How to Set Up Variable Quantity Frequency Subscription in WooCommerce: A Beginner’s Guide
Want to offer your customers the flexibility of subscribing to products with variable quantities and frequencies? Excellent choice! Subscription models are fantastic for recurring revenue, and offering personalized options makes them even more appealing. This guide walks you through setting up a variable quantity frequency subscription in WooCommerce, even if you’re new to the platform. We’ll break down each step with clear examples and explanations, ensuring you can easily implement this powerful feature.
Why Variable Quantity and Frequency Subscriptions?
Before diving into the “how-to,” let’s understand why this approach is so beneficial:
* Increased Customer Satisfaction: Customers appreciate having control over their subscriptions. Maybe they only need two bags of coffee this month, or want their dog food delivered every three weeks instead of monthly. Offering variable quantities and frequencies caters to these individual needs.
* Higher Conversion Rates: By providing more options, you’re more likely to capture customers who might have been hesitant due to rigid subscription plans. A potential customer might think “I need exactly 3 of this every 2 weeks” and if you offer them that, you’ve got a sale!
* Reduced Churn Rate: Giving customers the power to adjust their subscriptions reduces the likelihood of cancellations. Instead of cancelling entirely, they can simply modify their subscription to better suit their current circumstances. Someone going on vacation could reduce quantity or even pause their subscription instead of cancelling.
* Better Inventory Management: Knowing your recurring demand more precisely helps you manage your inventory more effectively. Data on variable quantities and frequencies provides valuable insights for forecasting.
What You’ll Need
To follow this guide, you’ll need:
* A WooCommerce store: Obviously! Make sure you have a functioning WooCommerce store.
* The WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin: This is a premium plugin that adds subscription functionality to WooCommerce. You can purchase and install it from the WooCommerce Marketplace.
* The WooCommerce Variable Products functionality: You need to have some experience with setting up variable products.
* A bit of patience! Setting up subscriptions can be a little intricate, but we’ll walk you through it.
Step 1: Install and Activate WooCommerce Subscriptions
If you haven’t already, the first step is to purchase, install, and activate the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. This plugin is the backbone of your subscription functionality.
1. Purchase the plugin from the WooCommerce Marketplace.
2. Download the plugin’s `.zip` file.
3. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
4. Click Upload Plugin and upload the `.zip` file.
5. Click Install Now and then Activate Plugin.
Step 2: Create a Variable Product
You’ll need to create a WooCommerce variable product before you can set up the subscription options. A variable product is a product that comes in different variations, such as size, color, or, in our case, subscription frequency and quantity.
1. Go to Products > Add New.
2. Enter the name and description of your product.
3. In the Product data dropdown, select Variable product.
4. Go to the Attributes tab.
Step 3: Define Attributes for Quantity and Frequency
This is where you define the variations that will be available for subscription. Let’s set up attributes for “Quantity” and “Frequency”.
1. Create the “Quantity” Attribute:
- Click Add under the Attributes tab.
- In the Name field, enter `Quantity`.
- Enter the different quantity options in the Value(s) field, separated by a `|` (pipe) symbol. For example: `1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10`. These are the numbers of items your customers can subscribe to.
- Check the Used for variations box.
- Click Save attributes.
- Click Add again.
- In the Name field, enter `Frequency`.
- Enter the different frequency options in the Value(s) field, separated by a `|`. For example: `Weekly | Bi-weekly | Monthly | Quarterly`.
- Check the Used for variations box.
- Click Save attributes.
- Subscription: Check the Subscription checkbox. This is what makes this a subscription product!
- Regular Price: Set the price for this specific quantity and frequency combination. Consider offering discounts for higher quantities or longer frequencies! This is your incentive for the customer.
- Sale Price (Optional): Set a sale price if you want to offer a temporary discount.
- Billing Interval & Period: Set to the corresponding values based on the Frequency of this variation. For example, if the Frequency is “Weekly”, you would set the interval to “1” and the period to “Week”.
- Accept Manual Renewals: Allow customers to manually renew their subscriptions. Highly recommended!
- Allow Switching: Allow customers to switch between different subscriptions. Consider enabling this if you have multiple subscription products.
- Allow Resubscribing: Allow customers to resubscribe to a cancelled subscription. Also recommended.
2. Create the “Frequency” Attribute:
Step 4: Create Variations
Now you’ll create the actual variations based on the attributes you defined.
1. Go to the Variations tab.
2. In the Add variation dropdown, select Create variations from all attributes and click Go.
3. You may get a notification that the variation generator may take a while, it depends on how many options you selected in the previous step.
4. Click OK. WooCommerce will create all possible combinations of your attributes. For example, if you have 5 quantity options and 4 frequency options, it will create 20 variations.
5. Expand each variation by clicking the small triangle.
6. For each variation:
Step 5: Configure Subscription Settings (Important!)
WooCommerce Subscriptions offers a wealth of settings. Here are the key ones to consider:
1. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Subscriptions.
2. General Settings:
3. Retry Failed Payments: Configure how the system should handle failed subscription payments. Consider the number of retries and the interval between retries. A good balance is 3 retries within a week.
4. Synchronization: Decide how you want to synchronize subscription renewal dates. For example, you can synchronize renewals to the same day of the month.
Step 6: Test Your Subscription Setup
Before launching your variable quantity frequency subscription product, it’s crucial to test it thoroughly.
1. Use a test credit card (provided by your payment gateway) to simulate a purchase.
2. Go through the entire checkout process.
3. Verify that the subscription is created correctly in your WooCommerce admin panel (WooCommerce > Subscriptions).
4. Check that the customer receives the appropriate confirmation emails.
5. Test the renewal process to ensure payments are processed smoothly.
6. Test cancelling and changing subscriptions as the customer.
Example Scenario: Coffee Subscription
Let’s say you sell coffee beans. You want to offer your customers a subscription where they can choose the quantity and frequency of their deliveries.
* Product: “Premium Arabica Coffee Beans”
* Quantity Options: 1 lb | 2 lbs | 5 lbs
* Frequency Options: Weekly | Bi-weekly | Monthly
You would set up the variations as follows:
* 1 lb Weekly Subscription: $15/week
* 1 lb Bi-weekly Subscription: $28/2 weeks
* 1 lb Monthly Subscription: $50/month
* 2 lbs Weekly Subscription: $28/week
* 2 lbs Bi-weekly Subscription: $50/2 weeks
* 2 lbs Monthly Subscription: $90/month
* 5 lbs Weekly Subscription: $65/week
* 5 lbs Bi-weekly Subscription: $120/2 weeks
* 5 lbs Monthly Subscription: $200/month
Notice the discounts applied for higher quantities and longer frequencies! This incentivizes customers to subscribe to larger quantities or less frequent deliveries.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
* Variations not showing up: Double-check that you’ve checked the Used for variations box for each attribute. Also, ensure that you’ve actually created the variations from the attributes.
* Subscription not being created: Make sure you’ve checked the Subscription box for each variation and configured the billing interval and period correctly.
* Payment failures: Review your payment gateway settings and ensure that your server meets the plugin’s requirements. Check the WooCommerce logs for error messages.
Adding Custom Code (Advanced):
Sometimes, you might need to add custom code to further customize your subscription setup. For example, you might want to adjust the price based on a complex formula or add custom fields to the subscription.
Here’s an example of how to programmatically adjust the subscription price:
add_filter( 'woocommerce_subscriptions_product_price', 'adjust_subscription_price', 10, 3 );
function adjust_subscription_price( $price, $product, $include_html ) {
// Get the selected quantity
$quantity = $_POST[‘quantity’]; // Assuming the quantity is passed via POST
// Apply a discount based on quantity (example)
if ( $quantity > 5 ) {
$price = $price * 0.9; // 10% discount
}
return $price;
}
Important: This is just a simple example. Make sure to adapt the code to your specific needs and thoroughly test it before deploying it to your live site. Use appropriate error handling and security measures.
Conclusion
Setting up variable quantity frequency subscriptions in WooCommerce empowers you to offer flexible and personalized options to your customers. By following these steps, you can create a subscription model that caters to individual needs, boosts customer satisfaction, and ultimately drives more recurring revenue for your business. Remember to test thoroughly and regularly review your settings to ensure everything is running smoothly. Good luck!
