Because POS systems are not set up as membership databases their is no built in mechanism for managing expiry dates. At NitroSell we offer two approaches that are managed through an option on the Membership Settings tab in the web store manager.
1. Have Price Level associated with Membership managed by the WebStore
This is the default behaviour. When a customer buys a membership, we pass down their membership and the expiry date associated with the membership to the customer record in RMS. We don’t change the customer price level in RMS.
Any purchase the customer makes in your physical store will NOT automatically reflect the price level they have gained through the membership.
When the customer buys something on the web store we check their membership type and the expiry date associated with it. If the membership type is valid, active and in not expired, the customer gains the price level associated with the membership.
The advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to manually reset customer price levels once their membership expires. The web store will simply tell the customer that their membership has expired, offer them the standard price and ask them if they want to renew their membership.
The disadvantage of this approach is that if the customer wants to buy something in your physical store the sales person will need to check that customer for a membership type and offer them the price associated with the membership type.
2. Manually Revert Customer Price Level at the POS when Membership Expires
The alternative is that the web store simply sets the customer price level when the customer buys a membership. We pass down the membership type, the expiry date and the price level to the store customer record.
To enable this option you need to set the ‘Manage Customer Membership Price Level and Expiry Date at POS’ option in the Membership Setting tab of the web store manager.
The advantage of this approach is that a customer walking into your store will automatically get the price level associated with their membership level.
The disadvantage of this approach is that you need to have some in-store mechanism for resetting the price level of customers when their membership expires. If you are comfortable with SQL then this approach will work for you as you have access to the expiry date of the membership in the customer record. If you don’t reset their price level, the customer will continue to enjoy their membership price level when their membership expires.
Membership Renewal
The webstore knows when a customers membership is due to expire. When a customer with a membership comes to the checkout page they will be offered the chance to renew their membership. By renewing their membership, their expiry date is pushed out by the length of the membership.
Membership Expiry Date Format
The expiry date must be entered in a format that the store understands. That format is YYYY-MM-DD. As an example the second day of 2016 should look like 2016-01-02.