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

    Plan Availability
  • Mobile
    Legacy Plans
  • Mobile
    Platform
  • Mobile

In this article:

About This Feature

Important Considerations

Setting Up In-App Purchases in the Apple App Store

Accept Apple App Store Agreements

Reduce Your App Store Fees

Adding Products to In-App Purchases

Create a New Product for a Non-Expiring Course

Create a New Product for an Expiring Course

Create a New Product for an Auto-Renewable Course Subscription

Updating Product Pricing

Removing Products from Sale

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.

Learn more about In-App Purchases here: Branded Mobile: In-App Purchases.

Note that the price of each individual product sold through In-App Purchases cannot exceed $1000 USD (for Apple App Store), and $999.99 USD (for Google Play Store).

Important Considerations

  • In-app purchases are processed through Apple which means that they bypass standard Thinkific checkout. This means that:
    • If you update your product's price in Thinkific, you will also need to update it in Apple.
    • Money will be deposited directly into your bank account.
    • In-app purchases will be charged a 30% fee by Apple 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 $999.99 USD for Google Play Store.
  • We recommend applying to an Apple App Store program that offers reduced rates to lower in-app purchase fees to 15%: Apple Store Small Business Program.

Setting Up In-App Purchases in the Apple App Store

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 below.

Accept Apple App Store Agreements

To create in-app purchases and accept payments via the Apple App Store:

  1. Go to App Store Connect
  2. Select Business
  3. Select the business entity associated with your app
  4. Under Agreements, find the Paid Apps line and select View Terms
  5. Review the Agreement Terms and click Agree
  6. Select the Tax tab and provide relevant information. For more information, see: Tax forms overview
  7. Select the Banking app and provide relevant information. For more information, see: Enter banking information

Reduce Your App Store Fees

This optional step allows you to reduce your app store fees from 30% to 15%. The Apple App Store offers reduced rates to qualified businesses. To enrol in this program, follow the instructions outlined here: Apple Store Small Business Program.

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:

  1. Go to your Admin Dashboard
  2. Go to the Mobile App page in the left-side navigation bar
  3. Select the Products tab
  4. Under the In-App Purchase IDs section, find the product you want to make available for purchase via your app
  5. Click Create ID next to the product you want to offer
  6. Copy the ID once the Product ID is generated

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.

Depending on the type of product you want to sell via In-App Purchases, you will need to select the following product type in the Apple App Store:

Product in Thinkific Description Product type in the Apple App Store
A course or a bundle with one-time payment pricing (without an expiry date) A student pays for the course once and has unlimited access to the course / the bundle A non-expiring course
A course or a bundle with one-time payment pricing (with an expiry date) A student pays for the course once but can only access the course / the bundle for a set period of time An expiring course
A course or a bundle with subscription pricing A student has to make recurring payments to keep access to the course / the bundle Auto-renewable course subscription

Create a New Product for a Non-Expiring Course

  1. Go to App Store Connect
  2. From My Apps, select your app.
  3. In the sidebar under Monetization, click In-App Purchases.
  4. Select (+)
  5. Under Type, select whether your product is Consumable or Non-Consumable. Most products will be Non-Consumable (they will need to be purchased only once).
  6. Add Reference name
  7. Add the Product ID that you copied from Mobile Settings in the Admin Dashboard



     
  8. Click Create
  9. Under Availability, click Set Up Availability
  10. Deselect any countries you don't want your course to be available in (optional), then click Done
  11. Under Price Schedule, click Add Pricing
  12. Select your base country currency, then select your course's price
  13. Click Next
  14. Under Localization, click Add Localization
    1. From the Localization drop down, select your primary region
    2. Under Display Name, enter your product's name
    3. Under Description, enter a short description
    4. Click Add
  15. Under Review Information > Screenshot
    1. Download the example screenshot image at the bottom of this article
    2. Click Choose File and upload the example screenshot to show where to find your course in-app
  16. Click Save

Learn more about it here: Create consumable or non-consumable in-app purchases

Create a New Product for an Expiring Course

  1. Go to App Store Connect
  2. From My Apps, select your app.
  3. In the sidebar under Monetization, click Subscriptions
  4. Scroll down to Non-Renewing Subscriptions, and click Manage
  5. Select (+)
  6. Add Reference Name
  7. Add the Product ID that you copied from Mobile Settings in the Admin Dashboard
  8. Click Create
  9. Under Availability, click Set Up Availability
  10. Deselect any countries you don't want your course to be available in (optional), then click Done
  11. Under Price Schedule, click Add Pricing
  12. Select your base country currency, then select your course's price
  13. Click Next
  14. Under Localization, click Add Localization
    1. From the Localization drop down, select your primary region
    2. Under Display Name, enter your product's name
    3. Under Description, enter a short description
    4. Click Add
  15. Under Review Information > Screenshot
    1. Download the example screenshot image at the bottom of this article
    2. Click Choose File and upload the example screenshot to show where to find your course in-app
  16. Click Save

Create a New Product for an Auto-Renewable Course Subscription

  1. Go to App Store Connect
  2. From My Apps, select your app.
  3. In the sidebar under Monetization, click Subscriptions
  4. Under Subscription groups, click Create
  5. Under Localization, click Create
    1. Under Subscription Group Display Name, enter your product's name
    2. Click Create
  6. Under Subscriptions, click Create
    1. Under Reference Name, enter your product's name
    2. Under Product ID, add the Apple Product ID that you copied from Mobile Settings in Admin Dashboard
    3. Click Create
  7. Under Subscription Duration, select a duration and click Save
  8. Under Availability, click Set Up Availability
    1. Deselect any countries you don't want your course to be available in (optional), then click Done
  9. Under Subscription Prices, click Add Subscription Price
    1. Select your base country currency, then select your course's price
    2. Click Next
  10. Under Localization, click Add Localization
    1. From the Localization drop down, select your primary region
    2. Under Display Name, enter your product's name
    3. Under Description, enter a short description
    4. Click Add
  11. Under Review Information > Screenshot
    1. Download the example screenshot image at the bottom of this article
    2. Click Choose File and upload the example screenshot to show where to find your course in-app
  12. Click Save

Learn more about it here: Offer auto-renewable subscriptions.

Updating Product Pricing

When you update your product's pricing in Thinkific, you will need to update it in Apple (and Google) too. 

Alternatively, you may wish to update your in-app purchase pricing to be different from your product's pricing on your website. Apple allows this as long as the price difference is reasonable. 

  1. Go to App Store Connect

  2. From My Apps, select your app.

  3. In the sidebar under Monetization:

    1. Click In-App Purchases to update a Non-Expiring Course,
    2. Click Subscriptions > Non-Renewing Subscriptions > Manage to update an Expiring Course, or
    3. Click Subscriptions to update a Course Subscription
  4. Click the product you would like to update
  5. Beside Price Schedule, click the add (+) icon
  6. Select Global Price Change
  7. Click Next
  8. Under Effective Date, select the date you want your price change to begin
  9. Under Calculate Prices, select the new price of your product
  10. Click Confirm

Removing Products from Sale

  1. Go to App Store Connect

  2. From My Apps, select your app.

  3. In the sidebar under Monetization:

    1. Click In-App Purchases to remove a Non-Expiring Course,
    2. Click Subscriptions > Non-Renewing Subscriptions > Manage to remove an Expiring Course, or
    3. Click Subscriptions to remove a Course Subscription
  4. Click the course you would like to remove
  5. Under Availability, select Remove from sale
  6. Click Save

Learn More

Branded Mobile: In-App Purchases

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

[back to top]

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 1 found this helpful