Tip #7 : Integrating online forms with Zoho Subscriptions

Tip #7 : Integrating online forms with Zoho Subscriptions

Hello everyone,

We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions. This week, we will be looking at how you can integrate online forms with Zoho Subscriptions.

Business Scenario:

In many subscription box businesses, their primary need is to personalize the subscription box according to their customer's preferences. In such cases, businesses will collect their customers' preferences before they check out.

Usually, businesses use online form building applications to collect customers' preferences. These applications offer customization options which helps businesses to design the form so that it's easier for customers to select their preferences. The forms usually contain a series of questions with multiple choices.

Typically, when customers want to subscribe to a box, they select the box, choose their preferences and the business will redirect them to the payment page. Here, they pay and a subscription will be initiated for them.

In Zoho Subscriptions, we provide the Hosted Payment Page to collect the customer's payment information securely which can be used as the checkout page. However, in this scenario we're looking at today, the business would ideally want to integrate the form building application with Zoho Subscriptions to save customers' preferences along with the subscription details.

Let's consider the following scenario to understand this better. Zylker Beauty runs a subscription box business that ships personalized makeup and beauty products every month. They use a third-party online form builder to collect the customers' preferences like the color of their eyes, hair etc. This helps the business to find the right products for their customers.

After the customers select their preferences, Zylker Beauty uses Zoho Subscriptions' Hosted Page to check them out and start their subscription. However, they need their customers' preferences to be saved along with the corresponding subscription details in Zoho Subscriptions.

To implement this process, we use the API Hosted Page which saves customers' preferences and generates a customized payment URL. The customized payment URL will reflect the customer's preferences. This way, the business can use the form builder application to customize the form and integrate it with Zoho Subscriptions at the same time.

How can you do it?

 For our explanation today, we will be using JotForm as the form builder. You can view the form that we've built to address the above scenario. JotForm lets you send the submitted date (customer's preferences) via a HTTP POST method. All you have to do is:
  1. process the submitted data;
  2. send it to Zoho Subscriptions server; and
  3. redirect the customer to the customized Hosted Payment Page.
In Zoho Subscriptions, we will create Custom Fields for the Subscriptions module to save the customer's preferences and map those preferences to the custom fields. You have to write a script to send an API call to Zoho Subscriptions server with all the data obtained from the form and retrieve the customized hosted payment page URL. Later, you can load this URL for your customers to check out.

There are two ways in which you can do this;

1. Create a custom PHP page:

You can create  your PHP script and deploy it in your server to process the submitted date. Access the code in GitHub.
  • Create a PHP web page using your text editor.
  • For the above example, you can copy-paste the code available in GitHub.
  • Modify the code based on your requirement.
  • Save the file with extension .php.
  • Deploy it in your website and configure the correct URL in the JotForm's Thank You page.
2. Use Google Cloud Function:

If you cannot host a PHP script in your website, don't worry. Google Cloud Functions can act as your script that processes the submitted data.

You can invoke the cloud functions with HTTP requests and configure them to meet our need. Learn more about cloud functions and get started. Once you complete the initial setup and enable the Cloud Functions API, follow the steps below:

  • Visit Google Cloud Functions and click the Create Function button at the top.
  • Provide a suitable name for the function and select the Trigger as HTTP.
  • The source code would be written in the Inline Editor with Node.js 6 runtime environment. So, configure them accordingly.
  • Next, copy the code from GitHub and modify it to suit your needs.
  • Create the function and configure the HTTP trigger URL in the JotForm's Thank You page.
Once the Thank You page of JotForm is successfully configured to redirect to one of the above URLs, the script will be executed successfully and your customers will be redirected to the hosted payment page to check out.

For further clarification, you can checkout this  video to understand this integration. 

Found this useful? Try it our for your subscriptions business and let us know. If you have any queries, feel free to comment below. We are here to answer them.

Cheers,
Sasidaran K,
Zoho Subscriptions.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

    • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

    • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

    • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

      Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

    • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

      Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

    • Recent Topics

    • Introducing spam detection for webforms: An additional layer of protection to keep your Zoho CRM clean and secure

      Greetings all, One of the most highly anticipated feature launches—Spam Detection in webforms—has finally arrived! Webforms are a vital tool for record generation, but they're also vulnerable to submissions from unauthenticated or malicious sources, which

    • Bring your CRM and Desk app inside SalesIQ with widgets

      Have you ever been confused and frustrated with multiple open tabs and switching back and forth from SalesIQ to other apps to perform your business-specific operations? How effective would it be to have all the required tools and data of the apps you

    • Speak Your Customers' Language: SalesIQ's chatbots now support 30 languages 🤖

      We're unveiling some major upgrades to our chatbot that are set to revolutionize your experience! Now SalesIQ support 30 languages for both Zobot and Answer bot. By speaking your customers' language, you can enhance engagement, improve customer satisfaction,

    • Repeat Column merge in ZOHO writer columns doesn't allow to set max columns per row

      I'm using ZOHO writer to merge data from a ZOHO CRM subform and I want it to make a table. We're using Insert Table for Column Repeat, because this is what we need. (Name of column (Teamname) and underneath that a list of names of teammembers). It works

    • Persisting email signals to contact timeline?

      Hello there. Regarding the email signals that are logged when a contact opens an email, am I correct that these signals are not logged to a contact's timeline? Ideally, I would like to have this context available for future follow-ups, if the contact

    • Trouble with using Apostrophe in Name of Customers and Vendors

      We have had an ongoing issue with how the system recognizes an apostrophe in the name of customers and vendors. The search will not return any results for a name that includes the mark; ie one of our vendors names is "L'Heritage" and when entering the

    • Really want the field "Company" in the activities module!

      Hi team! Something we are really missing is able to see the field Company when working in the activities module. We have a lot of tasks and need to see what company it's related to. It's really annoying to not be able to see it.🙈 Thx!

    • Upcoming update to Google Drive integration in Zoho Creator

      Hello everyone, We're writing to inform you about an upcoming update to how Zoho Creator integrates with Google Drive. In Zoho Creator, during actions like importing files to create an app or attaching files to fields, you can choose files directly from

    • Managing Scheduled Replies

      Communication is most effective when the intended message reaches the right person at the right time. However, this can be challenging when communication occurs across different time zones. By scheduling replies, businesses can ensure that responses reach

    • Show price book list price

      When using price books, once you add products to the price book in the Products related list you can display the Unit price which is the default list price; however, there is no option to show the price book list price. To see the price book list price

    • Allow Attaching Quartz Recordings to Existing Zoho Support Tickets

      Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request an enhancement to how Zoho Quartz recordings integrate with Zoho Support tickets. Current Behavior: At the moment, each Quartz recording automatically creates a new support ticket. However, in many real-world scenarios:

    • Can I hide empty Contact fields from view?

      Some contacts have a lot of empty fields, others are mostly filled. Is there a way I can hide/show empty fields without changing the actual Layout? I would like to de-clutter my view, and also be able to add information later as I am able. I would be

    • Manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin app (iOS and macOS)

      Hello everyone! We're happy to announce that you can manage user roles and profiles from the Bigin mobile app. The Users & Controls section has three subsections: Users, Profiles, and Roles. Users Employees who belong to your Bigin organization are called

    • Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

      Hello Zoho Cliq Team, How are you? We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels

    • Form to PDF template

      I am looking to create a Form and when information is inputted, it will merge it into a PDF template we already have. There could be multiple lines in the form and each line inputs information into a new page of a PDF template.

    • Please verify my account

      Hi, We have just launched our website and received media coverage in our country. Hundreds of users are signing up for our platform every day. We would like to send them a welcome email, but we are unable to do so because our ZeptoMail account has not

    • Subject character limit increase

      We have an occasional user case where subject lines exceed 500 characters which is the ZeptoMail imposed limit. While I understand long subject lines are not "best practice", these are particular notification emails with specific information for client

    • Account blocked

      Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites

    • Nested notebooks

      Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know if it is possible to nest notebooks. It would be very helpful when there are too many, as it would improve organization. Thank you for your response. Best regards.

    • Cannot see correct DNS config for mail after moving domain to another provider

      I have moved my domain from one provider to another and after that zoho mail stopped working (expected). Problem is, zoho mail admin panel still shows (10 hours after move) that all records are correct while I haven't changed anything in my domain DNS

    • Proactive Alert for Existing Open Tickets per Contact / Account

      Hello Zoho Desk Team, Greetings, and hope you’re doing well. We would like to submit a feature request aimed at improving agent awareness and efficiency when handling tickets in Zoho Desk. Use case When an agent opens a ticket (new or existing), it is

    • Ticket resolution field - can you add links, video, and images?

      Seems like the ticket resolution fields is just a text field. Any plans to add the ability to add links, images...the same functionality in the problem description box? I would like to send the customer a link to a KB article, a link to our Wiki, embed

    • Ticket Resolution - Add rich formatting, screenshots and attachments

      The resolution field only allows plain text at the moment. Many of our resolutions involve posting screenshots as evidence, it would be great for us to be able to have rich text formatting, be able to paste screenshots and add attachments in the solution

    • Kaizen #140 - Integrating Blog feed scraping service into Zoho CRM Dashboard

      Howdy Tech Wizards! Welcome to a fresh week of kaizen. This week, we will look at how to create a dashboard widget that displays the most recent blog post of your preferred products/services, updated daily at a specific time. We will leverage the potential

    • Convert Lead Automation Trigger

      Currently, there is only a convert lead action available in workflow rules and blueprints. Also, there is a Convert Lead button available but it doesn't trigger any automations. Once the lead is converted to a Contact/Account the dataset that can be fetched

    • I'm getting this error when I try to link an email to a deal inside the Zohomail Zoho CRM extension.

      When I click "Yes, associate," the system displays an "Oops!! Something went wrong" error message. I have attached a screenshot of the issue for reference.

    • Zoho Sheet - Desktop App or Offline

      Since Zoho Docs is now available as a desktop app and offline, when is a realistic ETA for Sheet to have the same functionality?I am surprised this was not laucned at the same time as Docs.

    • ZOHO add-in issue

      I cannot connect ZOHO from my Outlook. I am getting this error.

    • Marketing Automation

      L.S. Marketing Automation is and has always been part of the Zoho One bundle - according to the information provided on the Zoho Website. Why when I open Marketing Automation do I get the following message?: "Your trial has expired. We hope you enjoyed

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026

      Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help you

    • Translation from Chinese (Simplified) to Chinese (Traditional) is not working. It randomly translated. Google Translate accurately but zoho translate is not working at all

      Hi friends, The newly added language for translation. https://www.zoho.com/deluge/help/ai-tasks/translate.html "zh" - Chinese "zh-CN" - Chinese (Simplified) "zh-TW" - Chinese (Traditional) my original text: 郑这钻 (and it is zh-CN) translated traditional

    • The Social Playbook - January edition: Getting started with content creation

      Social media isn’t just about posting some random content. It’s about why certain content works, how brands stand out, and what makes people pause mid-scroll. The Social Playbook is a monthly community series where we break all of that down. Through real

    • Support for Custom Fonts in Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal

      Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to use custom fonts in the Zoho Recruit Career Site and Candidate Portal. Currently only the default fonts (Roboto, Lato, and Montserrat) are available. While these

    • Adding bank details to the contact through API

      How to add bank-related information to the contact while creating it using API? The account number needs to be encrypted before sending it through API but not sure how to encrypt and get those values. Please guide me in this.

    • Font breakage in Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac

      Dear Zoho Mail and Workplace Community, With the latest update of macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, there has been font breakages in the email preview of Zoho Mail Desktop Lite application for Mac. This breakage is due to the corruption of the System fonts

    • Feature request - image resizing on sales orders

      I need to be able to show the items on the sales orders, currently the item image shows really small and no way to resize it, need the ability to make the image larger to showcase the product on the pdfs

    • Nueva edición de "Ask The Expert" en Español Zoho Community

      ¡Hola Comunidad! ¿Te gustaría obtener respuestas en directo sobre Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk u otra solución dentro de nuestro paquete de CX (Experiencia del Cliente? Uno de nuestros expertos estará disponible para responder a todas tus preguntas durante nuestra

    • Automation Series: Auto-Notify External Users on Issue Closure

      Hello Folks! In Zoho Projects, you can notify external issue reporters via email when an issue is marked as Closed. This helps the users avoid manual follow-ups and keeps the reporter updated. In this post, we’ll walk through a simple setup using a Web

    • Turn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations

      When a Guided Conversation fails, it's usually not because the logic is wrong. They fail because the conversation stops moving. A customer starts a chat with a clear goal: report an issue, check a status, or confirm something. At first, the flow does

    • Basic Mass Update deluge schedule not working

      I'm trying to create a schedule that will 'reset' a single field to 0 every morning - so that another schedule can repopulate with the day's calculation. I thought this would be fairly simple but I can't work out why this is failing : 1) I'm based in

    • Next Page