AppExchange Checkout is a new feature that lets customers buy apps using their credit card. Checkout is perfect for devs who want to sell their apps but don’t want the overhead of managing subscriptions. I checked in with rockstar developers and Checkout early adopter Bracket Labs to find out about their experience. You can usually find Bracket Labs founders Blakely Graham and Eric Wu hanging around the Salesforce IRC channel. Want to learn more? Attend the Dreamforce 2012 session, “Building for the AppExchange”, read this detailed write up, or our join our August 23 webinar.
Q: Why did Bracket Labs decide to use AppExchange Checkout?
A: We had been looking for an easy way to provide self-service credit card billing for our customers. We researched several solutions, but we were discouraged by our options and felt the only right answer was to offer in-store purchases directly from the AppExchange. It was fortuitous that Checkout came along when it did!
Q: How long did AppExchange Checkout take you to configure?
A: Less than 10 minutes connecting the systems (AppExchange listing, Recurly & our own Salesforce instance), although coordinating the merchant bank took about a week. The Recurly support team was fabulous in helping steer us in the right direction on bank selection.
Q: How many apps are you using it with?
A: We offer AppExchange Checkout for both of our applications, TaskRay and Campaign Calendar.
Q: Are you offering them exclusively via Checkout or are you selling offline as well?
A: We offer both options to give our customers maximum flexibility. If a customer prefers a month-to-month subscription they can choose Checkout or if they’d like to buy annually we will invoice them in the traditional way.
Q: If both, how do you decide which one to use?
A: Ultimately it’s a choice we give to our customers. While we now prefer Checkout (because of how easy it is for everyone involved), there are 2 reasons why our customers might still choose to buy in the traditional manner. 1) A customer’s corporate purchasing process only allows for the traditional annual payment (very common in the large enterprise) or 2) A customer desires a licensing option that is not currently supported by Checkout (such as annual site-wide licensing or multiple coupon discounts).
Q: What is the customer experience like?
A: Once we show customers just how easy it is for them to manage their own licenses, they love it. In fact, we even made a Checkout video.
Q: What advice would you give partners considering AppExchange Checkout?
A: Make sure your pricing model is in line with Checkout capabilities. While monthly per user pricing is a no-brainer, complex pricing such as N free licenses + discounted subsequent licenses doesn’t really work. So start simple, make it easy for your customers and your own accounting. Also, make sure you test the process end-to-end so you know what the flow will be like for your customers.