HubSpot Commerce Hub 101: Key Features & Limits

Introduction

At HubSpot’s annual conference, Inbound 2023, Commerce Hub was launched, promising a solution that allows users to get paid quicker, save time on manual tasks, and ultimately increase revenue.

In this introductory article, we will look at Commerce Hub’s key features and limitations, and give you the skinny on a very powerful addition to the HubSpot platform.

The History of HubSpot Commerce Tools

In 2021, HubSpot launched its Commerce tools for US customers, requiring a switch to their own native HubSpot Payments to use them.

However, adoption was slow for a few reasons:

1. Most customers already had a payment processor and weren’t willing to rip and replace.

2. Commerce tools were buried in the HubSpot UI, with little knowledge of their existence.

3. The tools were available to US customers only, leaving international customers in limbo.

Since then, HubSpot has listened to customer feedback and has acted on it! Introducing Commerce Hub!

What is HubSpot Commerce Hub?

Firstly, Commerce Hub isn’t a standalone Hub in the way that we are used to. It’s a repackaging of existing commerce tools and the introduction of new products for a strong offering.

Commerce Hub allows you to bill with invoices, quotes, and payment links and seamlessly integrates with your existing payment processor (starting with Stripe) to prevent you from needing to rip and replace your software.

Better still, the majority of Commerce Hub features are available free of charge, and you pay for transactions only. 

In terms of availability, Commerce Hub was launched at Inbound 2023 to US customers only (with a Stripe account), but will be available internationally in February 2024! If you are outside the US and awaiting the Stripe Integration to roll out to your location, join the waitlist here.

HubSpot Commerce Hub Walkthrough [INBOUND 2023]

Key Commerce Hub Features

Invoices

A brand new feature, HubSpot Invoices allows you to bill your customers with native invoicing from within HubSpot, automate invoicing and follow up with invoice-based workflows, and report on revenue.

Subscriptions

The new Subscriptions feature allows you to bill your customers for recurring service offerings and manage those subscriptions natively within HubSpot.

Quotes

HubSpot Quotes allows you to create service agreements with your customers, send them through HubSpot for eSignature, and get paid directly!

Payment Links

HubSpot Payment Links allow you to collect payments through easily created links in HubSpot, which you can place anywhere you wish. Do you have service pricing on your website? You can go from pricing to payment with a single link. 

Automated Billing

Do you spend time on manual billing, reminders, and renewals? You can now automate billing, collections, renewals, and much more with Commerce Hub!

Payments / Stripe Integration

You can now collect payments with your own Stripe account from within HubSpot CRM. You still have the option to use HubSpot’s own native payments tool, HubSpot Payments.

A Real World Use Case

We're working with a company that has physical distribution of kiosks and two separate business models. Historically, they have had challenges with being able to get signatures on the dotted line, notifying internal team members, and updating the kiosk installation team, which works with different software.

We're now looking to integrate the entire process using Commerce Hub rather than relying on disparate systems including signature software, an invoicing tool, and an integration with external software for installation and deployment. We're automating the journey and triggering workflows, allowing them to deploy pilots of their product in record time.

Thanks to Commerce Hub, they will be able to end their reliance on multiple tools and streamline their end to end fulfilment process, saving time and money.

Commerce Hub Limitations

Every product has its limitations, and Commerce Hub is no different. There are two key limitations in place, which it’s important to be aware of before you make the transition to using it.

Automatic Tax Calculations

Unfortunately, there is no native capacity in the Commerce Hub Quoting & Invoicing features to automatically calculate Sales Tax. This must be done manually or leverage a custom integration with a 3rd party tool like TaxJar or Avalara.

The HubSpot product team will be working on this in 2024.

Stripe Migration

There is currently no way to migrate historical invoicing data from Stripe. However, this feature is also on the product team’s desk for 2024.

In the meantime, users of the new Stripe / HubSpot integration are focusing on net new quotes and invoices.

Conclusion

Commerce Hub may not be a true Hub, but it combines powerful existing functionality together with new features to allow you to get paid faster, increase revenue, and save time!

As payment processor integration expands beyond Stripe, Commerce Hub will become a more powerful platform, providing end-to-end native capacity to quote, invoice, and get paid in one place.

The all-in-one platform is becoming more powerful all the time. If you're looking to implement Commerce Hub, we've done it, and we understand it. Let us be your solution architects, go ahead and get in touch.