Article added Dec 2023
If your Swim and Tennis club would like to offer members alternate versions of memberships at checkout, you can do so in a couple easy steps. If a member already has an item in the cart, you may be wondering why you would want to pitch them something else. Here are a couple examples…
- Your club offers members a Couples or Two-Person membership. The system knows to invoice specific households for that product but you want to give members the option to upgrade to a Family membership instead.
- Your club wants to offer some automatically re-billing versions of memberships. These could be installment options (like a 4-month installment plan), a yearly plan (one that rebills 365 days later every year until cancelled), or a month-to-month plan (similar to a gym membership that rebills until cancelled).
At checkout the member will see a small button letting them know another option is available…
Setting up your corresponding products
To get started go to the Board Dashboard > Financial Dashboard then Membership Products. Click a specific product, then go to the Corresponding Products section. For reference, in the screenshot below we are editing a product called “Couples Membership“. You can see this product has two alternate products already set…
Although showing alternate options at checkout is a new feature, many of our clients already have products set up here because this Corresponding Products section has been in the software for many years to offer alternate options in mass invoices.
In the screenshot above, notice the Installment Plan Product is set to a product named “Couples Membership – 5 Month Installment” and the Upgrade / Downgrade Product is set to “Family Pool Membership“. Both products have the toggle checked on labeled “Show this option anytime product is in the cart”, so two buttons would show at checkout…
If that toggle checkbox is off, the alternate product(s) will not be offered at checkout.
Only showing one upgrade / alternate
In the screenshot below, notice that the Installment Option is NOT toggled on to show at checkout, but the Upgrade / Downgrade is ON (but both options have a product set).
Why do this?? Ideally your club gets all the money for a membership right away (while nice for the buyer, installment plans delay revenue to your organization). So if a member has already chosen the full-payment option via their invoice, you probably do not want to push the installment plan any further. Obviously you do want to show that the upgrade from a Couples to Family plan is always available.
Installment options can also be time-sensitive, for example, your club may want to offer them when invoicing in January, but not offer them closer to Summer. So showing that option at checkout is one of the few features you probably do not want to “Set and forget”.
Anything else?
Products that automatically rebill are considered Subscription Plans in Paypal’s language, and they must be purchased without other products in the cart. So if a member switches to an installment plan or pay-till-cancelled option, this will remove other items in the cart. Usually that won’t matter as members are typically renewing a membership and not buying anything else at the same time.
