Simplify Management of Subscription Boxes with ShipStation and SubscriptionFlow

Subscription boxes require a more advanced billing and shipping solution, than regular ecommerce orders. Why? Because they need to follow tight schedules, and must be delivered on a recurring basis. Efficient subscription box management entails smooth customer payments, and timely shipping.

It is the responsibility of ecommerce businesses to ensure that their boxes are delivered to the right customers, right on time. Pulling this off requires a specialized platform in place that automates key operations to relieve manual burden.

ShipStation integrated with SubscriptionFlow is just the solution that businesses need to ensure timely deliveries. In this article, let’s explore how businesses can flexibly manage subscription boxes with ShipStation and SubscriptionFlow.

Why Subscription Box Management Can Be Challenging

Subscription boxes require more proactive management than one-time purchases. These are some challenges that businesses face when undertaking this venture:

• Generation of Recurring Orders

Once a customer signs up, businesses have to create and assign an order number to them. The hard part is that they have to do this on a repeating basis. This means that they have to be on their toes while tracking each customers’ subscription dates.

When subscription renewal dates arrive, they have to create another batch of orders for customers. This process requires tracking precision, which is only possible with a smart subscription management software.

• Inventory Management

Inventory management for subscription boxes is difficult if done manually. Subscription boxes hold a combination of products, and availability for each product must be verified for future orders. This implies that each product in a bundle has to be followed up on so that it’s available for the next batch of orders.

• Accurate Shipping Cycles

Shipping delays can disrupt customers’ subscription cycles. Suppose that a customer has paid on time for their first subscription cycle, yet receives their first box long into the second cycle. This not only causes customer dissatisfaction, but also makes order tracking confusing for them.

That’s also why businesses need to ensure that their fulfillment processes are frictionless. They have to ship fast, and deliver each cycle’s order within that cycle to prevent confusing overlaps.

• Smooth Payment Collection
  Payment collection is an important step for managing subscription boxes. If the business is collecting subscription fees upfront, as most businesses do, then they have to facilitate seamless payments. They can do this by integrating with advanced subscription billing systems like SubscriptionFlow. 

Such systems are built to handle billing cycles effectively, and they automate payment processing. The less effort customers and merchants have to put in the payment process, the faster the payments are collected. Otherwise, late or missed payments can disrupt order fulfillment greatly.

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ShipStation & SubscriptionFlow: Best Integration for Subscription Box Management

SubscriptionFlow is a proficient subscription management and billing solution, while ShipStation is an expert in shipping. Together, the two systems assist companies in managing the challenges in subscription box management. Here’s how:

• Easy Order to Subscription Conversion

When an ecommerce site or store is integrated with SubscriptionFlow, it is able to activate auto-data syncing with the platform. With this set up, each time the business receives an order, the order gets converted into a subscription automatically.

SubscriptionFlow creates subscriptions on orders based on their unique specifications. Businesses can set up the billing cycles of their choice, and can adjust subscription dates if needed. This means they can also enable anniversary billing for their customers by charging them on the same date as their first order.

This integration is a major time-saver, as merchants don’t have to create subscriptions manually.

• Unified Billing and Shipping

When customers are billed initially, their subscriptions are created, and then pushed into ShipStation. ShipStation assists in the creation of shipping labels, inventory management, and shipping processes.

So once payments are verified within SubscriptionFlow, the system shares the orders with ShipStation for shipping. Companies don’t need to manually place orders in ShipStation.

Because order information flows from one platform to the next automatically, it also limits the possibility of errors, and speeds up the shipping process.

• Automatic Renewals

No more manual tracking of subscription cycles required. SubscriptionFlow follows each customer’s schedule, and renews subscription automatically. When subscription is renewed, order is renewed too. And this order is synced in ShipStation seamlessly.

Hence, orders are created on a recurring basis and pushed into ShipStation for fulfillment. This ensures that customers’ subscription cycles remain intact.

• International Reach

SubscriptionFlow and ShipStation enable subscription box companies to ship globally. ShipStation can ship to over 200 countries and is one of the best solutions for global companies.

SubscriptionFlow enables companies to accept payments using a wide range of methods. These range from credit cards, ACH, direct debit, e-wallets, regional payment solutions, and more. This facilitates the acquisition of a broad range of customers worldwide.

• Multi-Currency Invoicing

To take international business support one step further, SubscriptionFlow enables invoice creation in different currencies. These currencies are based on the customers’ regions.

ShipStation poses a currency limitation, as it allows one business account to carry operations in one currency only. SubscriptionFlow helps overcome that by letting you invoice in the currency you want.

Then before syncing orders with ShipStation, it converts customers’ charges into the currency chosen in ShipStation. With this automation, businesses can cater to international customers, while adhering to ShipStation’s rules.

• Easy Shipping Label Creation

All the customer data is stored in SubscriptionFlow’s database. This date is shared with ShipStation for the generation of accurate shipping labels. Manual data entry is not required.

• Bulk Order Handling

Both SubscriptionFlow and Shipstation are scalable platforms, and support bulk orders. SubscriptionFlow handles high-volume subscriptions, and easily generates invoices in bulk. ShipStation also generates shipping labels in large batches for faster fulfillment operations.

• Smart Carrier Selection

When shipping orders, ShipStation gives businesses a variety of carrier options. It automatically displays the charges of each carrier. This helps businesses choose the most cost-effective service for shipping their boxes.

They don’t have to calculate and confirm each carrier’s fees themselves, saving them a great deal of effort. 

• Real-Time Order Tracking

The integration allows businesses to monitor the progress of their orders closely. They can track deliveries in real-time, and inform customers accordingly. Customers can be notified via email or SubscriptionFlow hosted self-service portals. Keeping customers in the loop is important, so that they don’t have to manually request delivery updates.

Advantages of Using ShipStation with SubscriptionFlow

ShipStation offers an excellent fulfillment solution for ecommerce businesses. However, it has not been designed to cater to subscription shipping in specific. That is why merchants need SubscriptionFlow for managing recurring orders.

SubscriptionFlow renews orders itself, and then sends them to ShipStation for shipping. This sets up recurring order workflows that require minimal manual intervention. To put it simply, SubscriptionFlow enables ShipStation to handle subscription fulfillment effortlessly.

Here are some advantages this offers subscription box businesses:

• Customizable Subscription Plans

Businesses can offer a variety of plans for their subscription boxes. They can customize plan duration, such as 1 month, 4 months, 6 months, etc. They can also enable the purchase of add-ons alongside the main subscriptions, and ship them together.

SubscriptionFlow also allows you to offer the make-your-own-box option. That enables your customers to hand-pick items that they want to include in their box. You can easily manage the inventory for personalized boxes in ShipStation.

• Easy Returns and Cancellations

SubscriptionFlow makes subscription cancellation and order return frictionless. These processes need to be efficient for gaining customer trust. If customers cancel orders in their SubscriptionFlow portals, they get cancelled in ShipStation too. No manual cancellation required.

SubscriptionFlow also calculates and issues accurate refund amounts in case of order returns. Businesses can track all returns in real-time as well.

• Efficient Performance Monitoring

With SubscriptionFlow, businesses can access their key metrics to evaluate their performance. For instance, they can track their monthly recurring revenue, customer lifetime value, total sales over a period, number of successful deliveries, and more.

• Early Renewals
  Businesses can also enable early renewals, so that their customers can pay for future subscription cycles in advance. This allows customers to book future subscription boxes for the price offered currently, in case the business will increase its prices later on. Early renewals also allow businesses to secure revenue beforehand.

If you’re ready to take your subscription box business to the next level, try out the SubscriptionFlow-ShipStation integration today.