Branded Mobile: In-App Purchases

Take your audience’s learning journey to new heights! Your users can now expand their skills by purchasing new courses directly within your mobile app.

In this article:

About This Feature

How It Works

Setting Up In-App Purchases

Adding Products to In-App Purchases

Student Experience

Important Considerations

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Feature

Branded Mobile fits into your audience’s existing routines, making it easier for them to learn and engage with your content — all on their own schedule. This means higher course completion rates, improved student satisfaction, and more revenue opportunities for your business.

In-App Purchases is a Branded mobile-exclusive feature that allows your students to expand their skills by purchasing new courses directly within your mobile app. With Apple and Google Play’s in-app purchase systems, they can easily tap, purchase, and get access to new courses, while the earnings from these purchases are deposited directly into your bank account.

This feature is exclusive to creators using Branded apps. For most Branded apps, in-app purchases will be required for your app to be approved in the app stores. Learn more about it here: Branded Mobile: Important Considerations.

In-app purchases allow you to:

• Increase revenue
  By offering in-app purchases, you create an additional revenue stream that is deposited directly into your bank account, allowing you to increase your product sales.
• Meet students where they are
  Your students are already using the app - capitalize on their engagement by offering them a convenient way to get more courses from you without leaving the app.
• Ensure that your Branded app is approved
  In many cases, in-app purchases are required by Apple and Google in order to approve the app.

How It Works

The Thinkific team will work with you on setting up the first product with you.

In-app purchases can only be enabled for:

• published courses and bundles with one-time payment pricing with no expiry dates,
• published courses and bundles with one-time payment pricing with expiry dates,
• published courses and bundles with subscription pricing.

Communities, memberships, free trials, free previews, hidden products, and products with monthly payment pricing are not supported through in-app purchases.

Note that Digital Downloads or Coaching & Webinars Products purchased as part of a bundle are not available in the app.

We're continuously working on improving our mobile app offering behind the scenes, including on offering more product options via in-app purchases! Keep checking this article for more information on the latest releases:Mobile App Recent Updates.

Once enabled, students will be able to purchase the products directly through their app. See the Student Experience section below.

All in-app purchases are processed through Apple and Google, which means that they bypass standard Thinkific checkout. Money will be deposited directly into your bank account. All in-app purchases will be charged a 30% fee by Apple and Google. Apply for a reduced rate to reduce the fee to 15% by following the instructions here.

Note that the price of each individual product sold through In-App Purchases cannot exceed $1000 USD (for Apple App Store), and $400 USD (for Google Play Store).

Setting Up In-App Purchases

The Thinkific team will work closely with you to set up in-app purchases. To ensure a successful setup, you will need to complete the steps outlined here:

• Branded Mobile: Set Up In-App Purchases in the Apple App Store
• Branded Mobile: Set Up In-App Purchases in the Google Play Store

Adding Products to In-App Purchases

The Thinkific team will work with you on setting up initial in-app purchase products. However, if you decide to make more products available to purchase through your Branded app, you can do it by following these steps:

• Branded Mobile: Set Up In-App Purchases in the Apple App Store
• Branded Mobile: Set Up In-App Purchases in the Google Play Store

Student Experience

When the In-App Purchases feature is enabled and set up, your students will be able to purchase the products directly from within your Branded app! To do that, your students need to:

1. Open your branded app
2. Select the Learn tab at the bottom of the screen
3. Select the Discover tab at the top of the screen
   
4. Select the product they want to purchase
   When viewing the list of products, your students will see the product image, the product price, the product name, and the product description, and the table of content.
   
    
5. Purchase the product using a payment method associated with their Apple ID or Google Play accounts
   
6. Once purchased, your students will be automatically enrolled in the product and can start learning right away!
   

Your students can manage their in-app purchase subscriptions directly within the app. To access it, students need to:

1. From the Home tab, click on a profile image
2. Select Active Subscriptions

Students will be able to see the list of their active subscriptions purchased in the mobile app. They can cancel or manage their subscriptions by clicking on Manage Subscriptions.

Subscriptions and purchases that are not made in the mobile app will not show up in the Active Subscriptions menu.

Important Considerations

• In-app purchases are processed through Apple and Google, which means that they bypass standard Thinkific checkout. This means that:
  • Money will be deposited directly into your bank account.
  • In-app purchases will be charged a 30% fee by Apple and Google unless you apply for a reduced rate.
• Note that the price of each individual product sold through In-App Purchases cannot exceed $1000 USD (for Apple App Store), and $400 USD (for Google Play Store).
• We recommend applying to Apple App Store and Google Play programs that offer reduced rates to lower in-app purchase fees to 15%:
  • Apple Store Small Business Program
  • Enrol in the Google Play Store 15% service fee tier

Frequently Asked Questions