The subscription business model consists in having a customer pay a recurring amount of money (every month or year) to gain access to a product, service, and/or experience.
Clients who are part of the subscription plan will get access to special pricing, discounts and member only benefits.
📚 In this article...
How it works: Joining from App
How it works: Joining from Customer Portal
How it works: Joining from Website
Set-Up
The subscription feature included several rules, all can be found under product templates.
1. Subscription rules templates:
- Subscription Created/Renewal Tag: To get started please set up the subscription created/renewal tag rule. we subscribe based on system tags (*Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName*), and we tag automatically in every creation or renewal after expiration. If renewed before expiration the tag remains, if the subscription expires the tag is removed automatically. based on this rule you can set your subscription plans (Gifts, Tags, etc)
By default, it’s Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName. Now, we need to go ahead and replace PlanName with the TAG associated with the Price IDs we send to Partner Support while configuring, as you can see below.
So in this case, we need to change *Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName* to
*Personal|Subscription|subscribed-SINGLEBOTTLE*
After this, we need to edit B, which involves sending the benefits when a member subscribes to the plan. It depends on what benefits your client wants to give their members. Attached below is an example of this template.
Note: don’t forget to add a specific customer condition (Rules, one-time, and deals) with the *Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName* tag.
- Subscription Renewal Event: In the case of a monthly renewal package, the rule allows you to send the monthly packages based on the payment of the invoice and the monthly charged period.
Here, you need to select the same benefit that you sent in the first rule. For example, if a member subscribes to a plan on May 15th for SINGLEBOTTLE, through the first rule they will receive 1 free bottle gift voucher. Ideally, on June 15th, you want them to receive the same benefit. That’s why we create the renewal rule here. This rule is to trigger the benefits to be sent out every month.
- Subscription Expires Soon Tag: We tag the user based on system tags (*Personal|Subscription|expires_soon-PlanName*), tagged automatically in every event of an expiration of a subscription (Cancel at the end of a period or unsuccessfully payment). If renewed before expiration the tag remains, if expires the tag is removed automatically.
So here, firstly, we have to change PlanName to the desired tag. Secondly, when a member voluntarily cancels her subscription package, if you want to send an email or a communication saying “We’re sad to see you go,” you can use this rule here to do that. If you do not want to send any communication, you don’t need to activate this rule.
When a member cancels her plan midway, she can still enjoy her benefits until the end of her subscription period. This means she will be automatically untagged and canceled from the subscription package on the exact date she initially subscribed to the plan, which is triggered in the last rule (Subscription Cancelled).
Note: don’t forget to add a specific customer condition (Rules, one-time, and deals) with the *Personal|Subscription|expires_soon-PlanName* tag.
- Subscription Cancellation Tag: When the subscription is canceled we remove automatically the subscription tag at the end of the subscription period.
As you can see in this cancellation rule, when a subscription is canceled, the member needs to be untagged from Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName (we need to change PlanName to the desired tag). We need to untag the member so that they no longer receive any benefits and to ensure they are completely removed from the subscription package.
Along with untagging them, if you want to remove any benefits from their account when their subscription package gets canceled, you need to add this to the same rule as well.
Note: the plan name for the system tag is taken from the tag associated with the price ID, which is sent from Stripe to Como through StringValue2.
3. Send a request to Partners Support / Your Account Manager to Set up Stripe Connect.
4. Use this guide to set up the subscription product on your account:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EtL87VDYbhiBBqYBxlCN58wno7jp9k-o0ox8lIni-jI/edit?usp=sharing
4. After completing onboarding to Stripe + creating the product - revert to partner support/ account manager to confirm the account and the subscription product was set up and well-connected
How it works: Joining from App
1. Customer Clicks on the Subscription button on the app (can be a welcome message, tile, side menu..).
2. A Stripe checkout page is displayed, where the customer can add his billing details and subscribe.
3. Once Subscribed, a system subscription tag (“*Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName*”) will be displayed on the customer profile.
How it works: Joining from Customer Portal
1. Customer Clicks on the Subscription banner (or side menu button) on the customer portal.
2. A Stripe checkout page is displayed, where the customer can add his billing details and subscribe.
3. Once Subscribed, a system subscription tag (“*Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName*”) will be displayed on the customer profile.
How it works: Joining from Website
1. Customer Clicks on the Subscription promotion banner on the website and is redirected to a Como iframe login page.
2. If he is not a member, the customer will be able to complete registration (being a member is a must in order to join the subscription program).
3. After successful Login or Registration, the Stripe checkout page is displayed, where the customer can add his billing details and subscribe
4. Once Subscribed, a system subscription tag (“*Personal|Subscription|subscribed-PlanName*”) will be displayed on the customer profile
Ongoing
- Renewal is automatic on the billing date.
The customer will be billed once every month (week/year) the day they subscribed. - All subscription-related deals or rules should be limited to this tag.
- At all times, the customer will be able to click the same button again to view and edit their billing page.
Cancellation
- To cancel the plan, the customer clicks “Cancel plan” on the billing page
- The customer will be automatically tagged “*Personal|Subscription|expires_soon-PlanName*” so that the business can easily find the pending cancellation group.
- The cancellation will take effect at the end of the current billing period.
- Until then the customer will still be subscribed and be able to enjoy all related benefits.
More Information
- The feature is available with Stripe payment gateway only
- Multiple subscription tires per member are not enabled at the moment
- First Subscription month for free is not supported
- All Stripe Events
Different subscription models
Subscription on a fixed amount of a recurring item
Replenishment subscriptions services tend to have high conversion rates as customers subscribe to them for long-term.
They are a great way to dip your toes into the subscription game.
Start with a coffee subscription and evolve to a subscription on one of your signature products!
Unlimited products per month/year
This is the most exciting subscription type for your members who will get their product “for free” after reaching a certain threshold!
Curation subscription
Every month, you select items to include in the subscription plan that your clients will love, to have them try out new products that they will eventually buy outside the plan!