We are delighted to announce that In-Skill Purchasing (ISP) is now generally available for Alexa skills published in France, Italy and Spain! That means you can now earn money by offering premium content in your Alexa skills published in those countries as well. For example, users can purchase virtual game products, unlockable features and add-on content while seamlessly interacting with the voice experience. You define your offering and price, and Alexa handles the voice-first purchasing flow. We also provide self-service tools to manage your in-skill products and optimize your sales performance over time.

ISP currently supports one-time purchases for entitlements that unlock access to features or content in your skill, subscriptions that offer access to premium features or content for a period of time, and consumables, which can be purchased, depleted and purchased again.

One-time purchases unlock access to features or content in a skill. Customers purchase the content once for an entitlement that does not expire. A few local examples are:

• Mentalshock (Italy): an engaging interactive story where players have to explore a futuristic world full of danger and intrigue. The first part is free and the second is unlockable for €1.99. The skill also offers hints for €0.99.
• Hablando se aprende - las tildes (Spain): This fun game lets you guess where the accent mark (á, é, í, ó, ú) should be placed in a word. For only €0.99 the skill also provides corrections and tips to learn more effectively.
• Ciné Quizz (France): this original quiz has 200 movie’s extracts in its database and is perfect to play with friends and family.

With an in-skill subscription, you can offer access to premium features or content for a period of time. Subscriptions support free trials (1 to 31 days) and two billing cycles: monthly or yearly. Examples include:

• Trova Telefono (Italy): a handy skill that calls your phone when you can’t find it around your home. You can now get unlimited uses for €4.99 per year.
• Sleep Sounds: Rain (available in France, Italy and Spain): Skill plays calming rain sound loops to help you fall asleep faster, sleep better, relax, meditate, or drown out distracting noises. With the premium subscription you can enjoy Premium sound quality and enhanced looping to listen longer.
• Rueda de letras (Spain): this fun vocabulary game allows to unlock new game categories for only €1.99/week or €3.99/month.

Consumables can be purchased, depleted, and purchased again. This feature is often used to monetize game hints, extra lives or special items for an adventure game. Examples of skills using consumables include:

• Quiz Treccani (Italy): this devilishly challenging quiz around Italian grammar and etymology offers three daily games, and an additional five games can be unlocked for €0.99.
• Quiz Vero o Falso (Italy): the free version of this trivia allows 3 wrong answers everyday, and additional 10 lives can be unlocked for €0.99.
• Lemonade Stand (available in France, Italy and Spain): Lemonade Stand is a simple business simulation. The game is easy to play, players run a lemonade stand and make business decisions every day. It is possible to protect the lemonade stand during a thunderstorm by buying a 10 umbrellas consumable package for €0.99.

A skill may use different product types together e.g. individual one-time purchases for unlocking specific features/content, and a subscription to unlock all premium features/content.

Getting Started with In-Skill Purchasing

To help you get started with In-Skill Purchasing, we have put together a free guide which you can consult. You can download the guide in your preferred language (Click on the link to go to the preferred version: French, Italian, Spanish). Other useful resources:

• How to design for In-Skill Purchasing
• Sample Code on GitHub: Premium Hello World, Premium Facts

Resources

• Starter Kit: How to Make Money with Alexa Skills: France, Italy and Spain
• Best practices for designing a premium customer experience
• Developer Story: With In-Skill Purchasing, Gal Shenar Sets His Growing Voice Business Up for Long-Term Success
• Developer Story: Musicplode Media Uses In-Skill Purchasing to Turn Its “Beat the Intro” Voice Game into a Hit for Alexa Customers
• Developer Story: Hypno Therapist Alexa Skill Uses In-Skill Purchasing to Reach More Customers and Build a Business
• Test your in-skill purchase before you submit it for certification
• Set up tax forms for payment purposes
• Measure skill usage and earnings with the analytics dashboard within the Developer Console