You decided to take this step. You or your customers will start online business.
You chose Woocommerce and WordPress to provide motivation for your store. You plan to include a subscription component to sell more products with fewer jobs.
You have made some great decisions, but this does not mean that it will be easy!
Woocommerce subscription now supports regular payment of more than 15,000 stores. In the past five years, as a member of the software development team, I learned a lot about subscriptions from a technical perspective, and hoped to share these lessons.
Take 10 minutes to read this article, and then take action according to its suggestions, which can bring you several weeks of return and thousands of dollars.
I will focus on three important areas:
Select the host
Select payment gateway and extension
Delieve that you run on the website Code
Let us first see why this information is important.
The greater liability required for open source subscription software [123 ]
Subscribe to use woocommerce, you can almost own and control your bills. Regular payment data is stored and executed in your WooCommerce store. Store’s database and applications are within your control range. Compared with the closed source SaaS billing software, this control level makes WOOCOMMERCE subscriptions unique. Even other open source options will handle the responsibility for the booking payment to the payment gateway.
This design provides you and your store with more functions and flexibility than any other subscription software solution. If everything goes well, your business will run for many years, and today’s registered subscribers will still actively subscribe to your store in 10 years or even 20 years. This is a great benefit to have data and use open source software -as long as you need, everything you have now is yours.
Responsibility accompanied by this force . Do it from the beginningThe correct choice will bring bonus and make your subscription go smoothly. The wrong decision may cost you to repair and lose the subscriber.
Please allow the following points to guide your decisions to your subscription store in the near future and the next few years.
Subscribe to select a host for WOOOCOMMERCE
The hosting is your real estate. Choose high -quality real estate, your business will flourish. This is the most important choice at the beginning.
Subscribe to use woocommerce, you can control your billing data and applications. This is why custody is crucial.
Your host is responsible for your payment
.
Woocommerce Subscription Subscribe to custody: Pagly, Pressable, and Pantheon
After processing thousands of support votes, I have been seen The best performance.
We also see that many stores have achieved success after passing the problems with other hosts through Pressable and Pantheon Essence liquidweb is a new entry, and invests more than anyone, creating an excellent platform for Woocommerce. For example, automatic update visual comparison. When writing this article, I can’t recommend them according to personal testing, but encourage you to view them.
In terms of subscription, time is money. The timeout of 60 seconds may cause you to pay repeatedly.
Subscribe to the selection of the host for WOOCOMMERCE is not as simple as finding a good WordPress host. Your store is not just a WordPress website. This is a regular billing application. Find a host suitable for running web applications, not just blogs.
For example, some hosts forced the strict script timeout. The longer the WOOCOMMERCE subscription process, the faster it processing the payment. If you pay regularly on the console that cannot be extended or deleted on the compulsory execution or delete, the timeout will become very troublesome as your store grows, because compared with no timeout, the speed of processing payment will be slower. The replacement host is aThe time -consuming and cost -effective process is worth choosing a suitable host to grow with you in advance. Step Note
: We have not yet officially tested the Wooocommerce subscription performance on most hosts. If the official custody guide is helpful to you, please tell us.
Payment subscribed by WOOCOMMERCE
The next important decision you made is to pay around.
When the customer creates a subscription through your store, the payment gateway will save their payment data. To switch, you need:
Move all payment data to the new payment gateway, and Then synchronize it with the database in WooCommerce. Only some of the payment data that provides payment data can be migrated . All the automatic payment in the existing gateway is canceled, and customers are required to use the new gateway to register.
These are time -consuming and expensive choices. You can avoid these options by starting from a future -oriented payment gateway.
1. Select payment
Gateway
According to my experience, the best payment gateway subscribed to Woocommerce is Stripe. I have seen thousands of stores using it and achieved great success.
Braintree is also a good choice through PayPal and Authorize.net Cim.
All three payment gateways have user -friendly dashboards and modern APIs. In addition, there is a reliable Woocommerce expansion that connect them with your store.
What if these three gateways do not work in your area? Not all merchants can access these payment gateways. Your store may be located in the country/region they do not support. Your product catalog may be classified as illegal business. In these cases, you still have a lot of good choices. There are many more you should avoid.
To select the payment gateway you can rely on, please find out:
Paying token
Data portability
, such as creditCard number
Support the use of customers
preferred payment method
Automatic
Regular payment
A modern payment method , and while It’s not just a popular way
Peripulated data on regularly If you choose to switch, some payment gateways allow you to pay the payment data (Such as a credit card number) transplanted to different payment gateways. This means that you can change the gateway without registering again without your subscriber.
If the payment gateway provides data portability, it indicates how the enterprise intends to compete in the future. It shows the intention of maintaining costs, functions and customer service competitiveness.
If the payment gate locks your data, even if their products lag behind competitors, it will also It may be a strategy to retain you.
Use the customer’s preferred payment method to automatically pay regularly
Many payment gateways support different payment methods, such as credit cards, direct debit cards or ACH. This does not mean that they can execute automatic regular payment. For example, the payment gateway may provide a direct debit for one -time payment, but in the future, there is no API to automatically extract and directly debit. In most cases, you need a \”token\” extension of Woocommerce extension to process automatic regular payment. Understand whether the payment method supports standardization. If so, you should receive automatic regular payment.
Modern payment method
In the past ten years, payment technology has been greatly improved. Old and more mature players sometimes inherit their early heritage.
This does not mean that you need to use new entrants like Bolt. However, according to my experience, this does mean that choosing a company with a history of 5-10 years will bring a better experience than using a company with a history of 10-20 years.
Kawaii Box depends on the \”Mysterious Box\” subscription mode, the subscriber is every every A month will receive a box full of goods.
2. Select extension
After selecting the payment gateway, you also need to select the payment gateway expansion for WOOCOMMERCE Essence Three things need to be considered here: Subscribe function support
Famous expansion developers Automatic regular payment for customers’ preferred payment methods
]
woocommerce.com provided nearly three dozens of payment gateways for subscriptions.
Woocommerce subscription function support
Select the gateway that fully supports WoOOCOMMERCE subscriptions as much as possible. This helps you make full use of the store. To view the subdivision of supporting functions, please visit: Subscribe to payment method and gateway.
The function in this guide is also the basic function of many other functions in subscriptions. For example, the support for regular general modifications also unlocked the following capabilities:
Customers upgrade their subscription
The owner modify the future payment amount
Subscribe automatic heavy weight Try to fail to pay and get additional income.
When expanded all functions, this shows a good way to provide a modern API.
There are more than one WOOCOMMERCE extension available for payment gateways. Even if the payment gateway is reliable, improper encoding expansion will affect your regular payment -sometimes it can even cause it.
Choose a Woocommerce extension from the well -known developer.
Skyverge is the leader of this field. If you see the Skyverge name on the payment gate, you can believe it is first -class. Fortunately, they have built expansion for many payment gateways.
Support the use of your preferred payment method for automatic regular payment Expansion sometimes does not support regular payment, and sometimes it cannot be added.
If you can’t see whether a payment method supports automatic payment, please contact the developer and understand it.
Considering the cost of subscribing to the payment gateway
Finally, higher costs do not mean higher costs in the payment gateway.
Some someThe gateway has heavy configuration requirements, which will spend time for you and your team.
The cost of paying 79 US dollars/year for the extension of the high -end payment gateway may save you the cost of extended migration from cheaper or low quality.
Payment is the fuel you subscribed. Trends as an investment in a stable relationship, not cost. Note that the code added to your website
Woocommerce is an open system. This provides you with many advantages. This also means that a weak link can cancel other functions of your store.
This may be very serious for subscribing to Woocommerce. If the plug -in you add, there is an error on the same day of processing hundreds of regular payment, these payment may fail. This situation is rare, but it may be easily avoided. To avoid nightmare scenes like this:
Establish a good update and test process for updates.
Selective for the code added to the site.
Test regular payment
Before updating the plug -in on your real -time site, update them on the temporary storage site and test regular payment. This can show well that once the plug -in is updated, your real -time website will not encounter the interruption of repeated payment. Note: The subscription will be switched to the \”temporary model\” on the temporary site, so the complete payment process will not be completed.
To overcome this problem, please select a workflow that separates the application code from the database, and then:
Create a development site.
Import 100 test subscriptions from CSV, and the payment is set to be processed within 10-15 minutes.
Make sure that the updated plug -in for all payment.
You don’t need to update this test for each plug -in. It is best to run the entire system once when updating all plug -ins; in the case of very few problems, work hard to isolate it.
The simpler way to test regular payment is to use Robot Ninja. We are currently exploring how to let it run regular payment tests, similar to real -time payment tests at the checkout.
Use woocommerce to subscribe to test regularly.
Select a high -quality code
The code of your store comes from the theme, plug -in and custom code added by the developers you hired.
Each code adds a new vector to failure. The added code should be ruthlessly distinguished.
Select plug -in or themes with open feedback available feedback, such as the comment system on the woocommerce.com extension.
Ideally, you can also contact existing customers to learn about their experience. You can do this through community channels, such as local WoOOCOMMERCE parties or WoOOCOMMERCE community SLACK.
Remember, saving $ 50 on the plug -in may cause you to lose thousands of dollars in income due to failure or time repair.
The lower price does not always mean lower costs
.
Looking for developers with relevant experience . Woocommerce subscription is a complex system. Experienced developers will create solutions faster and avoid common traps.
Each code adds a new vector to failure. The added code should be ruthlessly distinguished.
Three institutions with rich subscription experience are Saucal, Silicon Dales, and MindSize. It is wise to get a reference from customers who have cooperated for a year or longer.
For subscriptions, the time range is important. The plug -in may be very good at first, but there may be problems after the 100th renewal or 10,000 subscribers. A institution may work on time within the budget range, but six months later, an error that has not been found may cause problems.
Honest Brew subscribe to sell craft beer through Woocommerce in the UK.
Custom code and missing features
About the last point of custom code.
In the past five years, we have issued more than 100 new versions of subscriptions, bringing new features and functions. There are many ways to sell and manage subscriptions, and merchants can also add more functions to achieve this goal.
If your company is not in a hurry,
Please wait for Woocommerce subscription to include it
.
We will publish the plan in the upcoming version on the functional route chart, and order the functional request priority according to the number of votes.
As long as your subscription of woocommerce.com is in a state of activity, you can access new features. Except for cheaper, it is almost always stronger than customized and facing the future. When developing functions, we will use strict quality assurance to ensure that the code we publish can beUse in 5,000 stores. This method means that we need time to release new features, but once they are available, you can rely on them.
We release about once a year, but sometimes the test version is provided six months in advance or longer. If you want to use a function in advance, please contact PROSPRESS to support it.I wish you a successful subscription
Congratulations! You now know everything you need to subscribe to the use of Woocommerce.
Summarize my suggestion:
Host : Your store will develop steadily on the basis of Pagly, Pressable or Pantheon.
Payment gateway
: Through PayPal or Authorize.net Cim using Stripe and BrainTree, your store will enjoy a good relationship for many years.
Custom code
: Saucal, Silicon Dales, and MindSize are agency agencies with rich subscription experience. Wait as much as possible to add the function to the core of subscription.
I wish your entrepreneurial journey a good luck!
If you are turning to subscribe, follow the guidance in this article means that it will be successful in technology. If you encounter storms, please contact PROSPRESS for support at any time.
Recommended Reading:
How to start the coffee subscription business: Ultimate Guide
10 Woocommerce stores are sold Unusual things
How to automate your subscription website (and save time)
Edit: February 28, 2018-about the part of the custody timeout time It has been updated to reflect the process that does not need to allow Woocommerce to subscribe for a longer period of time, but it will handle payment faster when it runs for longer.
——————
Brent ShePherd believes that WooCommerce is the best thing that has happened on the Internet since WordPress.
Since 2011, he has been working with Woocommerce. In addition to the original developer subscribed by Woocommerce, he is also WooCommerceThe co -organizers of the mountain party conducted a technical comment on the first WoOOCOMERCE book, and a talks on WooCommerce on the three continents.
After the successful subscription of Woocommerce, Brent was foundedWith Prospress, its mission is of course to use Woocommerce to help people develop through WordPress.
Braintree is also a good choice through PayPal and Authorize.net Cim. 
We release about once a year, but sometimes the test version is provided six months in advance or longer. If you want to use a function in advance, please contact PROSPRESS to support it.