combined in one price sheet, there is no need to create an extra offer for the EU that has the same components but a different price. This would be very time-consuming for several countries.

    In addition to the price sheets, the access rights must also be created.
    Example: You have a print product, a digital product and an e-paper. To enable the customer to access these products after purchase, an "access right" is required. The access rights could be called "Print", "Digital" and "E-Paper".  Now there are many ways to incorporate these into an offer, because you can combine the individual components in any way you want. For example, you could create a print subscription with the access right "Print" or a bundle in which each product is assigned an access right. It all depends on your offer.

    Wallets are only required for credit-based offers. Credit-based offers are built on a credit system. Customers can buy credit units via this type of subscription, which are then loaded onto the Wallet, as the Wallet acts as a kind of credit account. Optionally, an event list can be connected to the wallet. However, this is only needed if the credit offered is to be used for the purchase of seminars or workshops, for example, i.e. for products that are based on a date.


    Step 2:
    Recommended components
    If price sheets and access rights are created, you can almost create an offer. The only thing missing is the offer structure. The offer structure is in the overview of the offers on the left side. In the offer structure, folders are created in which certain offer groups can be arranged. The definition of the group is up to you. When you create an offer, you have to place it in the structure. You can also select "None" in the drop-down menu, but the offer will then only be displayed if the top folder "All" is opened completely, which can make the search for an offer more complicated.

    Note: Even if an offer is not included in the offer structure, it can still be selected in the checkout.


    Fig: Example of an Offer Tree


    Step 3:
    Optional components
    In the last step, you can edit the sub-items Delivery lists and Accounting. Since these are optional entries in the quote creation, you can leave these points untouched if you wish.


    Fig: Optional components


    4. Subsequent Information 

    Some details/sub-items can only be added or edited after the offer has been created:
    1. Shopping Carts
    2. All Sales Rules (A misue rule can be added during offer creation, however, the misuse rule includes an alternative offer, which must be created first).
    3. IVW Rules 
    4. Tags


    Fig: Subsequent information 

    For more detailed information on the topic of which data can be edited (only) after the offer has been created and which cannot, please read the article Edit offers subsequently.

    5. Summary: Preparation of the offer creation 

    In short, the following aspects should be considered before creating an offer:
    • Are price segments needed?
    • A price sheet must exist
    • An access right must exist
    • Credit-based offers: is an event list needed? 
    • Credit-based offers: a wallet must exist 
    • An offer structure is advantageous

    Additional: 
    • Think carefully about which price sheet to add (the price sheet cannot be changed later)
    • Think carefully to which tax type a product can be assigned (the tax type cannot be changed afterwards)
    • Think carefully about which products and/or bundles an offer (applies only to subscription types) should include (no additional product or bundle can be added later)
    • Consider carefully whether the offer should not be managed by plenigo (must be clicked in the form of a checkbox, cannot be changed later)

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