A number of business owners would prefer to have a steady stream of recurring income instead of relying on daily sales. A good way to make this happen is to create a membership website using subscription software. It is gaining popularity, because in an unstable economy, having guaranteed sales on a weekly or monthly basis is a must. If you offer subscription services to your customers and provide them with good value, you will build a large following in no time.
The way a membership website operates is it uses a subscription software to capture each member or subscriber's information. In order to offer subscription products, content or services, your job is to deliver as promised and let the software take care of the membership interface and recurring billing. Payment will be deducted from the member's credit card at a given date each week or month or quarter depending on your preference for the entire time he or she is still a member. The subscription or membership can be canceled at any time the member no longer wants to receive products or services from the business, putting an end to the relationship as well as the recurring payments.
There are a number of ways you can offer subscription based products or services on your ecommerce website. Most online businesses that need to use a subscription software will fall into one of three business models. The first model is a community based membership website. Visitors must pay a recurring fee to become a member in order to network with other people in the same industry, get expert advice on a certain subject or get access to information that they cannot get on the web for free. The second model delivers new products or content to people through a subscription. Your subscribers can either receive information online such as newsletters or e-zines or receive tangible products in the mail such as chocolate of the month club. The third type is for services or products that the customer needs on a continual basis. A good example of this is Proactiv, it's an acne product that is delivered to the customer every three months so they never run out of the product.
If you are interested in any of the three business models, you will need an e-commerce solution with a reliable subscription software to help you create your own membership website. Here is a list of some features to help you offer subscription on your site:
- Get detailed reports of all customer charges each billing cycle
- Define your own terms and conditions for subscriptions
- Choose when to charge your subscribers
- Automatic credit card processing per billing cycle
- Set amount of days to wait before trying to charge declined credit cards again
- Set number of payment declines before deactivating a subscriber's account
- Select your own billing cycle according to days, weeks, months or years
- Member account can be disabled at any time by the customer
- Select countries to accept subscription from
There are several benefits for building a membership website. It doesn't require a lot more from you than what you would normally do for an ecommerce website. The subscription software handles all of the membership and payment aspects of the business, all you have to do is keep providing your members or subscribers with valuable content, products or services. You will be able to offer subscription services by either building an exclusive membership website or have this feature integrated with your ecommerce store where you will be able to make money from both one time sales as well as ongoing sales. You don't have to waste time or money marketing to your existing customers, focus instead on acquiring new customers. Keep building that list, the more members you have the more guaranteed income for your business.
Don't you think it's time you built your own membership website? You are able to offer subscription products or services for your online store with the right e-commerce solution. Manage all of your members and monitor their recurring payments from your own store admin. Build your list and let the software handle the rest.
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provides a powerful subscription software in addition to tools that help with SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!
