Initiating product buyout when customer wants to buy the product

If you have a rental model that allows subscription products to be bought in the middle of the subscription period or at the end of the subscription period, you can tackle the operations associated with subscription product buyouts (such as charging the remaining product amount via a one-time transaction, sending an invoice for the charge, stopping recurring payments etc.) in your circuly Operations Backend.

There are two ways to initiate a product buyout

1. From the Customer Self-Service Portal by the customer itself - once you’ve enabled the setting, the feature will be available to your customers in the Customer Self-Service Portal. If everything runs smoothly (that is if the payment is successfully charged) no manual input is required from your side. Read this article to learn more about the buyout process initiated by the customer.
   ‍
2. From the circuly Operations backend by you or by a user - the buyout process is initiated by you or a circuly user from the circuly Operations Backend. 

The difference between the two options 

The difference between the two is the process itself. If you want to offer a custom price without influencing the price of all the other products of the same type, then the best way to proceed is to initiate the buyout manually from the circuly Operations Backend. 

However, if you do not plan on offering custom prices, then the buyout can be initiated by the customer from the Customer Self-Service Portal. Before getting started with this, please make sure that you’ve checked the retail prices of all products and edited them if there are any errors. You’ll learn more about editing the retail price of this product in this article. 

‍

If you do wish to offer custom product prices when a customer request to buy the product, continue reading this article.

‍

The product buyout request affects the following aspects of an existing subscription:

• If any, charge the remaining amount that is due to be paid (Product price - price already paid = amount due)
• Marking the product as bought in the system so the system knows that the product is not expected to be returned to you.
• Adjusting the shop system stock to reflect that a product has been bought out.

‍

Why is it important to initiate a buyout process in the circuly operations backend?

As part of the return workflow, products are expected to return at the end of the subscription period. If products are not returned until the “Return until period” the circuly system Reactivates the subscription so that the customer can be charged for the unreturned products. But when a product is bought by the customer, there is no product being returned. The circuly system differentiates between products that are expected to come back and products that are not expected to come back and accordingly takes the next actions.

‍

How to initiate the buyout process?

Steps:

‍

• In your circuly operations backend, go to the Subscriptions Tab > Select a subscription from the Subscription List > Scroll the bar to the right until you see the three dots.
  ‍

‍

• From the menu options > Select Initiate product buyout.
• In the Buyout Overview window > Check the amount in the Buyout Price input field.
• If the Buyout Price to be charged is correct > Insert a message for your customer in the Invoice line item text input field and click on the BUYOUT button.
  ‍

Note: The text you insert in the Invoice line item text input field will be included in the email that is sent to the customer. Make sure that you include the variable {{description}} in the Email Template if you want the text you add in the Invoice line item text input field to be shown in the email that is sent to the customer.
‍

• If the Buyout Price to be charged is incorrect > Insert a value that you think is correct in the Buyout Price input field > Then insert a message for your customer in the Invoice line item text input field and click on the BUYOUT button.
  

‍

What happens next

When you confirm your action by clicking on the BUYOUT button, the following actions occur simultaneously:

• The status of the asset is marked as bought out. Assets with bought out status do not trigger the return workflow because they are not expected to come back (no further action is required from your side).

‍

• Recurring payments are stopped so that the customer is not charged additionally for the bought out subscription.
• The customer receives the "Buyout Order Confirmation" email first from the email templates to confirm the subscription buyout.
• After the "Buyout Order Confirmation" email is sent, a one time transaction is triggered with the amount in the Buyout Price input field. The amount is charged immediately using the customer's stored payment method.
• Once the payment is successfully charged, an invoice is generated for the one time payment (the email template "One time transaction" is used to generate an invoice) and sent to the customers (the email template "Payment was successful" is used to send the invoice to the customer that the payment was successful)

‍

Additional things to note

1. Buyout payment can take some time to process when SEPA is chosen. This should be mentioned in the email communication with the customer. Example text that you can include in your buyout email: "Thank you for your order. You will receive an order confirmation by e-mail shortly. Depending on the payment method, it may take several days to process your payment. As soon as the payment has been successful, your subscription will be changed to "{statusBoughtOut}" and you will receive an email with your purchase invoice. If your payment cannot be processed, we will also notify you by email.
2. Texts visible in the Self-Service Portal can be adapted. Please get in touch with us via service desk if you wish to do so.

‍

Learn more about the buyout process.