User pricing for subscription or dynamic product creation

[lidder-dj]

Hi,

I am in the process of creating a website whereby the customer will subscribe based on an amount they choose to pay. I am using estore as it gives me the flexibility of letting the customer specify a price for an item (I already have this part set-up). What I need to be able to do though is integrate the subscription capability with the user chosen pricing capability.

Ideally, how this would work is:

Create a product where the user chooses the pricing (any value), the subscription term and payment frequency (via variations). The subscription details are say x termed payments over x terms so the user pays their entire subscription amount over a full year (these x would need to come from the values the user chooses). I could then add the subscription button under the product and that would be that. Trouble with this “ideal system” is, and correct me if I’m wrong, that the subscription system appears to not handle %’s, only $ values and it cannot get the values from the user created product.

So, I am now using a workaround which is:

Create a product where the user chooses an amount and selects the payment frequency via variation (pay daily, pay weekly, pay fortnightly, pay monthly, pay quarterly, pay half-yearly, pay yearly) and total term via variation (one week, one month, 3 months, 6 months, one year). They are then redirected to a checkout page where they pay a nominal fee. Once they pay the fee I use the values I receive from their custom purchase to create a subscription product which I send them the link to. They purchase the subscription and they’re set. I’m set because paypal handles the rest. This isn’t ideal as the customer needs to checkout twice.

Another ideal workaround would be to let the user create their own products. This would be guided via a form (perhaps using contact form 7). They would then checkout their own subscription (one checkout only). Is it possible for users to create their own products in estore?

Could you please advise if my ideal solution is possible, if my preferred workaround is possible or if the way I am operating is the best way? Any tips would be enormously appreciated as I’m tearing my hair out over this.

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

[Peter]

Hi,

I can see your predicament

As far as I know eStore doesn’t allow just anybody to create their own products, ie, you would have to be an administrator of the wordpress account to add the product.

One suggestion I can make is that you can use a form where your clients can fill in their preferred subscription payment and product details which would then be sent to you.

Then you’d have to create the subscription products for them accordingly and then send them a link to the product page so they can pay. This way there isn’t a double checkout.

If I think of an alternative solution I’ll get back to you.

[lidder-dj]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the reply. That is another option and I think I might go that way. It gives me something else to consider. The advantage of the way it’s happening now is that the call to action is immediate (ie, the nominal fee is processed immediately), but the obvious drawback is that users have to check out twice. The drawback of having users checkout only once is that there is no immediate call to action and users could potentially change their minds in the meantime…I’d lose the impulse subscribers…something for me to ponder.

Thanks for your help.

[lidder-dj]

Did anyone else have any other suggestions?

[admin]

eStore wasn’t designed to create a marketplace type site so it does not have a feature to allow other user to upload products.

[lidder-dj]

Cool, thanks. How about the other workaround? Is that possible? Is it possible to let users choose a price for a subscription?

[admin]

Yes, using a manual form to collect the product details from a user would be the way to go. This way once you receive the product details you can create a product with that details and put it up on the site.

You can make it so a user with (author or editor role) can interact with the eStore menu allowing them to add and modify product details but it may not be secure to open it up to strangers as they can modify the eStore settings. This post has more info on this:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/allowing-non-admin-user-profiles-to-see-the-estore-panel-in-wp-admin

[Author]

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