Introduction
In today's economic climate, consumers are pulling back on discretionary purchases and monitoring their subscriptions more closely. As consumers scrutinize, they are canceling subscriptions when retailers fail to deliver the value that they expect. According to McKinsey, 43% of all subscription customers canceled a subscription because they felt they weren't getting good value for the price. So how can you, as a merchant, incentivize customers to stick with your business through a time where most customers are tightening their spending?
Membership programs are an effective way to offer incentives, drive customer engagement, win incremental purchases and better retain your best customers.
The sticky.io Subscriptions app for BigCommerce enables you to configure subscriptions-based membership programs, granting your customers exclusive access to products, discounts and perks.
This article will guide you through the process of configuring your first memberships program as a part of the sticky.io Subscriptions app for BigCommerce.
Without further ado, let's begin!
How to Configure a Memberships program
Begin by logging in to your BigCommerce storefront of interest.
The first step is to build a BigCommerce Customer Group for our membership program. This group is where the program's benefits are derived from. Customers will be moved in or out of the created group based on their subscription status.
To start, navigate to Customers, then to Customer Groups.
Next, click Create a Customer Group.
From here, you'll need to enter a group name and configure your group details. The group name is for your purposes only and will not be visible to your customers.
You can also set dollar or percent-based category, product, and storewide discounts for your customer groups.
To create a Category Level Discount, click Create one now in the corresponding box. Enter your desired parameters for your category discount and click Save & Add Another or Save & Exit.
To create a Product Level Discount, click Create one now in the corresponding box. Enter your desired parameters for your category discount and click Save & Add Another or Save & Exit.
To create a Storewide Discount, simply enter your desired price or percentage discount into the corresponding field. When a fixed price is specified, customers will pay that specified price for all products on your storefront.
As before, click Save & Add Another or Save & Exit.
For more details on configuring customer groups, read this article from the BigCommerce Help Center.
Next, return to the home page of your BigCommerce business manager and open up the Products menu.
Next, click Add to add a product to your catalog that will serve as the foundational product for your memberships program.
Be sure to configure the product as a digital product.
Finally, add the pertinent details to your product. Some fields, like Product Name and Default Price, are required.
For this walkthrough, we will configure an example product, named "Membership Demo" with a default price of $35.
Once your product is fully configured, click Save in the lower right hand corner of your display.
Next, navigate back to the Home page of your BigCommerce business manager and then to the Apps tab. Thereafter, select the sticky.io Subscriptions application.
This will land you on the Subscription Products tab of the application. From here, locate your recently created Membership product.
Click Manage on the right-hand side of the corresponding row.
Here, you'll be able to modify the subscription type and frequencies associated with this product.
Set the Subscription Type to Membership.
Using the on-screen dropdown, choose the Subscription Frequencies that you want to associate with the membership.
For this exercise, we will create an Annual Subscription. The consumer will be billed once annually for access to the membership program.
Once this frequency has been selected, we can modify the price for that specific frequency, adding or removing a flat dollar amount or percentage.
Lastly, select the Customer Group that will contain your program members.
For this exercise, we will select the Membership Demo Group.
Once satisfied with your configuration, click Save Changes in the bottom right corner of the pop up window.
NOTE - It is important to note that multiple subscription frequencies can be associated with a single membership product, but those frequencies will point customers toward the same customer group when configured as a single product.
For example, customers purchasing an annual or monthly subscription to our demo membership will end up in the same customer group with the same configured perks and discounts. Tiered membership programs will require the construction of multiple foundational membership products and unique customer groups for each.
How customers are removed from customer groups based on subscription status
Active subscribers will be added to this customer group to receive additional benefits. Upon canceling or pausing a subscription, customers subscribed to physical goods will be immediately removed from the customer group, whereas those subscribed to digital goods will be removed at the end of the current billing cycle.
If a customer is subscribed to more than one product, physical and/or digital, the customer will only be removed from the group when ALL related subscriptions are canceled or paused.
For example, customer John Smith is subscribed to Products A and B, both of which grant the customer access to the "Membership" customer group. If Mr. Smith cancels their subscription to Product A while maintaining their subscription to Product B, they will remain in the Membership group. If Mr. Smith were to cancel his subscriptions to both products, he would then be removed from the Membership group.
One-time purchases are ineligible for membership benefits and will not be included in this customer group. It is also important to note that the Memberships feature does not extend to Prepaid subscription types.
Previewing the Customer Experience
Customers enrolled in the membership program will have access to the associated perks after they have completed their purchase for the membership subscription. Items included in that same shopping cart or purchase will not be eligible for any associated discounts or perks.
It is important to note that customers must be logged in to their BigCommerce customer account to properly access the benefits associated with their membership subscription.
Configuring Free Shipping Discounts for Program Members
Free shipping discounts can be configured for program members using BigCommerce's Automatic Promotions feature.
To do so, navigate to Marketing, then to Promotions.
Here, you'll be able to create new Automatic Promotions and view all of your existing promotions.
Click Create > With Advanced editor in the upper right hand corner to create an Automatic Promotion.
Enter a name for your promotion and a start date.
Scroll down and locate the Rules box.
For a free shipping discount, create a new discount using the Custom rules template.
Configure your Free Shipping rule by selecting "Free Shipping" as the reward.
Here is an example ruleset configuring using the advanced editor. In this example, if a customer buys any products, they will receive free shipping on their orders.
To preserve your selections, click Add rule to promotion.
The last but most important step is to ensure this promotion is only applied to customers in our Membership Demo Group. To do so, we will need to add a Targeting rule.
Locate the Targeting box and click Add targeting rule.
Select Customer Group and then specify your desired customer group to receive the free shipping discount.
And that's it! Once satisfied, click Create promotion in the bottom right-hand corner of the display.
For more information on BigCommerce's Automatic Promotions, please read this article from BigCommerce's Help Center.
Offering Free Gifts to Program Members On Membership Renewal
Free gift offers can be configured for program members using BigCommerce's Automatic Promotions feature.
To do so, navigate to Marketing, then to Promotions.
Here, you'll be able to create new Automatic Promotions and view all of your existing promotions.
Click Create > With Advanced editor in the upper right hand corner to create an Automatic Promotion.
Enter a name for your promotion and a start date.
Scroll down and locate the Rules box.
For a free gift offer, create a new discount using the Custom rules template.
Configure your Free Gift rule by selecting "A gift in their cart" as the reward.
Select the product(s) to be associated with this offer using the corresponding field.
Lastly, look to the If the customer section and configure the settings as shown. This will apply the promotion to customers purchasing the membership product, but we can refine the promotion to ensure it is only applied to renewals.
Here is an example ruleset configuring using the advanced editor. In this example, if a customer renews their membership, they will receive the specified product as a free gift (in this case, the Caffeine Infused Eye Cream) on their renewal date.
To preserve your selections, click Add rule to promotion.
The last but most important step is to ensure this promotion is only applied to customers in our Membership Demo Group. This will ensure that first-time enrollees into the membership program are not offered a free gift, but customers who renew their membership will be. Without this rule, free gifts will be extended to all customers who purchase the membership product. To do so, we will need to add a Targeting rule.
Locate the Targeting box and click Add targeting rule.
Select Customer Group and then specify your desired customer group to receive the free shipping discount.
And that's it! Once satisfied, click Create promotion in the bottom right-hand corner of the display.
For more information on BigCommerce's Automatic Promotions, please read this article from BigCommerce's Help Center.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the Memberships feature on BigCommerce's Standard pricing plan?
At time of publication, the Memberships feature is only available to customers on BigCommerce's Plus, Pro and Enterprise pricing plans. This is because Customer Groups is only accessible to customers on these pricing plans. Contact your sticky.io Representative for more information or contact BigCommerce directly to upgrade your pricing plan.
What happens if I update the discounts or perks for the customer group associated with my membership program?
The customers will not be notified of the change in program incentives. We strongly recommend that you, as the merchant, notify your customers within the impacted customer group or membership tier directly via email, text or their preferred subscription update channel.
Can I offer a free gift to program subscribers on a monthly basis for an annual membership?
This use case is not currently supported. The offer of a free gift can be accomplished with the purchase of a given item using the BigCommerce Automatic Promotions tool, but not as a standalone shipment.
Are tiered membership programs supported by this feature?
Multiple "tiers" or membership levels can be configured for a single storefront, but the following behaviors are not supported out-of-the-box:
Swapping between membership products / tiers in the consumer portal. Consumers must currently cancel their membership and re-enroll in a new tier if they wish to switch or upgrade.
Presenting multiple membership tiers from a single PDP. This might be supported through custom development work.
Congratulations! You're now an expert on configuring membership programs using the sticky.io Subscriptions app for BigCommerce.