eCommerce Billing Software: Enhancing Subscription Sales Revenue
eCommerce businesses know the value of smooth online shopping experiences. Customer satisfaction is affected by how quick and convenient the purchasing process is. It includes seamless checkouts, and payment processing, as well as the post-payment follow-ups.
Powerful billing platforms make these processes work like magic. They handle loads of subscriptions, recurring billing, and customer account management—all without a hitch.
Implementing advanced billing software for ecommerce has become a necessity, as the subscription models continue to gain popularity.
Such software facilitates personalized subscription experiences, timely order deliveries, and hassle-free payments. All of these factors help boost your revenue.
In this article, let us learn how ecommerce billing software works, and how it assists companies in reaching their revenue objectives.
How Does eCommerce Billing Software Work?
Billing software can be integrated with your ecommerce store. This allows all your order and customer data to flow from your store into the billing engine. Effective data syncing is important for the software to work efficiently. Otherwise, you’d have to fill in order data manually which can be very redundant.
That is why it is important to invest in a billing software that enables seamless and real-time data syncing with your ecommerce platform. Here is how such software works:
- Data Integration
Customer details, order details, payment information, subscription terms, and all such relevant data is pulled from your ecommerce platform, and shared with the billing software. Any task performed by the software is based on this data.
The best part about automated data syncing is that it keeps the integrity of your data preserved. There is no room for human errors. Accurate data input paves way for error-free billing operations.
- Automated Invoicing
As soon as you receive an order in your store, that order is converted into an invoice by your billing system. The invoice contains the line items, total payment, due date, any taxes applied, and so on. In case of subscriptions, it mentions the subscription billing dates.
This software reduces the manual workload of subscription-based ecommerce businesses by automating recurring payments. Once it saves the customer details securely in its system, it can enable automatic payment collection on command.
Otherwise, it can also automatically send customers their invoices whenever they are due, so they can pay themselves. This is for those customers who prefer having more control over their payment process.
- Billing and Payment Processing
The software also facilitates multiple payment channels to suit a wide range of customers. It accepts payment through cards, direct debit, ACH, digital wallets, and more.
Additionally, this software automates complicated billing calculations. Companies can provide discounts and promotions, and tiered as well as volume pricing. For example, you might offer different tiers of subscription boxes. Each tier can have items corresponding to its price.
Similarly, subscription boxes can also work with volume pricing. For example, one subscription box per month may cost a user $50. But the price per box might be reduced to $40 for 3 boxes per month. This pricing is used to incentivize customers who make bulk purchases.
A smart billing software takes care of all these pricing scenarios, and collects payments in the smoothest way possible.
- Multiple Currency and Tax Support
If your ecommerce business has a global customer base, or ships to different countries, then you need a software that suits your special requirements. Look for a software that supports invoicing in multiple currencies, and helps in tax compliance.
Multi-currency invoicing is important because customers might not prefer being billed in a standard currency. It might seem more expensive, and less transparent due to the ever-changing currency conversion rates.
Offering them fair prices in their own currency can encourage them to spend on your products. Similarly, automated tax collection is important because every country has its own tax rules and regulations.
It can become a nightmare to handle tax calculations manually for customers belonging to different regions. Robust billing software keeps up with the tax updates, and then auto-calculates taxes accordingly.
These tax charges are then reflected in your customer invoices. That is how the software helps you stay tax compliant effortlessly.
- Handling Customer Renewals
Billing software keeps track of each customer’s subscription schedule. It automates subscription renewals as soon as customer payments are received. If you sell digital services, it ensures instant service access on payment.
Through this software, businesses can also extend attractive offers, exciting product bundles, loyalty rewards, discounts, and more to keep their customers engaged, and committed.
- Reporting and Analytics
Having insights into your business performance is important for improving it. Adept billing software offers you real-time insights into your revenue numbers. You can track your monthly recurring revenue (MRR), annual recurring revenue (ARR), or measure revenue over custom periods.
Moreover, it lets you monitor your customer activity in real-time. You can track customers’ payment statuses, account changes, churn rate, lifetime value, and more. You can also generate financial reports regarding the subscription metrics of your choice.
The Core Benefits of eCommerce Billing Software
These are some of the major benefits of this software that ultimately help grow your revenue:
- Convenient Transactions
It simplifies your customers’ transaction processes. Once they subscribe to your products, they can literally forget about their subscription, and relax. The software tracks their payment and renewal dates for them, and can automate payment collection too.
Customers don’t have to fill in their personal and payment details each time their invoices are due. Software like SubscriptionFlow embed payment links within the invoices, so that customers can pay with only one click.
Similarly, the software adds convenience for businesses as well as it eliminates the need for manual intervention. Once billing cycles are set up, they continue seamlessly until cancelled. These capabilities make sure that your payments are not delayed or missed, and your revenue flow is stable and healthy.
- Smart Subscription Management
The platform also adjusts any subscription alterations initiated by the customers. Such changes may involve subscription downgrades and upgrades. Customers can also cancel the subscription whenever they want to.
When such cancellations or modifications take place in the middle of a subscription cycle, they require refunds and proration. Billing software is responsible for performing such calculations accurately.
It also automatically updates customers’ personal information, payment details or address modifications. This happens as soon as a customer updates their information on their self-service portal. It significantly improves customer experience, and boosts retention chances.
- Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities
Billing software offers you access to customer analytics: you can monitor and analyze customer behavior, their interactions with products, preferences, purchase patterns, and so on. These insights prove beneficial in curating personalized marketing campaigns.
Each subscriber can be offered exclusive bundles or pricing which encourages them to purchase your additional services (cross-selling), or upgrade their existing plans (upselling). Thanks to the customer insights stored in the system, they can be given additional product recommendations in their shopping cart, or at checkout.
This incentivizes customers to spend more on your products or services, and it ultimately gives your revenue a boost.
- Scalability
eCommerce billing software is known for its flexibility. It does not lock businesses into rigid solutions that cannot scale as the business grows. It is built to expand alongside your business, and is capable of handling a large volume of customers, and their subsequent payments.
Some billing platforms offer businesses service plans according to their customer volume. When their customer number exceeds the one mentioned in the plan, they can upgrade their system by shifting to a higher plan. This ensures their system keeps on working smoothly, and doesn’t crumble under pressure.
What Sets SubscriptionFlow’s eCommerce Billing Apart
SubscriptionFlow is an adept billing software for ecommerce that handles subscription management as well. It is purpose-built to cater to the needs of subscription businesses of all sizes.
eCommerce businesses use SubscriptionFlow for effortless recurring billing, and personalized customer experiences. These are some of our features that set us apart from other software in the market:
- Integration with eCommerce Platforms
SubscriptionFlow integrates with popular ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Wix and WooCommerce. This means you can sync your customer data with SubscriptionFlow directly from your ecommerce platform, and carry out seamless billing operations.
- Custom Subscription Plans and Schedules
SubscriptionFlow lets you offer gift, trial and group subscriptions to expand your outreach. You can flexibly create custom subscription bundles. You can also offer entitlements, such as additional items or services based on the customer’s subscription level.
Moreover, you are free to customize recurring billing schedules as you see fit. Enable standard subscription cycles such as monthly, quarterly or yearly, or offer unique cycles to special customer segments. Our software accurately bills each customer according to their unique schedule.
- Billing Adjustment and Proration
We let you offer customers usage-based billing and proration for enhanced subscription experience. You can enable automated billing adjustment to manage subscription plan changes, correct billing errors, and handle discounts and promotions conveniently.
- Customizable Invoices
SubscriptionFlow lets you configure your invoices deeply. You can create invoices tailored to the image of your business. We offer a variety of templates and themes to choose from. You can create custom templates as well.
Additionally, you can modify the layout and details of your invoice. You can add custom data fields to it to make the customer payment experience personalized. What’s more, you can create unique invoices according to various customer segments.
These invoice designs can be saved and set to be reused. The system can then generate them automatically, and transfer the right invoice to the right customer.
- Smart Dunning
We equip you with intelligent dunning and payment recovery tools to keep your revenue flow strong. SubscriptionFlow auto-renews subscriptions, and flags unpaid invoices. Flagged customers can be sent personalized payment reminders and renewal notifications to boost payment success rates.
- Trend Analysis & Reporting
Effectively monitor your trends and gauge performance. You can view which of your orders are trending, check payment success rate, customer retention, and churn rate, among others. SubscriptionFlow provides you with robust reporting and predictive analytics capabilities.
- Custom Checkout for Shopify
SubscriptionFlow enables you to embed its custom checkout within your Shopify cart. This facilitates direct transactions. Customers do not have to be redirected to external payment pages to complete their purchase.
You can also benefit from our hosted checkouts without paying extra. When users confirm a purchase, they are taken to SubscriptionFlow’s Shopify custom checkout. This checkout can be completely customized and adapted to the needs of your business.
Utilize our embedded checkouts for simpler and more direct payments. Or, opt for hosted checkouts for advanced customization, and more personalized customer experience.
Looking for a billing software for your ecommerce business? Book a demo with SubscriptionFlow. We let you customize your billing workflows as per your needs, and then run everything on automation.