Published: June 16, 2023
Key takeaways
You can monetize your skill and expand your experience for your customers with In-Skill Purchasing (ISP). Depending on your skill’s content, you can monetize with a few types of ISP. Make sure the boundaries between free content and paid are clear, and that your upsell clearly states the value proposition.
Need quick advice?
Follow the design checklist for in-skill purchasing for some tips on designing a successful purchasing flow.
In this article:
If you have a skill (or an idea for a skill) with a large volume of compelling content that customers already (or will) interact with regularly, you can monetize your skill by offering In-Skill Purchases (ISPs). Depending on your skill’s content, you might consider one or more of three types of in-skill (digital) products for purchase and use within your skill: Subscriptions, entitlements, and consumables. Listen to the following upsell messages for the three kinds of in-skill purchases you can offer your customers.
Subscriptions – Customers pay a flat annual or monthly fee to access content or services. You will charge customers on a recurring basis until they decide to cancel.
Alexa: Congratulations! You finished the Seattle Sports Trivia Pack with a score of 42 out of 50. Not too shabby! You can double your daily dose of trivia and get special quizzes on the weekend with a subscription. Want to learn more?
Entitlements (one-time purchases) – Customers pay a one-time cost for access to a premium feature that is always available.
Alexa: You’ve reached the end of today’s daily game with a score of four out of five. Not bad! It looks like you’re fresh out of trivia. If you can’t get enough Seattle Super Trivia, you can get 50 more brain teasers with the Seattle Super History pack. Want to learn how?
Consumables – You require a one-time payment for an experience that customers use one time. 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.
Alexa: Ok, next question. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792?
Customer: Can you give me another hint?
Alexa: You’re all out of hints! But don’t fear, you can always stock up. Do you want to learn how to get more?
Read more about the requirements for implementing in-skill purchasing by reading Understand In-Skill Purchasing in the Amazon Developer Portal.
Supporting digital content purchasing of all three types in your skill requires the addition of not only several more use cases (paths through which the customer will experience your skill), but also interfacing with an Amazon service. It also introduces more opportunities to both delight and disappoint your customer. The following best practices will help you design a purchase experience that follows the Design Principles and increase the chance your customers will purchase (and love) your skill’s premium content.
Design best practices for in-skill purchasing
Already have an ISP skill in progress? You can follow the full ISP skill design checklist for quick tips to improve your design.
Once you’ve determined that in-skill purchasing is right for your skill, decide how you’ll allocate the skill’s content. Before you start designing, you’ll want to determine what kind of purchase – subscription, entitlement, or consumable – is appropriate for the content or experiences you plan to offer. Ask yourself the following:
To determine what kind of purchase is appropriate to your content, and how much content will be right for each, consider the following:
- Subscription
- Good for: Large content libraries or experiences, or frequently updated content.
- Best practices: Skills should provide an experience that cannot be consumed entirely within the free access period offered
- Example: A trivia skill offers a subscription to double the number of daily questions they have access to each day, plus weekend trivia.
- Free experience: All customers may play 5 free questions each weekday; and/or customers may subscribe to a limited free trial
- Price allowed: $0.99 to $99.99
- Entitlement (one-time purchase)
- Good for: Content that easily breaks down into parts or themes, or content that remixes or enhances the experience
- Best practices: Offer a value/price that is consistent with the amount of content or additional experience the purchase will offer.
- Example: A trivia skill offers a themed “pack” of trivia questions that is large enough for the customer or household to try playing multiple times
- Free experience: A customer may be offered 3 free questions within the theme of the pack to decide if they want to purchase
- Price allowed: $0.99 to $99.99
- Consumable
- Good for: Skills in which a digital product could be purchased and depleted repeatedly
- Best practices: The purchase should temporarily enhance or extend the skill content or experience.
- Example: A trivia skill allows customers to purchase hints that narrow down the possible answers to a question to one.
- Free experience: All customers are allowed one free daily hint
- Price allowed: $0.99 to $9.99
To learn more about pricing your in-skill products, read Price Ranges for In-Skill Products
What content will be free? What content will be paid?
Skills must offer some free content. How else would a customer know your skill has awesome content they’ll want to pay to keep experiencing? Offer enough free content to build enough trust and intrigue with the customer that they would say “yes” to learn more about an in-skill purchase when offered.
How much free content should there be?
There’s no exact number or percentage of free/paid content you should offer. It depends on the unique content of your skill, so you’ll want find the balance between too much and too little free content. What makes it too much or too little? If there’s too little free content, it’s likely your customer will encounter an upsell frequently and become frustrated. If there’s too much content, they won’t see a need to purchase at all. Ask yourself …
- How much content will a customer need to experience to understand the skill’s functions?
- What kinds of similar content do customers already pay for today on other digital mediums?
- How much time will it take to experience what the free content is offering? And the paid content?
- What content and how much would a customer find so valuable or entertaining, they would pay to continue engaging with it?
The answers to these same questions can also help you determine at what price your ISP should be set. To learn more about pricing your in-skill products, read Price Ranges for In-Skill Products.
Even if a skill has an exciting free experience that piques the customer’s interest in purchasing more, the skill could break trust with them and turn them off not only to the purchase, but the skill as a whole, by offering the “upsell” – the call to action to purchase with a direct yes or no question – at the wrong time.
Watch the following conversation between the hypothetical Seattle Super Trivia “skill” and its customer. At what times should the “skill” have offered the purchase? At what moments should it have avoided doing so? Would you ever use this skill again after that experience?
Fulfill a customer’s request
Don’t block them from completing their task where possible. A customer can’t make a decision to purchase without first becoming acquainted with your skill. The best way to do this is to give the customer what they asked for first, wherever possible. Don’t surface an upsell the first time they use the skill if it’s not necessary.
Do:
Customer: Alexa, start Seattle Super Trivia
Alexa: Welcome back to Seattle Super Trivia. You already started today’s trivia challenge, with a score of 2 out of 2, with 3 questions left. Ready to finish it?
Customer: Yes
Alexa: Ok. Third question. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792?
Don't:
Customer: Alexa, start Seattle Super Trivia
Alexa: Welcome back to Seattle Super Trivia. You already started today’s trivia challenge, with a score of 2 out of 2, with 3 questions left. Can’t get enough Seattle Super Trivia? I have a few premium trivia packs. You might like Heroic History, with 50 more questions about the history of Seattle to stump you. Want to learn how to get it?
Present paid content as distinctive
Don’t pull a bait-and-switch on your customer. Don’t offer paid options in the same list as other free content without calling it out as such, hoping the customer will ask for the premium option so the skill can deliver the upsell. Don’t ask the customer if they’d like a piece of content only to serve upsell that tells them they have to purchase it.
Do:
Customer: I want more trivia
Alexa: Can’t get enough Seattle Super Trivia? I have a few premium trivia packs. You might like Heroic History, with 50 more questions about the history of Seattle to stump you. Want to learn how to get it?
Don't:
Customer: I want more trivia
Alexa: I have a few trivia packs you can play, including the Super Sports Pack, Heroic History Pack, and more. What would you like?
Customer: History sound good
Alexa: Sorry, the Heroic History Pack from Seattle Super Trivia is a premium pack. Do you want to learn how to purchase it?
Be relevant and timely
Offer an ISP when your customer is most inclined to say “yes.” Customers abandon skills that surface too many irrelevant or uninteresting offers. Conversely, skills may build rapport with customers by offering relevant products at an opportune time, and avoiding offers they don’t need or aren't likely to find interesting.
Do:
Alexa: Ok, next question. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792?
Customer: I don’t know
Alexa: You’ve already used your free hint for today, but you can buy a pack of five more to use any time you’d like. Want to learn more?
Don't:
Alexa: Ok, next question. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792? Did you know you can ask me for a free hint each day? You can also buy more hints any time by saying “buy more hints.” So, you can answer, or ask me for a hint. What do you want?
Customer: Give me a hint?
Alexa: Ok, here’s your free hint for the day.
Here are a few more examples of moments in an experience where surfacing an upsell will break trust with a customer:
- As soon as the customer opens the skill
- Immediately after using the skill for the first time
- In the middle of content that is a passive listening experience
- After the customer makes a selection from a list of options they thought was free
- In response to a customer’s request or selection of free content
- The customer has already said “no” to an upsell that session, that day, or in their most recent session with your skill
- After the customer has had a poor experience, either one with errors, or one where the skill didn’t fulfill the customer’s task.
Here are a few more examples of more appropriate moments to surface an upsell:
- When the customer returns to a skill for the second time that day
- When the customer has finished all of the free content available
- When the customer asks “What can I buy?”
- After the customer makes a selection that is premium from a list of options labeled as such
- The customer has not recently said “no” to an upsell surfaced by your skill
Allow a customer to ask “What can I buy?”
Always let a customer ask what they can buy from your skill (and lots of other utterances they might use to ask this question), whether your skill offers one kind of purchase, or many. For skills that offer multiple kinds of purchases, you should take this opportunity to break down for the customer all purchase types and ask which they’d like to learn more about. Listen to the following example of how the hypothetical Seattle Super Trivia skill might help the customer navigate a “storefront” of purchase options:
Alexa: You can come back each day to get five free trivia questions and one free hint. A subscription lets you play double the trivia 7 days a week, while a pack includes up to 100 more questions you can play when you like. You can also buy 5 more hints to help you when you’re stumped. You can learn more about subscriptions, packs, or hints. Which would you like?
Checklist for making an offer at the right time:
▢ Offer an experience that customers can enjoy for free, without purchase
▢ Use a clear ISP strategy (subscription, one-time purchase, or consumable) that is appropriate to the type of experience and amount of content your skill will offer
▢ Don’t deliver an upsell message as soon as the customer invokes the skill; The customer should experience some free content before hearing an upsell
▢ Avoid delivering an upsell message after an error or other negative interaction with a customer
▢ Customers should never hear an upsell for an ISP they already own
▢ Don't offer an in-skill purchase that a customer can’t use or doesn’t need, or is out-sized to their needs
▢ Offer only one ISP product at a time to a customer
▢ Don’t “bait and switch” the customer by offering a list of options that, when selected, result in an upsell message
▢ Avoid giving customers who decline an upsell any further unsolicited upsells for the duration of their session
Even after you’ve chosen an ideal time to surface an upsell to a customer for premium content, and even after the customer has experienced enough of your skill’s content to trust they will continue to have a good experience, the way you phrase the upsell itself will affect a customer’s decision to say “yes” or “no.” Skills that offer ISP should offer one purchase at a time with a clear and specific value proposition that explains the positive benefits of the purchase.
Include the value proposition
State why the customer would be interested (“You’re all out of trivia …”), and how their experience changes or expands (and by how much) (“With a subscription you’ll get double the daily challenge questions …”; “includes 50 questions…”). Be brief but specific.
Offer one purchase option with a direct yes/no question.
Don’t be passive. When your skill will surface a “proactive” upsell (an upsell surfaced at a time the customer is mostly likely to say “yes,” but not when they directly asked to make a purchase), it’s important to keep it simple: If your skill offers multiple kinds of purchases, surface only the one most relevant to the customer at that time, and ask a yes/no question such as “want to learn more?” Don’t rely on customers to ask the skill to make a purchase later.
Do:
Don't:
▢ Include a clear value proposition. The customer should know how their experience will change by making a purchase.
▢ Don’t deliver upsell messages in the form of an error message; “I’m sorry, you need to purchase …”
▢ Avoid technical jargon or non-conversational language.
▢ Use the fewest number of word and dialog turns possible to deliver essential information about the purchase
When a customer says “yes” to learn more about an in-skill purchase, they’ll be routed away from the skill and into the Amazon purchase flow, then they’ll be handed back to the skill when the purchase is complete (or fails). Deliver dialog with those key transitions in mind.
Here is what the Amazon purchase flow will handle:
- Converting your product information defined in the product detail page into speech.
- Calculating pricing information including discounts for Amazon Prime customers.
- Credit transactions with the credit card associated with the account.
- Voice PIN verification (if the customer has one set up).
- Transaction related errors - invalid payment information, incorrect pin, etc.
Once the transaction is complete it will transition back to your skill. It’s up to you check if transaction was completed, declined or failed due to an error and respond accordingly.
The following video demonstrates how our hypothetical skill can transition smoothly to and from the Amazon purchase flow.
Don’t: be redundant
Don't include price or specific payment errors in messaging that would be redundant to the Amazon purchase flow
Do: continue the experience after the purchase (or failure)
Once the customer has made their purchase successfully (or unsuccessfully), your skill will need to offer a way to continue the experience, whether that is starting the premium experience immediately, or, in the case of a purchase failure, transitioning the customer back to free content.
There are three situations where a transition can go wrong that you’ll need to be aware of and prepare dialog for each situation:
- Transaction declined at the final upsell delivered by Amazon.
- An error occurred during the Amazon purchase flow.
- Amazon purchase flow is down. This is a very rare situation but requires a unique response in your dialogue.
For each one of these situations, you will need to take special care in how you write your message to communicate with your customer. Since the customer is being handed back to your skill, you need make sure that you don’t repeat anything that they will have heard from the Amazon purchase flow. In these three situations, don’t ask to try again immediately. Instead, include a prompt to continue using the skill without the purchase. For example:
Alexa: Ok, final question. This one’s for the win. A perfect score. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792?
Customer: Uh … 1792?
Alexa: Not quite. The City of Seattle was founded in A: 1861. It was a Wednesday. Congratulations, you finished today’s game with a score of 4 out of 5. Want to learn how to double your daily dose of trivia, and get special quizzes on the weekend, with a subscription?
Customer: Sure
Alexa: The Seattle Super Duper Trivia subscription includes 10 daily trivia questions 7 days a week. Seattle Super Duper Trivia is free for 7 days, then you’ll be automatically charged $2.99 a month plus tax. Cancel any time. Check the Alexa app for terms. Should I start your free trial?
Customer: Yes
Alexa: Please say your 4 digit code to confirm your purchase.
Customer: 1234
Alexa: I can’t match that code to your account. What’s your voice code again?
Customer: 1244?
Alexa: I can’t match that code to your account. What’s your voice code again?
Customer: I don’t know
Alexa: Ok. You can always come back daily to play the free trivia round, or ask me to subscribe again any time. Want to re-play the daily game?
▢ Don't mislead the customer into thinking a purchase will be made immediately; It does not ask the customer if they want to “buy now” or similar
▢ Direct customers who ask for a refund to a card sent to their Alexa app with more information
▢ Do not mislead customers who ask for a refund into thinking a refund is guaranteed (with language such as “For a refund …”)
▢ When transitioning to and from the Amazon purchase flow, do not duplicate details from the Amazon purchase flow, including price and error messages
▢ Offer customers a way to continue using the skill wherever possible if they decline an upsell
▢ Inform the customer when they will be "consuming" purchases that may only be used once
Because a customer can neither see or touch what’s available for purchase (or what they’ve already purchased), your skill will need to offer easy access to that information. Depending on the purchase type, a skill may need one to potentially many “access points” for a customer to reach the content or experience they paid for.
In all skills …
Surface a response for customers who ask “what did I buy?” If the customer has made a purchase they can still use, thank then for purchasing, subscribing, etc., and, if possible, offer a way from them to continue using it.
Customer: Alexa, open Seattle Super Trivia
Alexa: Welcome back to Seattle Super Trivia. Ready to finish today’s challenge?
Customer: What did I buy?
Alexa: Thanks for subscribing. You’re getting a double dose of daily challenge questions, an extra free hint each day, and discounts on trivia packs. Ready to finish today’s challenge?
In skills that offer subscriptions, the customer should always have access to their premium experience without any extra effort. Their subscription simply unlocks the experience. You won’t need to create extra design flows to ensure customers use their subscription, but, in addition to answering the “what did I buy?” question above, you might want your skill to periodically remind customers of what their subscription includes, especially if they haven’t used the skill in a while or have only accessed a small part of the content. Focus on helping the customer discover more of the experience.
Alexa: Welcome back! Your Seattle Super Trivia subscription includes double the daily questions. You still have 5 out of 10 questions left on your Daily Game. Want to finish it?
In skills that offer one-time purchases, the customer should have access to their content or premium experience on demand. You’ll want your skill to support asking for the content by name (“Play the sports trivia pack”) any time, and respond to the question of “what did I buy?” with a list of all their purchases. Consider also proactively offering content they have purchased and haven’t used yet.
Alexa: You’ve reached the end of today’s challenge with a score of 4 out of 5. Now let’s see if you’re really in the know. Want to continue playing your Seattle Superstars trivia pack?
Finally, support a robust number and variety of utterances for customers to request their content again. For example, in our hypothetical trivia skill, if we sell trivia “packs” centered around a theme, customers might ask for those in a number of ways:
- Play the sports pack
- What are my packs?
- What else do I have?
- Show my my trivia packs
- Where is my trivia pack
- I want to play more trivia
In skills that offer consumables, there should be several opportunities for a customer to use their purchase. Your skill should proactively offer customers the opportunity to use their purchase in the moments in which they would most need it.
Alexa: Ok. Last question. When was the city of Seattle founded? Was it … A. 1861. B. 1902., or C. 1792?
Customer: I don’t know
Alexa: You've got 5 hints left. Want to use one?
If your skill will let the customer purchase and use many consumables at once, you’ll also want have an answer for customers who ask how many/how much they have left.
Checklist for providing access to purchases:
▢ Instruct customers clearly on how to use their purchases if an ISP is meant to be used later
▢ Offer customers use of or access to their purchase immediately after they complete the purchase
▢ Support the customer asking “What can I buy?” and “What did I buy?”
▢ A customer should be able to ask for their one-time purchase content directly by name at any time
▢ A customer should be able to browse a library of one-time purchase and subscription content that they’ve already purchased
Checklist for making an offer at the right time:
▢ Offer an experience that customers can enjoy for free, without purchase
▢ Use a clear ISP strategy (subscription, one-time purchase, or consumable) that is appropriate to the type of experience and amount of content your skill will offer
▢ Don’t deliver an upsell message as soon as the customer invokes the skill. The customer should experience some free content before hearing an upsell
▢ Avoid delivering an upsell message after an error or other negative interaction with a customer
▢ Customers should never hear an upsell for an ISP they already own
▢ Don't offer an in-skill purchase that a customer can’t use or doesn’t need, or is out-sized to their needs
▢ Offer only one ISP product at a time to a customer
▢ Don’t “bait and switch” the customer by offering a list of options that, when selected, result in an upsell message
▢ Avoid giving customers who decline an upsell any further unsolicited upsells for the duration of their session
Checklist for writing effective upsell messages:
▢ Prompt the customer with a direct question
▢ Include a clear value proposition; The customer should know how their experience will change by making a purchase
▢ Don’t deliver upsell messages in the form of an error message; “I’m sorry, you need to purchase …”
▢ Avoid technical jargon or non-conversational language
▢ Use the fewest number of word and dialog turns possible to deliver essential information about the purchase
Checklist for designing hand-offs and additional messages:
▢ Don't mislead the customer into thinking a purchase will be made immediately; It does not ask the customer if they want to “buy now” or similar
▢ Direct customers who ask for a refund to a card sent to their Alexa app with more information
▢ Do not mislead customers who ask for a refund into thinking a refund is guaranteed (with language such as “For a refund …”)
▢ When transitioning to and from the Amazon purchase flow, do not duplicate details from the Amazon purchase flow, including price and error messages
▢ Offer customers a way to continue using the skill wherever possible if they decline an upsell
▢ Inform the customer when they will be "consuming" purchases that may only be used once
Checklist for providing access to purchases:
▢ Instruct customers clearly on how to use their purchases if an ISP is meant to be used later
▢ Offer customers use of or access to their purchase immediately after they complete the purchase
▢ Support the customer asking “What can I buy?” and “What did I buy?”
▢ A customer should be able to ask for their one-time purchase content directly by name at any time
▢ A customer should be able to browse a library of one-time purchase and subscription content that they’ve already purchased
More resources
For more help designing your in-skill purchase experience and writing your upsell messages, check out the web course “How to Design for In-Skill Purchasing.”
To learn more about implementation and certification requirements for skills that use in-skill purchasing, check out Understand In-Skill Purchasing.