If you’re an online course creator, you probably want to sell your courses to make money. The platform you choose to host your courses can affect your options. Some LMSs have fixed payment options, limiting your choices. Open-source options allow integration with eCommerce platforms and provide more freedom.
This is also true when looking at the options available in Content Management Systems like WordPress. Some LMS plugins for WordPress have limited payment options, while others, like Sensei LMS, integrate with WooCommerce and allow you to use a range of Woo extensions and payment options.
In this article, we’ll explore the essential features needed for an LMS-eCommerce integration and why flexibility is crucial.
Important features in an LMS eCommerce integration
When choosing eCommerce integration for your Learning Management System (LMS), you should consider several key factors, which will affect your ability to sell and manage your online courses.
Enable seamless checkout on courses
Customers want to be able to check out quickly when making a purchase. If the process takes too long or has too many steps, they’ll be more likely to abandon their carts. So, if you want to boost conversion rates, you need a seamless checkout process. Set up a dedicated page showcasing your courses and a dedicated landing page for each course. Clear “Buy Now” buttons should be available for each course to take buyers straight to the cart.
If you don’t set purchase options directly on course pages, users may have to go to your online store, where your courses will be listed with other products, which can be confusing and unprofessional.
By integrating Sensei with WooCommerce, you can customize every stage of the purchasing process, from your landing page to checkout. Test the process to ensure it flows properly and is easy for anyone to use.
Get better insights with sales reports and analytics
It’s important to know which courses are selling best. This data will help you identify products needing more marketing or refining to be profitable. Understanding sales patterns and seasonal trends helps predict the best times for promotions.
WooCommerce provides analytics for tracking course sales and integrates with tools like Google Analytics to understand the best marketing channels for site traffic.
Sensei includes its own reports for understanding completion rates on courses and lessons, providing more data to measure course success after purchase.
Control over free and gated content
Integrating your LMS with eCommerce isn’t just about maximizing revenue from each course; it’s also about using free content to attract more purchases for the full course.
Taking a softer approach is more effective than putting all your course content behind a paywall. Potential customers get a taste of what you offer, so they can decide whether to buy. Your eCommerce solution should let you control free and paid content.
You can achieve this by combining Sensei and WooCommerce! Set up a free mini-course as an introduction to the full course, which learners can then pay for.
Wide range of compatible payment methods and models
Preferred payment gateways can vary by country, age, tech-savviness, and personal preferences. Supporting multiple options is essential if you want to facilitate as many sales as possible.
Your choice of LMS should support several online payment methods. These include credit/debit cards, PayPal, Stripe, bank transfers, and other payment systems that allow customers to choose their preferred option. Whichever payment methods are available, it’s vital to provide secure transactions that comply with payment standards such as PCI DSS. This builds trust with customers and reassures them that their payment details are in safe hands.
Offering flexible payment models to customers is another excellent way of increasing revenue from your online courses. It appeals to a broader range of customers considering their varying preferences and needs.
Single payments are best for short courses. Customers can buy once and access the material anytime. Subscriptions create a steady revenue stream and customer loyalty, providing continuous access to content and updates, allowing learning at their own pace. This model is good for offering access to all courses or for a single course with constant updates.
Course bundles are also a fantastic option for driving revenue. By bundling relevant courses, you can incentivize higher cart values and open up opportunities to cross-sell.
The seamless integration of Sensei LMS with WooCommerce gives users access to a global audience who are looking for various payment methods. WooPayments is the ideal payment gateway to integrate with Sensei, as it has no setup fees or monthly fees, has competitive transaction fees, is available in a wide range of countries, and allows you to set up various local payment methods and credit/debit cards.
This combo also makes it easy to integrate these varying payment models and maximize your earnings. WooPayments makes subscriptions easy with Woo Subscriptions, which allow you to sell memberships and split payments for recurring revenue. You can also bundle courses and collections, packaging two or more courses together and lowering the price to create an enticing offer.
Coupon and discount functionality
Attractive special offers with discount codes and coupons are an effective tool for boosting sales. However, creating and managing promotional discounts, seasonal offers, and loyalty rewards takes careful planning. You should do it with a goal in mind, aiming to inspire purchasing short-term but also benefit your business in the long-term.
Being able to track coupon performance and ROI is a must-have feature in your LMS and payment system. With this information in hand, you can adjust your marketing tactics accordingly, working out what’s most effective.
WooCommerce simplifies managing your coupons, discounts, and sales periods. The built-in coupon creation and management tools allow you to create and activate coupons, as well as set limits and restrictions for usage. Simply enable coupon use in your store, and you can begin creating and managing the offers you want to run.
Unleashing the full potential of Sensei LMS with WooCommerce
Now you know what to look for when integrating eCommerce functionality with your LMS. And you know that Sensei and WooCommerce offer a powerful combination when you use them together to sell your courses.
All you need to do is pair a Sensei Course with a WooCommerce product and you can start benefiting from both tools. Linking them together allows you to sell your course using any payment gateways and payment structures you like.
What’s more, you get a high degree of flexibility thanks to the option to tailor payment methods, coupons and offers, payment models, and complete control when setting up free and gated content.
Learn more about Sensei’s plans and how it can transform your online course sales.
