For WooCommerce stores, success means finding and conquering every aspect of the online shopping experience. One trend that online businesses cannot seem to ignore is the significance of a robust subscription product. If you’re in the market for better revenue and profits, this is something you cannot possibly ignore.
It’s hard enough for e-commerce contenders these days to even break out into the market. But to stay relevant, they need to strive even harder to keep their trust and loyalty to the brand. However, it’s worth knowing how you as a brand or store owner can get the most out of a robust subscription and recurring payment mechanism.
But to do that, understanding what you’re dealing with here is important. So, before understanding how to optimize your business model or configure your checkout field editor, let’s start with the basics.
Why Subscriptions and Recurring Payments Are An E-Commerce Game-Changer?
Even in the realm of brick-and-mortar, established brands can use customer service and a dynamic inventory to keep business booming. But even then, you’ll need to address the inevitable competitors that are selling the same product as you.
In the virtual playing field, where competing businesses are not only face-to-face, but have to share screen space, this rivalry can be even more cutthroat. So, they have to whip out more innovative tactics if they expect to remain profitable. This is where the almighty subscription product emerges as a weapon.
With it, not only can you keep in touch with your customers, but you can enjoy better control of your revenue stream. We’ll get into why that matters so much shortly.
How Subscription-Based Business Models Thrive
At its core, the subscription-based business model is fairly simple. Rather than paying for something at once, your customers will make recurring payments over a set period of time. For them, this usually means access to a substantial product and amazing deals. However, this also offers businesses some key advantages.
- Control Over Revenue
As mentioned earlier, recurring expenses on the buyer’s end mean that your store enjoys consistent and more predictable profits. This makes budgeting considerably easier.
- Customer Loyalty
If you keep up your end of the deal per your subscription model, your audience will be more likely to stick by you.
- Reduced Acquisition Costs
Rather than constantly having to drain finances to attract new buyers, you can slash those costs with a long-term plan that retains buyers and profits.
Considerations for WooCommerce
Whatever online store you’re running, WooCommerce continues to redefine online shopping with its flexibility and customization options. But even though it provides a robust e-commerce foundation, its default capabilities aren’t all that when it comes to subscription management. This is a job for third-party plugins.
Choosing the Right Plugins
For the most part, any dedicated subscription plugin will prove extremely useful in setting up your virtual shop. If you can find one that offers flexible pricing and trials, perhaps you may find your decision easier.
However, those are secondary priorities. Make sure, your chief focus is to tick all the relevant boxes as far as your recurring payment model is concerned. These may include
- Billing info
- Setting up renewal dates
- Modifying and customizing subscriptions
One important approach to perfecting your subscription management is to leverage checkout field editor plugins for WooCommerce. These tools allow you to play with custom and conditional fields for the subscription checkout page. Their capabilities are certainly more interesting than what WooCommerce is capable of on its own.
Setting Up Your Subscription Products
Once you have made up your mind in terms of your choice of subscription plugin, it’s time to get started. To get your product up and running, simply
- Download or install your plugin and activate it per the developer’s instructions.
- Once you can confirm that it’s active, head over to “Products” on your WooCommerce dashboard. From there, the “Add New” option will let you choose billing models, cycles, and renewal settings.
- Once everything is good to go at the back end, showcase your subscription product with high-quality images.
Managing Subscribers and Renewals
Implementing the subscription model is just the beginning. To keep it working its magic, you need to oversee your subscriptions and renewals to keep your revenue nice and predictable. You can accomplish this ultimately simple task by:
- Prioritizing payment gateways that have settings for processing each transaction
- Offer subscribers a suitable amount of options with which they can personalize their plans. This includes scaling options, moving to new plans, cancellations, etc.
- Since customer loyalty and trust make up a large portion of your goal, keep everything straightforward and transparent. Maintain a helpline where subscribers can reach you in case of any issues.
Enhancing the Subscriber Experience
A little extra effort in making your subscription setup more appealing can work wonders in keeping your subscribers satisfied and their payments recurring.
Don’t forget to reward your store followers with check-ins, reminders, and perks like discounts, exclusive content, or early access to establish a win-win situation.
For this, you may set up a newsletter with an option to follow if they want, or link up blog posts that are relevant to their customer experience.
Final Thoughts: WooCommerce Subscriptions
Looking at the shopping experience and trends, one must consider WooCommerce subscriptions and recurring payments for online store. It is the time to avail of this opportunity to create a win-win situation for your audience and lucky audiences. It has a positive impact on your main selling point that ties strong connection with subscription-based model. In these competitive times, that is surely all you need to thrive as a trustworthy business with hoards of loyal customers.
