Companions in the Online Store

In the HirePOS online store, companions play a crucial role in providing customers with relevant options and accessories for the items they are hiring. Companions can be either optional, allowing customers to choose to add them to the cart, or required, automatically included with the master item. This guide will walk you through how to effectively utilize companions in your online store.

To use companions in the online store, follow these steps:

1. Assign companions to an item via Setup > Items > item > Companions.

2. Ensure companions are active in Setup > Preferences > Online Store > Setup Store Items (have a website code).

To make companions required, go to Setup > Preferences > Online Store and toggle the "Use required companions" option to the right.

For customers to see and use companions on the online store, you must activate the items. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup > Preferences > Online Store > Setup Store Items.

2. Locate the items you wish to activate, select them, and click "Activate Store Items."

Remember to add images and descriptions to these items for a better customer experience.

Tip:
Companions will sort themselves by their Website Code on the online store item pages. If you have a list of companions you would like to re-arrange, consider structuring their Website Code to suit.

By default, companions, required or not, will behave like optional companions in the online store.

To enable the required companion feature in HirePOS:

1. Navigate to Setup > Preferences > Online Store.

2. Enable "Use required companions" and save changes.

Before using companions in the online store, link each companion item to the main item. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup > Items and ensure items are set up for each item you wish to hire or sell.

2. Select a main item and navigate to the Companions tab to link companion items.

3. Select the items that you wish to make a companion of the main item

At this point, you are faced with check-boxes for the Required setting.

Amongst other things, the required setting forces an online store customer to take the companion into their cart when adding the master item.

Companions can be set as required or optional:

• Required: Enable the required setting for companions in that must be added with the main item. This is done in the Companions tab by switching on the Required checkbox for the given companion item.

• Optional: Do not enable the required setting for companions that are optional.

In addition to companions, you can use the related items feature to offer additional items to customers. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup > Preferences > Online Store > Setup Store Items.

2. Open an item, go to the Related Items tab, add related items, and save changes.

In a setup example, a 'Mini Excavator' has 2 required companions, while an 'Auger Driver' has 3 optional companions. The related item feature suggests the 'Auger Driver' to customers viewing the 'Excavator' on the online store.

Required Companions

The ‘Mini Excavator’ item now lists 2x required companions.

The customer can click the Eye Preview button to get some more information about the companion

When the customer attempts to add the ‘excavator’ to the online store cart, the required companions will also be added.

Related Item

The related item (auger driver) set up earlier in this example is visible at the bottom of the mini excavator page.

Clicking this will take us to the ‘auger driver’ page.

Optional Companions

The ‘auger driver’ has 3x optional companions, which can be added to the cart manually by the customer. Using this setup, the customer can add only the elements they desire.

By effectively utilizing companions and related items, you can enhance the customer experience and streamline the hiring process in your HirePOS online store.