Payment plans: Installments are live in Kit Commerce

Inside Kit
Updated: August 26, 2024
Payment plans: Installments are live in Kit Commerce
5 min read
In this Article

Pricing is more than just setting a price.

It’s a marketing tactic that you can use to convert your audience into customers. That’s why the suite of pricing methods you have access to is so important, and why we’ve just expanded ours and rolled out payment plans in Kit Commerce.

With payment plans, you get the guaranteed commitment of one-time payments and the predictable recurring income of subscriptions. More importantly, it can expand your customer demographic and increase sales.

Set up your payment plan product today

Cut out any time-consuming workarounds and create a payment plan product in minutes. Start by logging into your Kit account, go to Earn > Product in your navigation. When you create a new product, you’ll immediately see all the different pricing options you can choose from.

payment plans

When you choose payment plans, you’ll be able to set the total price, the number of installments, and the frequency of those installments.

For example, if you want to sell a 2-year membership for a total of $2,000, you can set up the payment plans in different ways:

  • 2 installments at a yearly frequency ($1,000/year for 2 years)
  • 8 installments at a quarterly frequency ($250/quarter for 2 years)
  • 24 installments at a monthly frequency ($83/month for 2 years)

When you input the total price you want to charge for the product, the installment price will automatically be calculated for you. Please note that once you set the price you won’t be able to edit it. If you change your mind about the price, it’s easy to recreate the product.

payment plans

Unlike subscriptions, payment plans act as an upfront commitment, like a contract, so your customers will not be able to cancel once they’ve made the purchase. If you want to offer a refund policy, you can do so but you will have to do the refunds manually.

All customers who have purchased a payment plan product will receive receipts when each installment payment is due, when the next one is due and will show how many installments are left.

payment plans

For more information on how to set up a payment plan, check out our support documentation.

How you can use payment plan installments

Payment plans are typically used for higher-ticked products but it can also be helpful to those who want to offer subscriptions with an end date. Here are a few different examples of how you can use payment plans for your products:

Educational products for coaches and educators

Coaching packages and courses are the most common use case for payment plans. Not only because they have a higher price, but also because they are products with longer engagement times.

For a true transformation, coaches want to work with clients more than once for it to be meaningful on both sides. Meanwhile, educators or course creators want to drip their course to keep the content light and engaging.

Projects for freelancers

For freelancers, the number one challenge is to find predictable income. Some months you’ll have lots of projects, while others might be a little slower. With payment plan installments, you can sell project packages or retainers to block off time that you’ll commit to a client. This gives you more control over your time and income and gives your client a discounted price and commitment that you’ll be available.

Community access for all creators

Community access is a huge draw for creators. It gives you the ability to interact directly with your audience in a safe space and also see your community interacting with each other. The nature of a community is ongoing but not all creators want to offer an endless subscription. It adds a lot of pressure to create content and manage the community wit​h no end in sight. Structuring it with payment plans gives you and your community an end date to wrap things up and to relaunch it in the future.

Start earning on Kit

Kit Commerce now gives you a full suite of pricing methods—standard one-time payments, recurring subscriptions, pay-what-you-want sliding scale, donations, and payment plans. Whether you are looking to sell an entry product or a premium package, Commerce has the tools you need.

Start selling within minutes

As a creator, you deserve to get paid for your work. Kit Commerce is ready-made to help you sell digital products.

Get paid with Kit Commerce
Frances Wong
Frances Wong

Frances Wong is the product marketing manager at Kit. She is customer-obsessed, which helps her build, launch, and grow innovative and impactful tools for creators. Outside of Kit, you’ll find her in Brooklyn with Daikon, her adorable Jindo mix. (Read more by Frances)