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The rapid expansion of eCommerce in the past few years has inevitably fueled the rise of many new business models, in which subscriptions seem to be the one that will change our digital shopping habits. The subscription business is reported to grow 5-8x faster than traditional businesses, and in 2020, they experienced revenue growth at a rate of 11.6%. In this article, we will look at the best eCommerce platforms for subscriptions with detailed pricing and key features that help you decide the best one for your store. Whether you are new to eCommerce subscription or your business has been running for a while, this article is for you.
eCommerce Subscription business: What is it & examples
What is subscription service?
If your eCommerce business offers subscription service, it means you collect recurring payments for products or services that you offer customers in a repeating timeframe. This is the new eCommerce business type that gives brands opportunities to engage with their customers on a longer basis and leverage customer lifetime value. Subscription business turns one-time purchases into repeated sales, meaning that your store can predict revenues, manage cash flow better, and spend less time and effort on marketing activities.
Subscription services contain a wide variety of products, ranging from most familiar products (foods, clothes, etc.) to novelty items like hobby boxes. As long as your products are something that customers need to replace or buy more after a certain period of time, you could think of adding a subscription service for these products at your eCommerce store.
Main types of eCommerce subscriptions
In general, subscription eCommerce services can be divided into three main types:
- Replenishment subscriptions
Replenishment subscriptions are products that are used on a regular basis, such as laundry detergents, healthy foods, or beauty products. This eCommerce subscription type relies on the convenience of regular delivery, making customers enjoy their favorite products without worrying about completing orders every week or month. Replenishment subscription service often offers discounts to customers if they choose to receive products at a recurring time period and lets customers cancel anytime they want to. This subscription service often goes along with the normal one-time purchasing eCommerce.
- Curation subscriptions
One of the most growing types of subscriptions in recent years is curation subscriptions. This subscription method often offers customers a box of curated products that is shipped directly to customers on a regular basis. Product types within a box can vary, from snacks, video games to clothes and skincare products.
- Access subscriptions
This subscription service is often used to offer membership that gives customers access to services, such as streaming or software services. The domination of the internet along with many related services have paved the way for access subscriptions. Popular examples of this subscription type are Netflix, Spotify, and Shopify.
Key features of a subscription eCommerce platform
In order to provide users with a seamless subscription service, there are some features that a subscription eCommerce platform needs to perform. Besides some universal factors that all eCommerce platforms and online stores must have to ensure a smooth operation and secure a decent profit, there are also exclusive features that you have to review carefully when choosing a subscription platform:
- Subscription management: It’s essential that you have the full ability to create and manage any products for subscription at ease.
- Automatic payment: The platform needs to automatically collect recurring payments from subscribers without any involvement from you or your customers.
- Subscription management for subscribers: Subscribers are able to cancel, unsubscribe, renew and check their payments any time they want to.
- Payment gateways integration: Your subscription platform needs to integrate with certain payment gateways so that you can give customers multiple options to choose which payment method is the most suitable for them.
At the moment, there are two main types of eCommerce platforms for subscriptions. The first one is major eCommerce platforms that can integrate with subscription & recurring payment options to perform subscription services. This type of platform helps you sell one-time purchase products and subscription products at the same time. The other platform type is the one that is natively built for subscription service, so they have quite a lot of built-in features that help you run subscription eCommerce smoothly. We will go over each type with the best platforms right now.
Best eCommerce platforms for subscriptions
Major eCommerce platforms with subscription & recurring payment options
1. Magento
Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms with around 10,000 stores ranked in Builtwith TOP 1M websites, and also an excellent eCommerce platform for subscriptions we can consider.
Being an open-source eCommerce platform with built-in PHP, Magento is long praised for its endless potential for customization and scalability. Magento offers two available options:
- Magento Open Source: completely free for download and installation, but you need to cover the cost of hosting, domain, and some other fees.
- Magento Commerce: a premium version of Magento Open Source. This version is designed for those in need of a full-featured eCommerce solution.
Pricing
- Magento Open Source: Free
- Magento Commerce: from $22,000/year
In case you are new to eCommerce and want to know more about Magento, we have here some great articles to help you get started with this platform:
Natively, Magento does not support subscription services, so you have to rely on an extension from Magento Marketplace that can offer you subscription features.
There are loads of Magento subscriptions & recurring payments extensions on the marketplace with various pricing, ranging from $299 to $1,400. These extensions help your customers to subscribe to products, and the recurring payment and reorder will happen automatically. For most extensions, you only have to pay the extension fee once and you don’t need to renew your payment for the next period. Though the features of each extension may vary, the core usage of Magento subscription extensions is quite similar.
- Fully compatible with Magento 2 Open Source and Magento 2 Commerce
- Create & manage different subscription plans
- Manage & edit all customers and subscription information
- Special offers for subscriptions: free shipping, free trials, discounts, etc.
- Different payment methods available
Pros:
- Tons of available subscriptions extensions in the Magento Marketplace.
- No additional fee for subscriptions extension.
- The number of payment gateways varies depending on the extension provider.
Cons:
- Some extensions’ pricing is too high.
- You may have to pay for development costs if you don’t have much technical expertise.
If you are thinking of starting your own subscription business and believe that Magento will be your platform of choice, let us help you build your store.
2. Shopify
Shopify is by far the most popular eCommerce platform with around 1.75 million active merchants. Shopify has been initially acknowledged as the most user-friendly platform for start-ups and SMEs thanks to being a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), but now it has grown to provide a comprehensive platform solution for both small businesses and big enterprises.
Shopify is also famous for its huge apps collection with more than 6,000 publicly available apps across the Shopify App Store. Therefore, it is definitely a good eCommerce platform for subscriptions.
Pricing: After a 14-day free trial, you can choose to continue with 3 different plans. Be noted that Shopify payment includes both monthly fee and transaction fee for each completed order at your online store.
- Basic: $29/month
- Shopify: $79/month
- Advanced: $299/month
Similar to Magento, Shopify is not a native subscription eCommerce platform. However, there are many Shopify apps that you can easily integrate with your Shopify store to offer subscriptions services. These apps help you set up your subscription program in minutes, automatically collect recurring payments, and manage subscriptions with ease. Depending on the app pricing, there are many additional advanced features to leverage your Shopify subscription service, such as segment-based plans, targeted upselling, etc.
Below are some best-rated subscriptions apps at the Shopify app store. All these apps offer free plans so you can experience each app on your own to figure out which one is most suitable.
- Appstle Subscriptions ⭐5.0 (1,090+ reviews)
- Recharge Subscriptions ⭐4.7 (1,000+ reviews)
- Seal Subscriptions ⭐4.8 (400+ reviews)
- Bold Subscriptions ⭐4.4 (250+ reviews)
- Subscription by BSS ⭐ 4.8 (14+ reviews)
Pros:
- Completely beginner-friendly. No learning curve.
- A wide range of subscriptions apps with various additional features.
- Many payment gateways and integration available.
Cons:
- Some apps’ pricing goes with a transaction fee, which might increase your total cost.
=>> Read more: Magento 2 vs Shopify comparison
3. WIX
Wix is a popular CMS with a simple drag and drop builder that helps anyone build a magnificent website without any technical expertise involved. In 2020, Wix released Wix eCommerce with the aim of catching up with the latest eCommerce trend that has been emerging in the past few years. Wix eCommerce offers a hosted solution that is destined to be easy to start and user-friendly so that even small business or solo entrepreneurs can start their own subscription site without spending a huge amount of money on hiring a team of devs.
Pricing
- Business Basic: $17/month
- Business Unlimited: $25/month
- Business VIP: $35/month
Currently, Wix has offered product subscription features for Business Unlimited and Business VIP Plan. This is a built-in feature, so you don’t have to pay any additional fee. You can start offering a product only as a subscription or let customers choose between one-time purchases or select the right subscription options.
Pros:
- Easy to use. No coding skills required.
- Affordable price plans. No additional fee.
- Flexible subscription options.
Cons:
- Limited payment providers for recurring payments. Currently, Wix supports only 6 payment providers: Wix Payments, Wix Payment Brazil, Isracard, Stripe, and PayPal.
4. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform that aims at providing mid-market and enterprise-level commerce solutions. Being a SaaS solution, BigCommerce provides everything you need to run your eCommerce store with its all-in-one solution. Since BigCommerce focuses on top commerce features, it’s a great eCommerce platform for subscriptions, especially for businesses that are growing and scaling fast.
Pricing: There is no transaction fee for all plans.
- Standard: $29.95/month
- Plus: $79.95/month
- Pro: $299.95/month
- Enterprise: Contact
Though BigCommerce doesn’t include built-in subscription features, they partner with the best-in-class payment technology providers to help you seamlessly integrate subscription services & recurring payments at your store. You simply choose the payment provider that best suits your business and starts offering subscription products in no time with click-to-install apps.
Pros:
- Ready-to-use eCommerce platform. Advanced built-in tools for SEO & business growth.
- Reasonable plans with no additional fee.
- Flexible payment processor options.
Cons:
- You need to upgrade to a more expensive plan if you reach a specific sales amount.
5. Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop is another great SaaS eCommerce platform for subscriptions. Designed with customer-centricity in mind, Shift4Shop strives to be the popular platform for novices who want to start their own online business. Its intuitive dashboard, customizable themes, and great SEO tools make it a great Shopify alternative.
Pricing:
- Basic store: $29/month
- Plus store: $79/month
- Pro store: $229/month
One distinguished advantage of Shift4Shop compared to other platforms is its rich built-in features specialized for subscription business. Subscribers of all plans can enjoy this feature without worrying about additional fees, as all subscription apps are free for Shift4Shop members. Shift4Shop gives you everything you need to start selling subscription box right away:
- Full recurring order system
- Secure & automatic recurring billing
- Tokenized payment gateways
- Full reports on all subscriptions
- Customer account and subscription management
- Flexible discounts for subscribers
Pros:
- Ready-to-use built-in subscription tools.
- Integration with a large variety of payment processors.
- You are able to sell all kinds of subscription products.
Cons:
- You will be charged a monthly transaction fee.
6. Squarespace
Initially, Squarespace is a powerful SaaS-based CMS that offered an easy-to-use website builder and blogging platforms. Squarespace has taken advantage of CMS to introduce Squarespace Commerce for those who want to stand out in the eCommerce market with many eye-pleasing templates and some solid commerce features.
This platform supports beginners to build the perfect store in no time with its drag-and-drop functionality, SEO tools, and blogging capabilities. Even if you have no design or coding skills, Squarespace is still a great eCommerce platform for subscriptions that you can utilize.
Pricing:
- Personal: $12/month
- Business: $18/month
- Basic Commerce: $26/month
- Advanced Commerce: $40/month
Squarespace only enables Squarespace Subscriptions for users of Advanced Commerce plan without any additional costs. Squarespace Subscriptions will help you:
- Create & manage a subscription product
- Fulfill a subscription renewal
- Manage and edit subscribers
- Collect payment automatically
- Handle failed payments
Pros:
- A comprehensive set of tools sufficient to start selling subscriptions without any extensions.
- Easy to use.
- No additional fee.
Cons:
- Subscription plan only available for Commerce Advanced Plan.
- You can’t sell digital products.
- You can only sell subscription products using Stripe as your payment processor.
7. WooCommerce
Technically, WooCommerce is not an independent eCommerce platform. It is a plugin for selling online of WordPress – #1 website builder and the most popular CMS. As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce provides your WordPress website with all functionalities and features to run an online business.
Being an open-source platform, WooCommerce gives users great customizable ability while still being beginner-friendly, so it is a great choice for aspiring business owners. Besides, it is free to install, and you only have to pay for the hosting, theme, and extensions to build a fully functional store. In terms of popularity, WooCommerce is the first runner-up behind Shopify.
If you want to save up on monthly platform fees, WooCommerce is definitely a great eCommerce platform for subscriptions to think about.
Once you have your WooCommerce store ready, you will need to install a plugin to enable the subscriptions program. There are some add-ons available that you can easily install to your WooCommerce stores, such as WooCommerce Subscriptions and All Products for WooCommerce Subscriptions. The former add-on by WooCommerce lets customers subscribe to your products or services and pay on a recurring basis, while the latter offers your existing products with subscriptions service. All addons for WooCommerce are billed annually with 30-day money-back guaranteed
Pros:
- Highly customizable website.
- Integration with over 25 payment gateways.
- Easy to start and manage a subscription program.
- Users can switch between subscription plans without any hassle.
Cons:
- There are some complaints about customer service when having trouble with WooCommerce subscriptions addons.
- The number of subscription addons is still limited. There are not many options to consider.
- The fee is quite high. If you want to offer both one-time purchase and subscription services for a product, you need to install both two mentioned above add-ons.
=> Read more: Magento vs WooCommerce comparison
eCommerce platforms natively for subscription-based business
8. Subbly
Subbly is a native subscription-first platform that now powers more than 9000 businesses to collect subscription revenue. While the above-mentioned platforms such as Shopify and Magento require an extension or app to enable subscription program, Subbly offers all built-in features for you to start your subscription services by effortlessly dragging and dropping available elements. If you already sell products on another eCommerce website, you can easily integrate Subbly’s checkout to your existing store as well.
Features:
- Powerful and comprehensive sets of eCommerce tools to start your own subscription website.
- Flexible subscription billing: Subbly offers a powerful subscription billing engine to automatically collect payments, customize shipping cycles & billing, set up trial periods, and more.
- Intuitive website builder for a hassle-free experience.
- Customize the website for business & branding purposes.
- Built-in tools and solutions to support business growth and marketing.
- Effortlessly manage and support customers with a full CRM (Customer relationship management) system.
Pricing: All plans go with transaction fee. Besides, your payment gateway may charge fees that are not included in Subbly’s fees.
- Lite: $19/month
- Basic: $39/month
- Subbly: $79/month
- Advanced: $159/month
Pros:
- Built-in subscription features. No extension required.
- Cheap and flexible plan pricing.
- Excellent support team.
- Various native features to easily build and run an eCommerce website.
Cons:
- There are not as many commerce features as other native eCommerce platforms.
- Not many third-party payment gateways available.
- As Subbly is relatively new, you have limited choice to integrate with other third-party services.
9. Recurly
Recurly is one of the best-known native eCommerce platforms for subscriptions that is used by thousands of companies worldwide. They provide an all-in-one subscription management and billing platform to help you start your subscription business in weeks and make changes in minutes. Their built-in set of tools that are well-made for the rapidly-growing subscription market can help you start fast and amplify your business success in no time.
Features:
- Subscription management: The subscription business is constantly evolving. Recurly let you try and experience the model that best fits your business and subscribers.
- Billing and payments: Automatically send recurring billing and collect recurring payments. Currently, Recurly has integrated with 21 payment gateways.
- Analytics: Get a full list of reports and analytics that gives you real-time insights into how your subscription business is performing.
- Integration made simple: There are a variety of third-party extensions and tools that you can integrate with your Recurly to enable a frictionless business workflow.
Pricing:
- Core: $249/month + 0.9% of revenue
- Professional: Request pricing
- Elite: Request pricing
Pros:
- Easy to set up & start.
- Built-in subscription platform plus additional commerce features.
- Integration with the majority of leading credit card processors and gateways.
- Excellent support team.
Cons:
- High pricing with transaction fee.
10. Cratejoy
Cratejoy is a native eCommerce platform focusing on subscription box business. Besides that, it is also an incredible subscription box marketplace working to match sellers with paying customers.
For those unaware, a subscription box contains a set of items that are delivered to your door every month. While the type of product you receive each month remains the same, each subscription box may come with different items. Therefore, customers fall in love with this subscription business as they can receive something new every month.
As subscriptions are the core of Cratejoy platform, it lets you build and launch your subscription box business in minutes with ready-to-use optimized templates and built-in tools for conversion & growth. If you don’t want to build your own subscription website yet, listing products on their marketplace is a great option to test the market before jumping in.
Features:
- Customizable subscriptions: Have full control over the types and variations of subscription box at your store. You can give discounts to customers who resubscribe, and provide them with options for renewal dates.
- Management dashboard: The intuitive dashboard is powerful with a comprehensive subscriber account management section, yet still easy to navigate.
- Built-in marketing options: A variety of ready tools for you to enhance business performance at your store.
Pricing: $39/month + transaction fee
Pros:
- Reasonable pricing.
- Easy to use with an intuitive interface and ready-to-use templates.
- Advanced analytics & tools for subscription business.
Cons:
- Slow customer support process: There is no telephone support or live chat.
- Limited payment processors & third-party apps.
Successful examples of subscription-based business
Native follows a subscription-first business model offering personal care products that make the best use of safe ingredients. Knowing that personal care products need to be refilled after a certain period of time, Native understands that they need to tailor their service to give customers the best shopping experience. By choosing subscription service, customers are able to save 15% on their orders, and they can pick how long they want to receive products again. Native Co offers a seamless website with responsive design, as well as a clean customer portal to manage subscriptions and integrate loyalty, helping subscribers stay satisfied.
Ipsy is a monthly subscription service that provides skincare and makeup products. Each month, IPSY will send you 5 beauty products for a minimum of $13/month and you can cancel anytime. IPSY has grown dramatically recently as this is a great subscription business model for those who often use beauty products and would love to try on new beauty products every month. The key to this successful curation eCommerce subscription is that they let customers start with a small amount of money, which encourages them to try and see what products they can receive each month.
What is your go-to subscriptions platform?
Choosing a suitable eCommerce platform for your subscription business is always a hard decision. When making your final decision, you should consider carefully both the common features of an eCommerce platform as well as its subscription capability:
- What kind of subscription products are you going to sell? Do you also offer one-time purchase products? If yes, major eCommerce platforms with subscription & recurring payment options might be a better solution since you can sell both product types at the same time.
- How do you expect your business growth in the future? Your subscription business can grow substantially, so it’s better to go with a platform that supports business scaling.
- How much fee are you willing to pay each month? You should calculate your product margin carefully to make sure you can cover the transaction fee also.
Keep in mind that you can always use your free-trial time to test every aspect of your desired subscription platforms. It’s essential to experience yourself how the subscription platform actually works in reality and how you can make the best out of it for expanding your business growth and maximizing business profits. Once you have given them a try, we are happy to hear your comments and how your subscription business is thriving.
