A big part of any modern e-commerce business is to support multiple ways of offering products. Firmhouse lets you set up products to be shipped only once in addition to setting up products to be shipped on a recurring basis.
This article explains how ship only once products behave when being ordered. And how you can leverage them to support various use cases.
How to set up a product to be shipped only once
When creating or editing a Product in Firmhouse you can configure various order generation and shipment settings in the Logistics section. In the Logistics section you can set the product to be shipped Only once:
One time products become inactive after order generation
Whenever Firmhouse generates an order for an only once product it will be removed as active product from the customer. This means that from that moment onward the product will not be visible in the Firmhouse Self Service Center anymore and it will also not be taken into account for any shipping cost calculation.
In the Firmhouse Portal these products will show up in the inactive products list and will get the status owned.
Use cases for one time products
Example 1: Traditional one time e-commerce Checkouts
By default the only once setting on Firmhouse products will make them behave as you expect in a traditional e-commerce flow: the customer adds products to their cart, finishes checkout, and gets them delivered at home. So if a customer puts only only once products in their cart, it will behave as a traditional e-commerce order at checkout.
Example 2: Hybrid carts with one-time products and subscription products
You can mix and match one-time products and subscriptions in one cart and checkout. This allows your customers to browse products from your regular product catalog and at the same time subscribe to products made available for subscriptions.
Example 3: Free or premium add-ons to initial order
Some merchants offer freebees or add-on products to an initial order as part of a campaign or as part of their default setup.
For example when starting a subscription on washing cloths, a storage box can be added to the initial order. The one time storage box is set as an only once product so that it only gets shipped on the first order. After the initial order is generated, the storage box is removed as active product from a customer account or subscription.
Example 4: One time additions or upsells during a subscription lifetime
It's possible that your customer or you as a merchant would like to add a product to a subscription so it will be shipped out on their next order, but only once. Allow your customers to add these one time products to their next orders as part of a campaign or because you want to make something right after you messed up an order.
You can also use this to offer a special selection of products as promotion during seasonal events such as the holiday season.