Tip #9 : Different ways to create a subscription for your customer

Hello everyone,

We've 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 how to implement metered billing with Google Sheet. This week we will be looking at the different ways to create subscriptions for your customers.

Let's say you are the owner of a gym and a fitness centre. Your customers can subscribe to your gym in two ways:

Automatic: The customer goes through your website and subscribes online.
Manual: The customers come directly to your gym and you manually onboard them.

Let's look into the above processes in detail.

1) Automatic Subscriptions:

Majority of subscription businesses will have their own website that lists their products (or) services. These websites will have a detailed pricing page where the customers can select a plan as per their requirements and check out instantly.

To help you with the process, Zoho Subscriptions provides you with the Embed Widget feature. You can use the Embed Widget feature to create a Checkout Button and Pricing Table for your plans. The Checkout Button and Pricing Table can be embedded on your website. Embedding this feature in your website is to make it easier for your customers to get information about the plans you offer through the Pricing Table and instantly subscribe to a plan of their choice, by clicking the Checkout Button.

Refer to this video for a more detailed information.

2) Manual Subscriptions - Onboard the customers from Zoho Subscriptions dashboard:

For manually on-boarding your customers, you have to create a new customer in Zoho Subscriptions. After creating a customer, there are three ways to collect the payments.

When the customer pays via cash or card:

Once the customer has been created in Zoho Subscriptions, create a new subscription for the customer. Then choose the Payment Mode as Offline and record the payment for the first billing cycle in the following page. A subscription will now be created for the customer and the first created invoice will be marked as paid.
When you send an invoice to the customer and they opt to pay online:

After creating a new customer, create a new subscription for the customer by choosing the Payment Mode as Offline and choose the configured payment gateway of your choice. A subscription will now be created and an invoice will be sent to the customer via email automatically with a link to pay for it. Your customers can click the link on the email to make the payment.
When the customers give their card details to charge them on every renewal:

Customers might also give you their card details to charge them upon every renewal and send an invoice copy to them for the same. To help you with these type of payments, Zoho Subscriptions provides you with the Request Payment Page. You can easily send an email to the customer with a link to update their card details using the Request Payment page.

Once the customer has updated the card details, you will be notified with an in-app notification. After that, you can create a new subscription for the customer by choosing Payment Mode as Online and the Card has the payment option for the customer. The customer will then be charged automatically every month and an invoice will be sent to them.

All the above-mentioned ways can be done via;

i) Zoho Subscriptions dashboard;

ii) APIs; and

iii) Mobile Apps.

Refer to this video for a more detailed explanation. If you have any queries, feel free to comment below. We are here to answer them.

Cheers,

Sasidaran K,
The Zoho Subscriptions Team.

Zoho Desk Resources

Desk Community Learning Series
Digest
Functions
Meetups
Kbase
Resources
Glossary
Desk Marketplace
MVP Corner
Word of the Day

Topic Participants
Sasidaran K

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