Recently, one of our clients asked us to enable subscription payments for their BigCommerce store. We’ll often partner with other companies or find third party products that meet the needs of our clients, rather than start from scratch with custom development.
Subscription Payments in BigCommerce
Until recently, enabling subscription payments would have required a custom application and likely exceeded the investment dollars for this small start-up company. Enter ReCharge. ReCharge has created an application available in the BigCommerce marketplace that promises to enable store owners the ability to accept subscription payments on products.
Recurring Monthly Charges
We wanted end-customers to pay a monthly subscription fee as long as they keep their selected product. The customer would need the ability manage their payment methods, shipping information and have the ability to cancel online. ReCharge handles all of this and more through their customer portal.
To enable ReCharge, we simply logged in as a store owner and installed the App from the BigCommerce Marketplace. We then walked through the process of setting up ReCharge with our billing information and configured ReCharge to use our payment gateway: Braintree/PayPal.
Customize the Look and Feel of ReCharge
ReCharge allows you to make some simple changes to the look and feel of the checkout pages by filling out a few form fields. If you are interested in greater customization, you can add custom css to your form as well.
Customer Portal to Manage Subscription
After a user places a subscription order through ReCharge, they are sent an email confirmation with a link to manage their account. From the portal, customer’s can edit, change or cancel their subscription and manage their payment method.
ReCharge allowed us to configure the options available to the customer through the portal.
Configure ReCharge for your Store
Setting up a basic subscription rule to manage our client’s monthly payment plan was straight-forward. We set the interval for recurring billing to 30 days and ReCharge activated all of our visible products for subscription payment.
Checkout with ReCharge
Once you enable subscription payments for your product(s), checkout will be managed by ReCharge. The look and feel will remind you of BigCommerce’s multi-page checkout process.
The Low-Down on ReCharge
We won’t go live with the new site for a few more months, but so far all of our testing has shown us that ReCharge will be a great tool for BigCommerce customers needing subscription billing services or recurring payments. If you need subscription payments in BigCommerce, don’t hesitate to give ReCharge a shot. Update: ReCharge has been removed from the BigCommerce marketplace. We’re hoping they re-introduce the Add-on for BigCommerce soon.
