Posted by Parrot Street Book Club is a monthly children’s book subscription targeting 5 to 14-year-olds. Each monthly box contains a chapter book to keep plus an activity pack we create to accompany that specific book. The company helps children and their families discover unique, new books and experience the joy and excitement of reading. PayWhirl’s subscription management system allows Parrot Street Book Club the flexibility of their custom-built software with more automation.
Moving from a custom-built subscription management system to PayWhirl
Bookworms Emily Bright and Sarah Campbell co-founded Parrot Street Book Club in 2017. They co-manage all business tasks but Emily takes the lead on website and marketing initiatives.
Parrot Street Book Club had been using a bespoke subscription management system to manage subscriptions since the company launched. Emily’s tech-savvy husband designed the system to perfectly handle Parrot Street’s subscription model. Eventually there was considerable manual effort involved in managing subscriptions. Renewing subscriptions and making adjustments became unwieldy as the business grew considerably during 2020/21.
Emily and Sarah started to explore Shopify-compatible subscription management systems. Ultimately, their web developer guided them towards PayWhirl.
Customizing PayWhirl’s subscription management system
Initially Parrot Street Book Club set up PayWhirl to handle it’s customers’ 3, 6 and 12-month prepayment subscriptions. PayWhirl is now generating a fulfilment for active subscribers on the first day of each month, but payments are only taken every 3, 6 or 12 months. This gives an accurate dispatch list for that month’s box. Then recently, Parrot Street Book Club added a monthly rolling subscription option. PayWhirl’s user-friendly backend made the new club extremely straightforward to set up – just a few clicks in the PayWhirl dashboard!
“Any stress around the migration has been more than outweighed by the amount of time we’re saving each month through the increased automation that PayWhirl’s subscription management system provides. It has allowed us to focus on other areas in our business and relax knowing that our recurring payments are handled.”
Emily Bright, co-owner, Parrot Street Book Club
Advice from Parrot Street Book Club’s owners
For Parrot Street Book Club, the biggest headaches came from trying to find an out-of-the-box solution that would fit with their unique subscription model. Emily and Sarah had been successfully using their bespoke subscription management system for years before they migrated to PayWhirl.
“For those migrating from another subscription management system, I’d suggest thinking hard about the areas where you’re prepared to compromise or flex to allow your model to fit into a new system. When you’re so close to your business small adjustments can feel like a very big deal but the reality is that your customers either won’t notice or the discomfort of some pushback will be far outweighed by all the benefits that a more streamlined system offers for both you and your customers.”
Emily Bright, co-owner, Parrot Street Book Club
A final thought
Emily knows from bitter experience how easy it is to lose hours scouring technical documents trying to work out how a new subscription app might work for your business.
“I’d recommend dropping support a quick email as I’ve found them to be really knowledgeable and helpful.”
Emily Bright, co-owner, Parrot Street Book Club
For more information about our subscription management system and how the PayWhirl app can increase automation for your business, please reach out through the live chat on https://app.paywhirl.com.