How to create and sell subscription plans

How to create and sell subscription plans

Overview

With e-commerce enabled on your platform, you can sell courses and paths. The platform also allows you to combine multiple courses, paths, and/or digital media and sell them as a subscription plan. This article will show you how to create, configure, and sell subscription plans.
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Note that currently, Stripe and Authorize.net are the only payment gateways that support subscription plans.

Creating subscription plans

To create a new subscription plan:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
    1. If E-commerce is not available, it is not enabled on your platform. To learn how to enable e-commerce on your platform, visit the E-commerce article.
  3. Click Subscriptions from the Items table.
Admin, E-commerce, with Subscriptions highlighted in the Items section

If you have already created subscription plans, they will display. To create a new subscription plan:
  1. Click Add.
Admin, E-commerce, Subscriptions tab with the Add button highlighted

The Add subscription pop-up will display.

  1. Enter the name of the subscription plan.
  2. Click Save.

After the subscription plan is created, you can begin adding courses and digital media. To add items to the subscription plan:

  1. Click Add item.
Admin, E-commerce, new subscription plan with the Add item button highlighted

The Add items pop-up displays.

  1. Select the courses and digital media you want to include in the subscription plan.
  2. You can filter by name and item type to quickly locate items on the list.
  3. Click Submit.
Add items pop-up with the item types menu active and a course selected

The selected items display for the subscription plan.

  1. Click Add item to add additional items.
  2. Select an item and click Delete if you want to remove an item.

Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan with three courses added

Configuring subscription plans

To configure a subscription plan:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click Subscriptions from the Items table.
  4. Click a subscription plan.
  5. Click Admin from the subscription plan secondary menu.
  6. Click Basics from the fly-out menu.
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan with the secondary Admin menu active and the Basics button highlighted

Basics tab

The Basics tab allows you to set the catalog descriptions and image for the subscription plan, and associate it with an organization.
  1. To add the catalog descriptions, click Edit in the Overview section.
  2. To change the catalog picture, click Change Picture in the Overview section. 
By default, the subscription plan is associated with the default organization. If you want to select a specific organization where the subscription plan will be visible:
  1. Click Edit in the Settings section.
  2. Select the organization you want the subscription plan to be visible to.
    1. Note that you can only select one organization.
  3. Click Save. 

Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, Basics tab

Catalog tab

To configure the information shown in the catalog:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click Subscriptions from the Items table.
  4. Select a subscription plan.
  5. Click Admin from the subscription plan secondary navigation menu.
  6. Click the Catalog tab.
The first section in the Catalog tab allows you to configure the following settings:
  1. Publish?: This checkbox publishes the subscription plan to the catalog. If the setting is unchecked, the subscription will not be visible to users.
  2. Include short description?: When checked, the short description for the subscription plan is shown in the catalog.
  3. Include long description?: When checked, the long description for the subscription plan is shown in the catalog.
  4. Include table of contents?: When checked, all of the included items for the subscription plan are shown in the catalog.
  5. Featured item?: When checked, the subscription plan will be shown as a featured item in the right panel of the catalog.

Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, Catalog tab


The Catalog tab also includes the following sections:
  1. Categories: The Categories section lists the catalog categories the subscription plan will be displayed in.
    1. Click Edit categories to remove existing categories.
    2. Click Add categories to add the subscription plan to additional categories.
  2. Tile color: The Tile color section allows you to add a color to the left side of the tile in the catalog.
    1. Click the HEX color code to display a color picker. 
      1. Select a color, or enter a HEX code to set a color for the left side of the catalog tile.
  3. Visibility: The Visibility section allows you to add filters to the subscription plan to limit which users can view it in the catalog.
    1. Click Add to add a visibility filter.
  4. SEO: The SEO section lets you add a meta description and keywords to your subscription plan to improve its visibility in search results.
    1. Click Add to add a meta description and keywords to the subscription plan.
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, Catalog tab - Categories, Tile color, Visibility and SEO sections

E-commerce tab

To configure pricing settings for the subscription plan:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click Subscriptions from the Items table.
  4. Select a subscription plan.
  5. Click Admin from the secondary navigation menu.
  6. Click the E-commerce tab.
The E-commerce tab allows you to set the recurring price for the subscription plan. By default, newly created subscription plans do not have a price. To add a price:
  1. Click Edit Default Price.
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, E-commerce tab with the Edit Default Price button highlighted

The Price pop-up displays.

  1. Enter the subscription price.
  2. Select the billing frequency: monthly or yearly. 
    1. Note that once a subscription plan has purchases, the billing frequency cannot be changed.
Subscription plan Price pop-up

If you have existing purchases, you can change the price of a subscription and choose to optionally apply it to the existing purchases. To edit the price:
  1. Click Edit Default Price.
  2. Add the new price.
  3. Click Save.

Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, E-commerce tab with a price set and the Edit Default Price button highlighted

The subscription plan price is updated, and a message displays at the top of the page, indicating that existing subscriptions exist with a price that is different from the current default price. If you would like to update the subscription plan price for existing subscriptions:
  1. Click change to current price next to the active subscription in the Active subscriptions with different price than current section.

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Please note that if you change the price of an active subscription to the current, updated price, any previous coupons are NOT applied - the new price is applied to the existing subscription in full.


The platform allows you to customize subscription plan pricing to match different locations, organizations, groups, and more. You can set up multiple filtered prices, and the platform will automatically display the right price for each user based on their profile.
To add a filtered price to a subscription plan:
  1. Click Add Filtered Price from the E-commerce tab.
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, E-commerce tab with a price set and the Add Filtered Price button highlighted


The Add Filtered Price pop-up displays.
  1. Enter the Price that will apply to users that meet the User Filter criteria.
  2. Select a Currency.
  3. Select a predefined filter or click the add add icon icon to add a new user filter.
    1. You can create a user filter based on role, location, language, organization, tag, and more.
    2. To learn more about creating filters, visit the Filters article. 
  4. Click Save.


To further customize the user experience, the E-commerce tab for subscription plans also includes a Purchase actions section and a Cancel actions section 
  1. The Purchase actions section allows you to add actions that are performed when the subscription is purchased, such as sending a notification or adding a user to a group.
    1. Click Add in the Purchase actions section to add a purchase action to the subscription plan.
  2. The Cancel actions section allows you to add actions that are performed when the subscription is canceled. For example, you could send a custom message to users who cancel, or remove users from a group related to the subscription.  
    1. Click Add in the Cancel actions section to add an action that occurs if users cancel the subscription plan.
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan Configure page, E-commerce tab with a price set, a filtered price set, and the Add button highlighted in the Purchase actions and Cancel actions section

The Add action pop-up displays for both purchase and cancel options. Depending on the set-up of your platform, the following actions are available across multiple tabs:
  1. Awards: Award badge, Award certificate, Award coupon, Award points.
  2. Integrations: Webhook, xAPI
    1. Additional integration options vary based on the set-up of your platform.
  3. Membership: Add to group, Enroll in course, Remove from group.
  4. Other: Add tag, Add to-do item, Archive, Deactivate, Remove tag, and Send custom notification
Select the action that should be performed when a user purchases or cancels the subscription. For example, if you want the user to be added to a group after purchasing the subscription:
  1. Click the Membership tab.
  2. Click Add to Group.
  3. Select the Group.
  4. Select a message option.
  5. Click Save.
    1. To learn more about each action, visit the Adding actions section of the Rules article. 

Add action pop-up, Awards tab

Purchasing subscription plans

When published, subscription plans are visible to users in the Catalog, just like courses and bundles.

The subscription plan will be available on both the user and visitor portals (if enabled). The screenshot below shows the subscription plan published to the visitor portal. To view the items in the subscription plan, users:
  1. Click Catalog.
  2. Click the the subscription plan tile.
Visitor portal, Catalog with a subscription plan highlighted

The subscription plan page displays. To subscribe to the plan, users:

  1. Click the Subscribe button (which also displays the price). 

Visitor portal, Catalog, Subscription page with the Subscribe button highlighted


The checkout page displays, and the checkout process is the same for both courses, bundles, and subscription plans.
  1. If users are purchasing from the visitor portal, they can create an account, or Log in if they already have an account.
  2. Users can pay using the the payment gateway set up for platform.
    1. Note that only Stripe and Authorize.net currently support subscription plans.

Info
Note that you cannot mix subscriptions with one-time purchases. If you try to add a one-time purchase to a cart containing a subscription, you'll be prompted if you want to replace the subscription with a one-time purchase.

Visitor portal, Catalog, Checkout page for a subscription

After checkout, learners can access the subscription plan on their Purchases tab.

Similar to bundles, users need to select the courses in the subscription plan and click Enroll to enroll in the courses.

Viewing subscription purchases

To view subscription purchases, administrators:

  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click Subscriptions from the Items table.
  4. Select a subscription plan.
  5. Click Purchases from the secondary navigation menu.

Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan with the Purchases tab highlighted

The Purchases page displays. Here you can access Active, Past due, and Canceled tabs.

  1. To see the details of a subscription, click the details icon.
    1. The details page allows you to:
      1. View the status of the purchase.
      2. Access a PDF receipt of the payment.
      3. Issue a refund.
      4. Cancel active and past-due subscriptions. 
Admin, E-commerce, subscription plan, Purchases page with the Details button highlighted

Additional details about subscription plans 

What happens if a user cancels a subscription plan?

Users enrolled in subscription plans are billed automatically on a recurring schedule according to the billing frequency configured for the plan. If a user cancels a subscription plan:
  1. The user is no longer billed. and at the end of the billing period, they lose access to the items in their subscription.
  2. If the subscription plan has courses, then users will be deactivated from the courses.

As an administrator, you can receive notifications for subscription cancellations. To enable subscription cancellation notifications:

  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click the Configure button in the upper right corner.
  4. Click the Notifications tab.
  5. Select the Receive notification of subscription cancellations checkbox.
If you want to prevent deactivated users from accessing a course in the subscription plan:
  1. Access the course.
  2. Click Admin from the course (secondary) navigation menu.
  3. Click Deactivation from the fly-out menu.
  4. Deselect the Allow deactivated learners to access course checkbox. 

What happens if a user doesn't pay a recurring bill for a subscription plan?

If users fail to pay for a subscription plan:
  1. The user is sent a past due warning. 
    1. Monthly subscriptions: For subscriptions billed monthly, a past due warning is sent two days after the payment due date. If the user hasn't paid within 30 days after the payment was due, the subscription plan is automatically canceled.
    2. Annual subscriptions: For subscriptions billed annually, the past due warning is sent 15 days after the payment due date. If the user hasn't paid within two months after the payment was due, the subscription plan is automatically canceled.

As an administrator, you can also receive notifications for past-due subscription payments. You will receive the notifications at the same time the customer receives the past-due warning (two days after the subscription payment was due for monthly billing and 15 days after the payment was due for yearly billing).

To enable past due subscription payment notifications:
  1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
  2. Click E-commerce from the fly-out menu.
  3. Click the Configure button in the upper right corner.
  4. Click the Notifications tab.
  5. Select the Receive notification of past due subscription payments checkbox.

What happens if a payment has failed?

Payment gateway: Stripe

If a payment fails, Stripe automatically retries the payment. By default, Stripe uses smart retries. To adjust your Stripe settings:
  1. Access your Stripe account.
  2. Go to Settings > Billing > Subscriptions and emails.
  3. Review Manage failed payments to set up smart or custom retries.
    1. Recommendation: Use smart retries to cover the 30 days before the subscription is automatically canceled.
    2. Recommendation: Set Mark the subscription as unpaid if all retries for a payment fail because your platform automatically cancels the unpaid subscription after 30 days both on the platform and Stripe.


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