A service provider's product catalog is more than just a list of available services—it's a core monetization engine. Its structure determines whether a customer gets stuck at the selection stage, how often your support team gets questions about pricing plans, and how quickly you can test new hypotheses regarding your prices and bundled offers.
A well-designed catalog reduces the load on your support team, increases conversion rates, and allows for faster hypothesis testing.
In this article, I'll break down how the BILLmanager service catalog is built.
Unsplash, Janis Ringli
The Structure of the BILLmanager Service Catalog
The service catalog in BILLmanager is built as a flexible hierarchy designed to help customers easily find the solutions they need. It consists of several key components:
- Product Types — the main service categories.
- Product Subtypes — more detailed classifications within those categories.
- Tariff Plans — pre-configured packages with fixed parameters and prices.
- Tariff Bundles — collections of plans that can be offered as bundled solutions.
- Add-ons — additional services or goods that can be attached to a main order.
Product Types
Product Types in BILLmanager are the foundational structure for classifying your services. They determine how tariff plans are grouped in the catalog and displayed to customers. Each tariff plan can belong to only one product type.
BILLmanager comes pre-configured with standard categories like Web Hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Dedicated Servers, Domains, SSL Certificates, and Third-Party Licenses. You can also create custom product types to match your specific service offerings, such as Cybersecurity or Cloud Storage.
Using product types helps customers find what they need faster, without having to sift through a massive, unsorted list of services. For the provider, it eliminates backend chaos—all services are automatically organized onto their own dedicated "shelves."
Product Subtypes
For more precise service classification, BILLmanager offers Product Subtypes. The rules for tariff plans work the same way here—each plan can belong to only one subtype.
Unlike product types, there are no pre-configured options for subtypes; the provider creates them independently based on their service structure. For example:
- For the Virtual Private Servers (VPS) product type, you could create subtypes like Basic, Premium, and For Development.
- For the Web Hosting type—Shared, WordPress-Optimized.
Using subtypes makes the catalog more user-friendly: customers immediately see specialized categories and spend less time choosing, while the provider gains a clear and structured system for managing their tariff plans.
Tariff Plans
A Tariff Plan in BILLmanager is a ready-made commercial offer with a fixed set of resources and a set price. It is the final unit a customer can select when ordering a service.
The parameters that make up a plan vary by service type. For instance, the set of characteristics for a VPS will differ from those for web hosting. In some cases, there is built-in flexibility—the customer can customize certain configuration parameters before placing their order.
The structure of a tariff plan includes add-ons:
- Mandatory add-ons (e.g., a base amount of disk space for a VPS).
- Optional add-ons (e.g., an additional IP address, backup services, etc.). Tariff plans allow you to standardize your offerings while providing the necessary flexibility for different service categories.
Tariff Bundles
Bundles in BILLmanager are a tool for combining multiple services into ready-made packaged deals. They allow customers to sign up for comprehensive solutions with a single click, while providers can increase the average order value through cross-selling.
Bundles allow you to set special pricing, either at a discounted rate or as a fixed package price. After payment, all services within the bundle are activated through the standard process—just as if they had been ordered individually.
For example, you can use a bundle to create a "Business Startup Kit" that includes everything needed for a quick launch—like a domain, web hosting, and an SSL certificate—or any other package you can think of.
Related products (Customers also buy)
Related products in BILLmanager are additional services that are automatically offered to a customer during the checkout process for their main order. They help increase the average order value and enhance the customer experience through timely, relevant recommendations.
When a tariff plan is added to the cart, the system suggests relevant related products (for example, when ordering a virtual server, it might suggest a domain or an SSL certificate). The customer can immediately add these needed services to their order without having to go back to the main catalog.
All these suggestions are configured by the administrator and displayed as clear, understandable options.
A well-organized service catalog in BILLmanager allows the provider to create comprehensive offerings, simplifies sales scaling through packaged deals, and increases the average order value via automated add-on suggestions. At the same time, the customer benefits from an intuitive service navigation system, the ability to choose either ready-made bundles or individual services, and complete transparency regarding the provider's offerings and pricing.
In the next article, I will cover the catalog customization capabilities in BILLmanager—how to choose its display mode, configure tariff plan grouping—and how these features reduce the time it takes to choose and order services.
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