Subscriptions / Recurring Billing-Deprecated

Subscriptions / Recurring Billing

Some  companies, for example magazine companies and gyms sell a 'subscription' product.  This is not a 'one-off' sale, rather it gives ongoing access to the company's product or services.  If desired, a subscription product can simply be loaded and sold on your Zeald website as any other standard e-commerce item.  However occasionally extra functionality is desired.  This functionality can include:

• Users who purchase this product are automatically placed into a certain customer group (e.g. a customer group called 'Subscribers')
• Users in this special group of subscribers can access a special 'members only' section of the website, e.g. to download articles, watch videos etc
• Subscription Management.  The facility to view a list of subscriptions, and therefore see which subscriptions are going to expire, and when.  The facility to re-new subscriptions.  The facility to inform customers of expiring subscriptions, and many other functions.
• Subscription Fulfilment.  Supplying the goods or services that the customer is entitled to as part of their subscription.  For example, sending a magazine to subscribers ever month, or permitting access to a gym for active members, but not expired members.
• The facility to bill customers for their subscription regularly, e.g. every month.

 

Zeald Solution:

Minimum base website required: Catalogue
Customisation Estimate (excludes cost of base Zeald website):
As a customisation we can create a special 'subscription' product type, which will automatically add purchasing customers into a special 'subscriber' group or groups.  By using Zeald's in-built protected page or protected component functionality we can also set up a special 'members area' where subscribers can access website content that you wish to be available only to subscribers.  Estimates for this type of customisation would range between $597 and $3,000 depending on whether you want a special 'purchase subscription' product page, and whether you needed a special members area.

Often the best approach is to invest in specialist software, which will have many hundreds or thousands of development hours 'pre-built' into the product.  However if required, we can customise your website with subscription management functions similar to those mentioned above. Each case is different, so we would need to estimate a price for your specific solution. 

We would not implement a recurring billing module.  Your accounting software may have this functionality, also the Credit Card Gateway company Direct Payment Solutions (DPS) has a web gateway where recurring credit card billing can be set up (this is known as their 'variable billing' module).

 

Third Party Solutions:

Subscription Management software is readily commercially available.  This software may be able to be integrated with your Zeald website if desired using Data Integration.