If your app offers a subscription with multiple terms (e.g. monthly, annual), the messaging that advertises the subscription may be confusing to your customers.

Example

Let’s say your app offers a monthly subscription at $9.99 a month, and an annual subscription for $95.88 (equivalent to $7.99 a month). You present these options to the customer as follows.

It is clear that an annual subscription is cheaper, but it looks like the customer will be charged $7.99 a month for 12 months, instead of $95.88 every year. The customer chooses the annual subscription and the IAP dialog displays the full price of $95.88. Now the customer is confused, wondering if there is a bug in the app, or if they clicked the wrong button. They cancel the IAP purchase flow and re-read the options. Since $95.88 is not mentioned, they decide that there must be a problem with the app and since they don’t want to be overcharged, they decide not to purchase either subscription.

Another possible outcome is that the customer doesn’t see that they will be charged the full price, subscribes, and then is shocked to see that they were charged $95.88 instead of $7.99. They may write a negative review, letting others know of their poor experience!

Mentioning both the full price and the monthly price makes it clearer. Customers can see what they will be charged and can easily compare prices of the subscription terms.

Summary

I recommend taking a closer look at the messaging in your app to make sure the subscription messaging is clear. Perhaps run the messaging by people who are unfamiliar with your app’s subscription offerings to get their feedback on what they think the offerings are, what they will be charged, and how often. It will be well worth your time.

This post is part of our Tips from Solutions Architects series.