Offering Subscriptions on your PrestaShop Store

A subscription strategy is relevant for 90% of ecommerce companies. Subscriptions can apply to physical products, virtual products, delivery (through Premium delivery), or services. Offering customers subscriptions or product boxes will help to increase your monthly earnings and build loyalty. Learn how to offer subscriptions to different products, or a delivery service, with your PrestaShop store.

Subscription Advantages

For e-sellers, subscriptions are an easy way to ensure recurring revenue each month without having to seek out additional customers. These earnings can grow exponentially! A subscription strategy is one of the most reliable ways to quickly reach earnings objectives and to anticipate income before the start of the month. Not only is it an easy way to build customer loyalty, but it also makes it a snap to manage your inventory and increase your store's conversion rates. There are several types of subscriptions, depending on visitor expectations and what kind of products you sell.

“Boxes”

There are more than a few box sites! The ever in-style “box” is used for beauty products, baby products, wine, flowers, decorations, jewelry, gourmet baskets, geek items, and so on. Blooms and Tiniloo that run on PrestaShop are nice examples. Each month, or at an interval you choose, subscribers eagerly await a ‘gift’ item they have subscribed to. What's special about boxes is that subscribers don't know exactly what theirs will contain until the moment it arrives. The element of surprise is what makes subscribing—and being debited—so worth the wait. You can offer some products through a box and others through ordinary purchase. You can also offer only boxes, with various prices and sizes, or even just one box to make it even easier to prepare your deliveries!

Advantages for the e-seller:

• recurrent income
• very easy to manage inventory
• simplified income prediction
• loyal customers
• identical orders to prepare

Advantages for the customer:

• a unique purchasing process, a new surprise each month, or at another interval
• an emotional bond with your store because customers see the box as a ‘surprise gift’

Necessary features for the site:

• a subscription module with recurrent payment, which you can choose from our list.

Subscriptions to physical products:

The most successful ecommerce businesses offer them, and users couldn't be happier! Presented as a sales offer ‘save 10% when you subscribe’ they enable you to quickly improve conversion rates. With an Amazon Dash button, customers are never without life's necessities. You can offer the same for your customers by letting them subscribe to a product through subscription. Young parents will be delighted to receive a pack of diapers for their child at an interval they choose, without having to leave the house, or worry that the product will be sold out. This can apply to any situation, even a B2B solution! You can offer subscriptions to your entire catalog or only for some products. Abonnement-café is an example of this, offering customers a monthly coffee pod subscription at a tempting price:

Subscriptions to virtual products and services:

Domestic help, massage, theater—subscriptions also apply to services, and of course to virtual products: MOOCS (massive open online courses), content, video, music, and more! For example: Shop Quotidiano.net is an Italian site that lets users subscribe to online newspapers

Advantages for the e-seller:

• recurrent income
• simplified income prediction
• loyal customers

Advantages for the customer:

• a unified purchasing process
• Simplified and exclusive access to products reserved for subscribers

Necessary features for the site:

• a subscription module with recurrent payment, which you can choose from our list.

Delivery subscription - Premium Delivery:

Delivery fees are responsible for nearly 50% of cart abandons. But if you offer free shipping, your profitability will plummet. We have a solution! You can now offer customers a Premium subscription for shipping, just like Amazon and other prominent e-commerce sites. Your customers pay for delivery subscription and can take advantage of free or rock bottom shipping rates throughout the duration of their Premium subscription.

Advantages for the e-seller:

• loyal customers
• increased conversion rates
• fewer abandoned carts

Advantages for the customer:

• the satisfaction of ‘saving’ on shipping fees when ordering, and priority delivery.
• a solid reason to return to the site where they subscribed to premium delivery

Necessary features for the site:

• a Premium shipping subscription module

Last but not least

One more thing—when you set up a subscription service for your store, make sure you:

• update your terms and conditions of sale
• Verify that customers can easily unsubscribe, and let them know through clear communication how hassle-free subscription is with statements like ‘unsubscribe in just a click’ or ‘you can put your subscription on hold at any time.’

Doing so puts customers at ease and increases conversion rates for subscriptions. Happy selling!