Are you shopping around for the very best subscription management software? Ongoing has you covered. Ongoing is the best subscription management software because it has everything you need.

Great subscription management software should automate as many processes as possible so your job as a merchant is pretty hands off. After-all you want the subscription app to do most of the heavy lifting for you.

In this article, we’re going to cover the top features that make a subscription management software great.

Why Subscription Management Matters

It’s important to partner with an excellent subscription app because they will be handling all of your recurring billing automatically. They will also be responsible for creating new orders and letting your customers manage their subscription orders.

These are just a handful of reasons why you don’t want to choose the wrong subscription software and regret it later. It can have a very negative impact on your store, and your customers’ experience.

On the other hand, choosing the right subscription management can help your store’s revenue grow.

Selecting the right subscription app can also help you create long-lasting relationships with your customers.

What is Subscription Management?

Subscription management is software that powers your online store with the ability to offer and accept recurring charges. When customers enjoy a particular brand, they tend to be loyal to that company. They buy the same products again and again.

Subscription management software, like Ongoing, can help you create recurring billing for your products and then track your progress.

7 Must-have Subscription Management Features

There are some things to keep an eye out for when searching around for the best subscription management software.

We’ll cover the top features you’ll want to make sure your subscription management software has.

If it doesn’t have one of these features, it’s most likely not a good app to use on your store.

1. Ongoing Automatic Recurring Billing

A subscription app just wouldn’t be a subscription app if it didn’t have automatic recurring billing.

We hear about other companies calling themselves a subscriptions app, but they only invoice.

Invoicing isn’t very effective because it asks the customer to enter their credit card details each time, in order to get the product again.

Recurring billing is powerful because once the customer enters their credit card information once, that’s it. They never have to do it again.

Ongoing subscriptions powers Shopify stores with recurring billing so their subscribers will get charged automatically on a repeat basis.

2. Simple to use Customer Portal

The number one compliant merchants have about the other subscription companies is that the customer portal is not easy to use for their customers.

This presents a big problem.

If customers aren’t able to figure out how to manage their subscriptions, check an order status or update their billing information, they are going to contact the merchant for help.

Here at Ongoing we understand how important it is to have a streamlined customer portal that’s hands off.

You want your customers to be able to manage their subscriptions all on their own, without ever having to contact you.

Lots of merchants migrate from other subscription companies over to Ongoing. Why? Because our subscription app is simple, and our customer portal is super user-friendly.

3. Simple Subscription Discounts

When a shopper lands on your product page, they’re only going to consider buying the product for a couple seconds (at most!)

Their attention span is very limited, which means you have to convince them very quickly to buy your product.

1, 2, 3.

In three seconds, can the shopper easily see a subscription discount? Is the subscription discount enticing enough that they’ll want to subscribe? If they already purchased this product before and are coming back to buy it again, will your subscription discount encourage them to subscribe?

With Ongoing, you can create a subscription discount for your products. Example: Subscribe and Save 10% and then they can choose their frequency.

4. Subscription Widget Optimized for Sales

Every subscription app has a subscription widget they display on your product page. You’ll want to choose a subscription company that not only has a nice looking widget, but one that works well.

The subscription widget should work well on mobile devices. After-all, 79% of smart phone users have made a purchase online using their phone.

Secondly, the subscription widget should work well on desktop. Lots of folks are still using their laptop these days to shop online, so optimizing your website for desktop users is a must.

The subscription widget also needs to work well across multiple browsers. Everyone uses a different browser these days so you want to make sure it displays properly not just on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, but other edge cases.

And lastly, the subscription widget should work despite ad-block extensions.

Ongoing subscriptions works beautifully on mobile and desktop, across all browsers, and still displays perfectly even in the presence of ad-blockers.

5. Super Fast Customer Support

Have you ever sent out an email asking for help to a company and hadn’t heard back for so long, you just forget about it? That’s an example of terrible customer service.

You need subscription management with excellent customer service who can help you whenever you have a question.

Subscriptions can get you more sales, with repeat orders. But the customer journey doesn’t end there.

Your customers are going to want changes to their orders, may have questions about payments, or have a special request.

You want to make sure your subscription management system is there when you need them most.

If you email a company for help, how long does it take them to usually get back to you? You want to make sure you choose a subscription management company with fast customer support.

A great subscription app should be able answer your questions within 24 hours or less, help with design changes (free of charge), and have an on-demand developer to assist with any technical issues.

Here at Ongoing subscriptions, we offer amazing customer service. We have a Help Center with hundreds of helpful tutorials as well as chat, phone and email support.

6. Fully Translatable Subscriptions

Today’s ecommerce market is global.

Here at Ongoing, we have merchants from all around the world using our subscription management software.

The number one question is, “Can I translate Ongoing into my own language?”

Yes you can. The text in the subscription widget is fully translatable so you can make it say whatever you want, in any language.

The customer portal is also fully translatable into any language, so your customers will be able to view the customer portal in their native language.

Our email templates which get sent out to subscribers are also fully customizable, and translatable.

7. Subscription Management Analytics

When you offer subscription plans on our products, you need analytics to let you know how you’re doing.

With Ongoing, you can easily track how much money the app is earning you with subscriptions.

You can get a quick snapshot of how much revenue your subscribers are earning you from ordering subscription products.

See how much profit you are earning and visualize cash flow easily with Ongoing subscription analytics.

Easily identify peaks and dips to quickly see how your store is performing at a glance.

Merchants can also forecast future income from subscription orders. Having a clear idea of your MMR (monthly recurring revenue) helps with managing your business planning and inventory.

Summary

We hope you enjoyed this article on what to look out for when looking for the best subscription management software.

You want to make sure you choose wisely because once you start getting your first couple of subscription contracts, it can be a hassle to move to another app.

A good subscription management app like Ongoing can take care of all your subscription needs. We can help you turn any of your existing products into subscriptions, and we can also help you track your progress along the way, so you can see how much subscription products are earning you.