We’ve seen a big swing this year towards monthly subscription schemes for websites rather than the traditional single up-front payment. There are a few reasons for this. The most obvious is the reduced effect on cashflow; with the current climate, many customers are being somewhat more conservative with their expenditure and looking to manage their outgoings in a more structured and predictable fashion. A monthly payment is a far easier pill to swallow than a large 4 figure up-front bill for some companies.
In addition, there’s the point regarding barriers to entry. For a new business, a large up-front cost is a significant expense that presents a financial hurdle to getting the business off the ground. To an established business with cash flow, this is less of a problem, but to a new business, there are a huge number of set up expenses.
With these in mind, we’ve launched a new pay-monthly scheme to allow our customers the option of paying for their e-commerce websites using a subscription model instead of an upfront payment. We’ve tailored our packages a little differently however to sidestep some of the common pitfalls of going down the pay monthly route.
A pay monthly website is a rental, isn’t it?
Often yes, this is the case. However with our plan, once the 12-month minimum term is up you own the website – we don’t hold your site to ransom.
But what about the hidden charges?
Not at all! We’re very up-front about the costs and it’s all itemised from the outset. We include the domain name and hosting for the 12-month term and long with SSL certificate.
Am I just getting a copy / paste template or prebuilt site?
Certainly not. This is something we’re heavily against, we only build high-quality bespoke websites and don’t use templates to take shortcuts with your site. If something is too good to be true, it often is. Lots of companies will change a logo and colours on a pre-existing template and pass it off as their own work. Not only is this a rather shady practice but it also means your company website might not look as professional as it could, or might even bare a striking similarity to other company sites!
Are there penalties if I leave or want to move my business away?
We don’t believe in this practice at all. We’d be sorry to see any of our customers leave but after the initial term is over you’re free to move the site if you wish.
Do I get the same service / quality / features from pay monthly?
It’s the exact same service, just paid using a different model. We still go through the same bespoke design process and we still work with you to develop the site you need. We also build the sites on the same platform which means all the same features can be added as required.
Do I pay the monthly cost forever?
This is something we wanted to get away from. A lot of companies profit from monthly schemes as the customer will pay a lot more in the long run as they are tied into a monthly payment. Our term is 12 months, after which you have paid for the site just pay the usual annual hosting charge. We set a clear end-date for the monthly payments.
You can see information on our packages at: https://darkcherrycreative.co.uk/websites/ecommerce, or get in touch with our team by visiting: https://darkcherrycreative.co.uk/contact