subject: Offer Subscription for Ecommerce Website [print this page] Offer Subscription for Ecommerce Website Offer Subscription for Ecommerce Website
A number of business owners would love to have a steady stream of recurring revenue instead of relying on day to day sales. An easy way to achieve this is to build a membership website using subscription software. It is gaining popularity, because in a slowing economy, having guaranteed sales week to week or month to month is a must. If you offer subscription services to your visitors and provide them with good value, you will build a large following in no time.
The way that a membership website works is it uses a subscription software to capture each subscriber or member's information. To be able to offer subscription products, content or services, your job is to deliver as promised and let the software take care of the membership interface and recurring billing. Payment will be deducted from the subscriber's credit card at a given date each week or month or quarter depending on your preference for the entire subscription period. The subscription or membership can be canceled at any time the member no longer wants to receive products or services from the business, thus ending the relationship in addition to the recurring payments.
There are a number of ways you can offer subscription based products or services on your e-commerce web site. Almost all online businesses that require the use of a subscription software will fall into one of three business models. The first type is a community based membership website. Visitors must pay a recurring fee to become a member in order to network with other people in their field, get professional advice on a certain subject or get access to information that they cannot get on the web for free. The second type delivers new products or content to people through a subscription. Your subscribers can either receive goods online such as newsletters or e-zines or receive tangible products in the mail for example chocolate of the month club. The third type is for services or products that the customer needs on an ongoing basis. A good example of this is Proactiv, which is an acne product that can be delivered to the customer every three months so they never run out of the product.
If you are interested in any of the above business models, you will need an ecommerce solution with a reliable subscription software to help you build your own membership website. Here is a list of basic features to help you offer subscription on your web site:
Get detailed reports of all customer charges each billing cycle
Define your own terms and conditions for subscriptions
Choose when to charge your subscribers
Automatic credit card transaction processing each billing cycle
Set amount of days to wait before charging declined credit cards again
Set amount of payment declines before deactivating a subscriber's account
Choose your own billing cycle according to days, weeks, months or years
Member account can be disabled at any time by the customer
Configure countries to accept subscription from
There are several benefits for creating a membership website. It does not require that much more from you than what you would typically do for an ecommerce site. The subscription software handles all of the membership and payment aspects of the business, all you have to do is keep providing your subscribers or members with valuable content, products or services. You will be able to offer subscription services by either building an exclusive membership website or have this option integrated into your ecommerce store where you would be able to make money from both one time sales as well as ongoing sales. You no longer have to waste time or money marketing to your current customers, instead focus on new customer acquisition. Keep expanding that list, the more subscribers you have the more guaranteed sales revenue for your business.
