Enabling Subscriptions for a Product

You can enable a subscription for a product which will change the product detail screen to look similar to the following:

Using STRIPE for Subscriptions

If you want this turned on for your website, contact the Help Desk.  To turn it on, you need to set up an account with STRIPE which the Help Desk will show you how to do.  We use the subscriptions functionality within STRIPE to enable automated billing for subscriptions and to allow your customers self-manage their ongoing payment details - for example:

• Sending emails to customers in advance of their next payment.
• Sending emails to customers if their credit card has expired which allow them to click through to enter their updated credit card details.
• Allowing customers to PAUSE or CANCEL their subscription at any time.

PLEASE NOTE: You don't have to use STRIPE for your other payments as the subscriptions can work side by side with your current credit card provider if you are not already using STRIPE.

How to turn on Subscriptions for a Product

To turn on subscriptions for a product, go into the Update Product screen, click on the Pricing and Promotions tab, scroll down and click on Show Advanced Settings and then scroll down to the following fields:

You can then enter the fields above as follows:

• To turn on subscriptions for this product, check the ENABLE SUBSCRIPTION checkbox (you can uncheck it at any time too)
• You have the following options for intervals:
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month
  • Year
• You can enter 1 or more options for the intervals - e.g. enter "1,2,3" to allow the user select from either "Every 1 Month", "Every 2 Months" or "Every 3 Months".
• You can also add in an optional percent discount to encourage them to sign up for the subscription.

Other Important Points

• Not available if you are charging tax: If your website charges tax separately, you can't use Subscriptions as the Subscriptions charges the client a fixed amount every time period - and if that time period crosses a date when the tax/vat rate is changed which means that the fixed amount being charged has to be increased/decreased, you can't adjust the fixed amount being charged.
• Multiple Subscriptions in 1 Order Allowed: A user can have multiple subscriptions in the same order as long as the payment schedule is the same for all subscriptions in the basket - e.g. if a user has a monthly subscription for product X already in their basket and adds a monthly subscription for 3 product Y's, this will be allowed - but if they add a weekly subscription for product Z, they will be told that this cant be done with the same basket.
• Mixing Subscriptions and other products in 1 Order Allowed: A user can mix subscription products with standard products in the same basket.  They will pay with one transaction but the full payment will go through STRIPE.  The basket will look like the following showing the SUSBCRIPTION FEE and the OTHER GOODS fee (the subscription fee is what will be charged for subsequent orders):

• Promotion Prices Ignored: If you enter a promotion price for a product, this is ignored when calculating the subscription price - as you can set the discount for the subscription above and we want to avoid double discounting for subscriptions.
• Card Account Updater (CAU): STRIPE have a service called Card Account Updater (CAU) which automatically updates your customer's credit cards when they expire - which prevents subscriptions being stopped for reasons like the customer expiry date needs to be updated, customer changed their credit card, etc.  This has not been trialed as part of this subscriptions functionality.  More information about this service is here: https://stripe.com/ie/resources/more/what-is-a-card-account-updater-what-businesses-need-to-know
• Commission: If you are currently paying commission on all orders, the commission percentage will apply on the orders with subscriptions and will be calculated on the TOTAL fee charged both up-front including other items, and the subsequent payments.
  • Test that Commission for Ongoing Subscription Orders are included on Monthly VAT Statement: In your first monthly VAT RECEIPTS for your commission payments (that you use for claiming VAT back on commission payments), check with the Help Desk that the ongoing subscription orders are included in the VAT statement.
• Multi-Outlet with Outlets having own STRIPE account: If your website has separate STRIPE accounts for each outlet, then SUBSCRIPTIONS may not be available to use as the subscriptions all have to go through the one STRIPE account.
• Collection is not allowed: SUBSCRIPTION orders are not allowed for COLLECTION ORDERS, as we need to capture the customer's address during the checkout for subsequent orders.
• Audit Trails only on initial order: If you are using the AUDIT TRAIL functionality, the audit trail is not checked for repeat orders - it is only checked for the initial order.  This means that when you are auditing the initial order, you are also auditing the SUBSCRIPTION ORDER – and so if the customer should not get the order, you need to put in a cancel procedure around the AUDIT process to cancel the subscription too.