E-commerce platform for a subscription box business?
October 3, 2020 9:21 PM Subscribe
Launching a subscription box business. Need sales website. What should we use?
The Online Store must:
-allow for purchasing internationally (although most clients will be in Canada & US)
-have a shopping cart that items can be added to
-be able to calculate discounts based on the number of items in the basket (ex. 1 item is $79, 2 item gets $10 off, 3 items get $20 off, etc)
-add appropriate taxes by location
-calculate shipping based on location
-connect with a credit card processor (Stripe, Square, PayPal, etc)
-connect with a complex CMS and subscriber management system to organize information such as - country, which items are purchased, whether the client is a first time buyer, etc
-allow clients to sign up as subscribers
-automatically charge subscribers every time a new item is released and shipped.
-be able to support multiple promo codes / affiliate codes at checkout, and know what the discount is based on the code.
-be able to inform customers of when they can expect their next shipment based on a schedule we’ve determined. The plan is to be able to make purchases at any time, but delivery will be quarterly. So for example, if the delivery dates are set up as March 1st, June 1st, September 1st and December 1st, if you make a purchase or subscribe in April, the software will automatically notify the customer that they will receive their boxes in June.
-send emails for registering, ordering, subscribing or basically having any interaction with the website.
-allow highlighted/featured items
-add new items easily
And, the website must:
-have pop ups to prompt for mailing list sign up
-be connected to a compliant mailing list engine
-have a Sign In option for subscribers, to track which items the client has already received and which are on the way or upcoming.
Can anyone suggest the right platform to do all this?
Thanks so much!
The Online Store must:
-allow for purchasing internationally (although most clients will be in Canada & US)
-have a shopping cart that items can be added to
-be able to calculate discounts based on the number of items in the basket (ex. 1 item is $79, 2 item gets $10 off, 3 items get $20 off, etc)
-add appropriate taxes by location
-calculate shipping based on location
-connect with a credit card processor (Stripe, Square, PayPal, etc)
-connect with a complex CMS and subscriber management system to organize information such as - country, which items are purchased, whether the client is a first time buyer, etc
-allow clients to sign up as subscribers
-automatically charge subscribers every time a new item is released and shipped.
-be able to support multiple promo codes / affiliate codes at checkout, and know what the discount is based on the code.
-be able to inform customers of when they can expect their next shipment based on a schedule we’ve determined. The plan is to be able to make purchases at any time, but delivery will be quarterly. So for example, if the delivery dates are set up as March 1st, June 1st, September 1st and December 1st, if you make a purchase or subscribe in April, the software will automatically notify the customer that they will receive their boxes in June.
-send emails for registering, ordering, subscribing or basically having any interaction with the website.
-allow highlighted/featured items
-add new items easily
And, the website must:
-have pop ups to prompt for mailing list sign up
-be connected to a compliant mailing list engine
-have a Sign In option for subscribers, to track which items the client has already received and which are on the way or upcoming.
Can anyone suggest the right platform to do all this?
Thanks so much!
Seconding that shopify is the standard answer for this. Are there specific features you think are lacking? My work has recently gone through a lengthy hunt for a point of sale website as we had unique requirements. Feel free to memail me if you don’t want to give more details here.
For the credit card processing piece, Paypal or square are easiest to set up, stripe is a little harder. Eventually, you’ll want to move to a separate merchant account with a gateway like authorize.net, but that is a very long term issue.
posted by likethenight at 11:33 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
For the credit card processing piece, Paypal or square are easiest to set up, stripe is a little harder. Eventually, you’ll want to move to a separate merchant account with a gateway like authorize.net, but that is a very long term issue.
posted by likethenight at 11:33 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]
If you are technically bent and ok with managing your own instance, I would recommend a combination of WordPress + WooCommerce (free) + WooCommerce Subscriptions (paid). This combo will do everything you asked for and as a bonus give you a built-in blogging platform you can use for news/features/updates.
posted by Arthur Dent at 7:05 AM on October 4, 2020
posted by Arthur Dent at 7:05 AM on October 4, 2020
Came to say exactly what Arthur Dent said. If you do this, use a great managed hosting service. ManageWP is the standard answer, but they have competitors who are good as well. (Don't use GoDaddy managed WordPress hosting. It's not good.)
posted by nosila at 7:38 AM on October 5, 2020
posted by nosila at 7:38 AM on October 5, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by batter_my_heart at 10:59 PM on October 3, 2020 [1 favorite]