How to set up and offer your buyers a change of product subscription plan

Plan changes for subscription products allows you to send invitations to your students offering upgrades and downgrades to their plan. 

By creating different subscription plans and setting up plan changes, it is possible to develop strategies related to the payment frequency (annual, monthly, etc.), offering diversified content for the needs of each type of student, showing the value of upgrading to a more complete plan, or even working with the recovery students with default payments with a  downgrade (change to a more basic/lower-priced plan).

In this article, you will learn how to set up plan exchanges by enabling destination plans for each origin plan, and you will also be able to check how to offer these possibilities to your customer.

Setting up plan changes

To set up plan changes, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to Hotmart through the link: https://app-vlc.hotmart.com/login; 

2. In the side menu, choose Products;

3. Click on I'm a Producer; 

4. Click on the desired product and then on Pricing;

5. Choose the plan, click on the three dots, and on Enable Plan Change:

Select this option only when you want the plans to appear for all subscribers who are part of the plan on which you are enabling the change. When you want to offer plan changes for specific subscribers, just send invitations directly to them and do not perform this configuration step;  

6. Click Save.

For your plan change to work in the best possible way, don't forget to design your pricing strategy for each exclusive content offered!

Sending invitations for plan changes

1. From the side menu, choose Sales;

2. Click Overview;

3. Click on the tab Subscriptions;

4. Choose the desired subscription and click on the three dots in the column for Actions;

5. Click on Offer Plan Change;

If your subscribers who received the invitation to change their plan by email, access the subscription management area (HUB), they will be able to view all possible options previously configured by you.

If you click on the “Change Plan” button in the invitation email you received, you will see only the plans you have configured for that specific invitation.

You can send invitations to your subscribers by offering an exchange between plans that you have not previously set up on your product screen. In other words, it’s possible to offer a change between plans exclusively for specific subscribers, without having to make all possible changes available to all subscribers.

6. The buyer's plans are migrated as soon as they accept the change invitation and choose their new plan.

How to change plans

Each plan change, upgrade, and downgrade strategy have different rules regarding the change time and the charge. Check it out below:

Upgrade

For this strategy, the plan change will happen immediately after the user's action, and there is no need to wait for a new cycle to change. For the payment context, the customer will be charged an amount proportional to the time they will have access to the new product. 

For example, suppose a subscriber is on a monthly plan, and halfway through a given month they upgrade to another monthly plan that is more comprehensive and expensive. The change will take place immediately and the subscriber will pay the amount proportional to the access time. This way, they have the advantage of accessing the benefit immediately, and the producer will receive the proportional value related to the upgrade.

Downgrade 

In this strategy, the plan change will take place at the end of the billing cycle. In other words, if the customer is on a higher-value monthly plan and downgrades to a lower-value plan, the new recurrence charge will occur after the end of the current billing cycle. This way, there will be no partial refund of the amount, as the customer will continue using the current plan (the most expensive) for the rest of the time they have already made the payment.

Notes on plan changes

• Plan changes are allowed only for the main offer of each plan and will be effected in the collection of the next recurrence. 
• Subscription recurrences are not restarted after the plan change.
• If your student is on their last recurrence, has already made a plan change in this same billing cycle, or is in the trial period of the product, they will not be able to change plans. 
• The plan change can be made for both active and overdue subscriptions. 
• The buyer's plans are migrated as soon as they accept the change invitation and choose their new plan.

If you have any questions, just contact our Customer Support with the subject PLAN CHANGE. Our team is here to help!