Web Orders and Mail Orders - Store Managed
- Mary Volkmer (Unlicensed)
Analytics
Textbooks can be rented at the cash register or via PrismWeb.
When renting via the web, the customer must agree to the rental agreement terms.
The rental agreement(s) that are attached to rental records are also transmitted to the web. When a customer rents online, the customer must agree to the rental terms by checking an ‘I agree’ box on the rental agreement before checking-out. With this option, there will be no signed copy of the rental agreement, however, the customer cannot complete the transaction without agreeing to the rental terms.
If you require a signed copy of the rental agreement, you could allow rentals via the web with in-store pickup so the student can sign the agreement when picking up the books.
In either case, the customer must agree to the rental terms. If necessary, check with your legal department for guidelines when renting textbooks via the web.
You could conceivably rent via manually entered mail orders, however, you would need an arrangement of some sort to confirm the customer agrees to the rental agreement. Again, you might require that the customer come to the store to pick up the rentals and sign the rental agreement at that time.
Both rentals and purchases can be included on the same transaction via PrismWeb or manually entered mail orders.
Both web and mail orders with rentals are processed in the Mail Order modules. It is at the time of processing that rental barcodes are assigned to the rentals and the customer is charged for renting.
Web Rentals
Whether or not to rent books via PrismWeb is a store decision. Parameters in the PrismWeb WebManager can be set to allow for the following three situations:
- Sell only via the website, no rental information displays
- Sell only via the website, information displays for rentals in store
- Sell and rent via the website
If you sell and rent both new and used copies via PrismWeb, four prices will appear on your website for textbooks that can be both purchased and rented: New Selling price, Used Selling price, New Rental price and Used Rental price. Whether or not books are available to rent will depend on how your website checks SOH as well as other parameters that you set in both ICS and the PrismWeb web manager.
PrismWeb WebManager
This section contains basic brief information for setting up your PrismWeb website to rent textbooks. For more information or more detailed instructions, contact PrismWeb Support.
To access the parameters for renting via PrismWeb, you will need to log into the Web Manager (http://manager.thecampushub.com). The parameters for rentals are located under Setup > Site Options > Rental Options.
Rental Setting | Options |
|---|---|
Allow Rentals? | Off: Choose this option if you do not rent textbooks via the web. With this option, rental prices and the rental prompt do not appear on the website. No additional information, such as the rental message discussed below, appears. With this option, only purchase information appears on the website. Display Rental Message: Choose this option if books can be purchased via the web and rented (and purchased) in store. While this option doesn’t allow for rentals via the web, it will display the rental message that you can edit to inform customer that rentals are available in store. The text of the message can be changed in the Rental Message field. Display Inline – For Purchase: Choose this option if you allow rentals along with purchases on the website. When this option is selected, textbooks available for rent will display New Rental and Used Rental prices in addition to the New and Used selling prices. |
Rental Message | Enter the message that should appear when ‘Display Rental Message” is selected. |
Collect Student ID | This parameter can be set to require a student ID for Rental Transactions, Textbook Transactions, All Transactions or it is not required for any transactions. |
Which Type of Textbooks to Rent | This allows you to choose to rent Only New, Only Used or Both New and Used Textbooks online. |
Required Rental Tenders | Check one or more tenders your store will accept as a guarantee tender for the rental. |
Allow credit cards that expire during the rental period (Yes/No) | Select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to allow credit cards that expire before the Due Date of the rental period. If you accept credit cards that expire before rentals are due back in the store, you may have failed authorization charges for rentals not returned. |
Rental Information as Seen on the Web Site
Below is a sample of what your customers might see if you have selected Allow Rentals?: Display Rental Message and have entered a message in the Rental Message field.
If you select Allow Rentals?: Display Inline – For Purchase, rental prices will appear with the selling prices, based on available SOH and active rental records. In the example below, used copies are available to purchase and rent on the website.
Rental prices on the Website
Rental prices display on the web under the following circumstances:
- You’ve set the parameters accordingly in the WebManager
- Active rental records (new, used or both) exist for the title
and
- The maximum number of rentals has not been reached, or SOH minus the rented quantity is greater than zero.
Web Agreement on the Web
The rental agreement is set from PrismCore to the website through a Web data interchange process. When a rental textbook is added to the cart, the shopper must accept the terms of the rental agreement before checking out. The customer can both view and print the rental agreement.
