The in-skill purchasing feature lets you sell premium digital content in your skill. Skills with products for sale should be engaging, high-quality offerings provided to the customer when appropriate. The following sections describe the design best practices to follow and pitfalls to avoid when you start developing products for your skill.
If you already have an engaging skill with free content that customers enjoy using, it’s time to consider adding more content that you can sell to your customers. This section covers adding digital content to your skill. You can also sell physical items through your skill by using Amazon Pay. For details about how to sell physical goods with Amazon Pay, see Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills Overview.
In a skill, you can offer customers three types of digital content products:
- Subscriptions– Customers pay a flat monthly fee to access content or services, such as monthly access to all content channels (sports, news, and comedy) in a podcast service. You charge customers on a recurring basis until they decide to cancel.
- Entitlements– You charge a one-time payment for access to a premium feature that is always be available to the customer. For example, customers purchase a theme pack in a trivia skill that they can play repeatedly.
- Consumables– You require a one-time payment for an experience that customers use one time, and then you have it removed from the skill. For example, you sell a hint in a game or an extra chance to play another turn. You can sell consumables individually, in packages, or only allow repeat purchases after the customer has used up all consumables.
You have an engaging skill with several turns to delight customers. Now how do you monetize that? There are a few steps you can take to have a great product to sell inside of an already excellent skill.
First, you need to know about the upsell. This is the message your skill will say to customers to advertise a product for sale. The upsell must do three things:
- Make sense in the context of the customer journey.
- Describe the product in as few words as possible.
- Complete the upsell in as few steps as possible.
For example, imagine that you built a trivia skill about countries around the world, and the customer plays through all the free content. When the customer is finished, you can have the skill offer an entitlement for a new game pack on national birds and flowers.
Woohoo! You got forty-five out of fifty countries correct. If you’d like to learn more about countries around the world, you can now get the national bird expansion pack. Wanna learn more?
Now, let’s break down this example further:
- Your skill gives a message after the free content is finished: “Woohoo! You got forty-five out of fifty states correct,” which makes sense in the context of the journey and the upsell message you’re making.
- Your skill describes the relevant, available product: “If you’d like to learn more about countries around the world, you can now get the national bird expansion pack.”)
- Your skill hands off the buying decision to the customer: “Wanna learn more?”
An upsell message should never promote more than one product at a time. This limitation is because the upsell message is actually the introduction to the Amazon purchase flow. The customer purchases your product through Amazon, and then the Amazon purchase flow brings the customer back into your skill. You must create the introduction, the upsell to the purchase flow, and gracefully handle the re-entry back into your skill whether your product was purchased or not. The purchase flow tells you if the customer did or didn’t purchase the product, so you must design the purchase experience for both scenarios.
For example, in your trivia skill, imagine that the customer bought the birds and flowers expansion pack. You need to bring the customer back into the skill after the purchase. This is a great time to suggest that the customer use the expansion pack to continue playing.
Thanks for buying the national bird expansion pack! Would you like to start playing it?
Now, put it all together to get a sense of the customer experience and see how your trivia skill works with the purchase flow.
Woohoo! You got forty-five out of fifty countries correct. If you’d like to learn more about countries around the world, you can now get the national bird expansion pack. Wanna learn more?
Yes
Yes
Thanks for buying the state bird expansion pack! Would you like to start playing it?
Remember, not everyone’s going to buy what you’re selling, so you still must create a clear and easy way for the customer to exit the purchase flow. If you have other content packs that the customer can interact with, then suggest those packs to the customer. If there’s no further content, then you must end the session. For example, if the customer has played all the free content and doesn't want to purchase more at this time, you must end the session.
Great job at playing the Untied States Quiz Game. Come back anytime to learn more about countries around the world. Bye!
Upsells should occur at natural transition points in the customer’s journey, after the customer finishes speaking. There are several places you can upsell, depending on the customer’s location in the journey and the type of product offered. The following list shows some common locations in the customer journey that are effective places to upsell:
- When the customer has finished all free content
- When the customer has played through an entitlement and might have purchased more
- If the customer can no longer proceed and needs a consumable product, such as a hint or extra turn
Don’t deliver an upsell message the first time a customer uses a skill. When the customer is new to the skill, you should focus on showing the customer how the skill works instead of selling a product. You should focus on how the skill works because, at this time, the customer doesn't know much about the skill and has no context to understand how a purchase might affect their experience.
Never repeat an upsell message in the same session. Vary the amount of upsells with customer usage. You might need to create three to five upsell messages for the same product to avoid repetition in the messaging. Also, consider skipping the upsell message entirely between sessions to avoid customer burnout.
It’s not rare to have customers ask your skill, “What can I buy?” Customers might be exploring your skill or might have forgotten what products you were selling before. When customers ask what they can buy, you are given the opportunity to talk about your skill's product offerings.
You can talk about your products in a few ways. If your skill only has one product, go directly into the upsell message but don’t repeat your message to your customer if they decline. If you have a range of products, you must list them one at a time, because you can only upsell one product per upsell. To trigger multiple upsells, make sure you design your upsell to trigger on utterances like, “What can I buy,” and other similar phrases. Similarly, if a customer outright asks for a product—for example, “I want to buy the country flag quiz”— then you can avoid the upsell and launch directly into the purchase flow. You must map this customer utterance to each product to make sure you capture the ability to purchase an item directly.
The following list shows some best practices for this scenario:
- Handle utterances such as: “shop”, “what can I buy”, “for sale”, or “tell me more about {item}.”
- Make sure to include shopping options in your help intent for customers who need assistance. For example, “You can play a quiz or ask me what other quiz packs are available.”
- Only upsell one product at a time, even if you have multiple products for sale.
In the following example, from the trivia game, see how you can upsell what you have available to repeat customers who have already played the game.
Wow, you’re an ace at United States Quiz game. I have a new trivia pack on state birds. Would you like to hear more?
What else can I buy?
I have a new trivia pack on state flags. Do you want to learn more about it?
Nah. What else?
Ok, I have a trivia pack on state flowers. Want to hear more?
Sure.
Because you can only upsell one item at a time, you must highlight your products one at a time as well.
You should tailor your upsell messages by product type so that you appropriately convey what’s in the product before the customer buys it.
Subscriptions need an upsell message that describes the kind of content that customers receive on a monthly basis. You might also want to offer a trial period of up to 30 days so that customers can get a sample of the monthly content you offer in your skill. You need to clarify that the trial is only for new subscribers. Always mention the duration of your subscription in the upsell so customers know what they’re buying each month.
For example, let’s say your customer wants to play a new game, 'Hi Low Game Plus,' but it’s part of a subscription.
Play, Hi Low Game Plus.
The 'Hi Low Game Plus' is only available with a subscription to 'Hi Low Game.' Subscribers get access to a new game each month. New subscribers get to try it for free. Want to learn more?
Entitlements are a simpler upsell. You can tell customers about content available to them at either the beginning or end of their session. Unlike consumables, after customers buy entitlements, they always have them. Therefore, you also need to add hints in case customers forget they bought the content.
For example, your customer is playing one game, but forgets that they bought a new game last session.
Welcome back to Hi Low Game! Last time you were playing 'Hi Low Game Plus.' Do you want to continue or start your new game pack, 'Hi Low Game Plus Two?
Consumables are an effective way to address customer moments of need. You can tell customers about consumables between conversational turns. Just be careful not to interrupt your customer while they’re speaking. Interruptions break customer trust.
For example, imagine your customer is running out of tokens in their game. Tokens aren't necessary to play, but if used, make the game play faster.
Seems like you need a token to advance. If you give one token, I'll give the path to advance. You can buy more tokens to help you along. Want to learn more?
Just like entitlements or subscriptions, hints are very helpful with consumables as well. Customers might not remember how much of a consumable they have, especially if purchased in bulk. For example, let’s say your customer bought 100 tokens and needs to know how many they have left.
How many tokens do I have left?
Yikes! You only have ten tokens left. Do you want to get more?
Note: Not only do you need to design your messaging by product type, you also need to design multiple messages to cycle through so the customer doesn’t get irritated by repeatedly hearing the same content. Make sure to have three to five messages you can cycle through per product type.
There are two types of purchase flows: a direct purchase and an upsell. A direct purchase usually occurs when a customer asks for a product outright, usually in the context of asking “What can I buy?” or for consumable purchases made often. A direct purchase doesn’t need a “yes” confirmation from the customer to get to the purchase flow.
I want to buy the hint pack.
The hint pack contains ten hints you can use anytime in the game. It’s four dollars and ninety-nine cents plus tax. Would you like to buy it?
Yes.
Thanks for buying the hint pack. Would you like to use a hint to solve the puzzle?
However, most purchases will fall into the upsell message category. Purchases that use the upsell message require consent (“yes”) from the customer to continue to the purchase flow. While longer, the upsell message purchase flow is a safer choice in general, because your customers won’t be confused about how they got to the purchase flow.
I hope you enjoyed the trivia of the day. If want more trivia, you can get the full library of trivia. Want to learn how to join the Quick Trivia club?
The following sections explain the best practices you can follow for selling products to customers so that they have the best possible purchase experience.
Don’t sell a product just because you can. Customers lose trust in skills that surface offers that aren’t relevant or interesting to them. Conversely, skills can build rapport with customers by offering exactly what they need when they need it, and avoiding offers they don’t need. Never offer an in-skill purchase that a customer doesn’t need or can’t use, has already purchased, or beyond their needs.
All of your purchases should be relevant to the skill and especially relevant to where the customer is in the journey. If you’re selling a subscription, make sure you have enough content to engage with the customer for the 30-day duration of the subscription. In the case of one-time purchases, make sure you know what’s worthy as an entitlement versus a consumable. For example, an entitlement is best used for expansion packs while a consumable is good for small uses like hints or extra lives in a game.
Offer the right product at the right time in the customer journey. This approach can be a delightful experience for customers when it’s done right. Repeating the same offer the same way repeatedly erodes customer trust and might keep them from wanting to use your skill.
Avoid misleading customers into thinking they will make a purchase immediately in the upsell message. The upsell only asks if the customer wants to learn more about the product, without offering any pricing information or other terms. The purchase flow handles the actual transaction. A customer is likely to answer “No” to a prompt to “buy” before they’ve heard the terms or price from the Amazon purchase flow.
Explicitly state that a product is offered for sale. Never combine an upsell message with a list of free content products. Always offer the premium experience as an attractive alternative.
Provide an explicit, contextually relevant offer for a single product wherever possible. Don’t rely on the customer to remember a special utterance or make the customer navigate a storefront to make a purchase.
Use concise, yet descriptive language to inform the customer about what they’re purchasing. Products sold as packs of content should have the number of items or amount of content made obvious somewhere in the product description or name. Use descriptive titles without relying on them to convey all relevant detail.
You need to build in support for customers who want to cancel or refund a purchase. This involves sending the customer to the Alexa app to complete the refund process. The customer might ask fora refund in multiple ways:
- “Alexa, tell United States Quiz I want to return State Birds.”
- “Alexa, refund State Birds.”
- “I want to return State Birds.”
- “I want a refund for State Birds.”
For example, if a customer bought the entitlement “State Birds” and wanted to return it for a refund, they should be able to ask Alexa to do this for them.
Alexa, I want to return State Birds.
For a refund, check out the link I sent you in the Alexa app.
Similar to entitlements, customers can return consumables or subscriptions even if they have already been used. Subscriptions are refunded and the auto-renew for future months will be turned off. For details about handling refunds, see Add ISP Support to Your Skill Code in the developer documentation.