Subscription Renewals

Renewal refers to what happens when one subscription term ends and another term begins.

Types of Renewals

There are two ways a subscription can be renewed and the shopper billed for another period:

Manual Renewal – Shopper has to take some action to renew the subscription themselves. There are two main ways a shopper can renew their product. The easiest and quickest way is to log on to FindMyOrder.com and renew using the features available in the self-service options. Another way is to call Customer Service and request that the subscription be renewed.
Automatic Renewal (also called auto renew) – Renewal takes place automatically when the subscription expires and shoppers are billed according to the settings you have defined for the subscription (and using the billing information provided by the shopper at the initial purchase or last renewal). If the renewal fails because the billing information isn't correct (for example, an expired credit card) shoppers are notified and given a chance to update their billing information. The system will attempt to bill a shopper for automatic renewals several times before we cancel the subscription and list the billing attempt as failed.

Summary: How Renewal Works

The following summarizes how renewals work. Visit the links to learn more about a particular feature or aspect of renewals.

Subscriptions expire (unless they are renewed) when the current subscription terms ends.
- If the subscription is an automatic renewal subscription, the subscription is renewed on the expiration date. Shoppers may be billed prior to the expiration date if the subscription is set up to do so.
- If the subscription is a manual renewal subscription, the shopper will have to manually renew the subscription before the expiration date or their subscription will expire (unless you have set up a grace period for the subscription).
If a subscription has a grace period it can still be renewed after expiration within the grace period.
Shoppers are charged the same price for renewals as they were for the initial purchase, unless a special price list is created for renewal pricing.
Shoppers can receive another product at renewal than the one they were given at their initial purchase (or their last renewal). See Changing Products at Renewal further on in this topic for more information.
If a shopper's credit card has expired upon renewal, an email is sent prompting the shopper to update their credit card information. See Expired Credit Card Emails below for more information.
For automatic renewals, the system will attempt to bill for the subscription up to three times before the system gives up and abandons the renewal. If the dates for any of the renewal attempts are the same (for example, the renewal date and expiration date are the same) only one attempt will be made.
- The first attempt is made on the renewal date. This date will differ from the expiration date if the subscription is set up to bill prior to expiration.
- The second attempt is made on the expiration date. This is the actual date on which the subscription expires.
- The third attempt is made on the grace period end date (if the subscription has a grace period).
Shoppers can renew a subscription multiple times causing the renewals to "stack." Each renewal of a subscription simply adds another term onto the subscription. This means a shopper could potentially renew their subscription several times causing them to have renewals well into the future.
Automatic renewal subscriptions can be manually renewed by shoppers using the self-service features.

Renewal Pricing

When a subscription renews, the shopper will be charged the amount they were charged for the initial subscription unless you create a special renewal price list with pricing for the product. If you want the renewal price to be different than the original subscription price you must create a special price list just for the renewal pricing. This should be done before you set pricing for the subscription. See Subscription Renewal Price Lists for more information about how to create a price list for your subscription pricing.

Renewal Emails

When a subscription is about to renew, the shopper is sent email(s) reminding them that their subscription is about to expire. Reminder emails usually tell the shopper when their subscription is set to expire and the price for the renewal (not including tax and shipping, if applicable). Renewal emails may contain other information about the renewal order as customized for your site.

If the subscription uses manual renewal, the renewal email will instruct the shopper how to renew their subscription. If the subscription uses automatic renewal, the renewal email will tell the shopper when their renewal will take place.

When or how often the shopper is sent a renewal reminder email is determined by the settings defined in the product. We recommend that all your subscription products are set up to send reminder emails to s ensure that a shopper is charged the price listed in the reminder emails.

Once a subscription has renewed, shoppers may be sent another email detailing their renewal order if that email is configured to be sent for your store.

Expired Credit Card Emails

If the credit card that will be used for a renewal is expired, shoppers are sent an email asking them to update their credit card information before their subscription is set to renew. The system uses the expiration date the shopper entered for the card as the basis for determining expiration. When or how often the shopper is sent an expired credit card reminder email is determined by the settings defined in the product. We recommend that all subscriptions use the expired credit card emails but they are especially important with automatic renewal subscriptions because renewals can fail because of outdated credit card information.

Suppressing Digital Rights on Renewal

When a subscription is renewed, you can choose to have the product use the same digital rights as the initial purchase or issue new set of digital rights. When you suppress digital rights on renewal, the same digital rights codes can be used for the renewal and the renewal product will not trigger the system process that is initiated for all products with digital rights enabled.

Changing Products at Renewal

You can control which product a shopper receives when their subscription is renewed. Using the Subscription Transfer Product feature, you can have a different product be used for renewals. This allows you to create subscriptions that provide one product for the initial purchase, and different products for renewals. This feature also allows you to more easily retire old subscription products without interrupting or affecting the subscription service to your customers.

Renewal Order IDs and Subscription IDs

When a subscription renews, a new order ID and subscription ID is created to track activity on that subscription. Using a site setting, you can make all renewal orders use the same subscription ID as the original subscription order, or have create a new subscription ID for every renewal order (which is the default behavior).

Whether you choose to have renewals use the same subscription ID or a new subscription ID will depend on whether you want sales figures for initial subscription purchases and subsequent renewals to be listed together in reporting.

To learn more about the site settings that affect subscriptions, see Setting Subscription Site Settings.

Combining Renewals

You can set up your subscription products so that a shopper with multiple subscriptions can combine their subscriptions (for the purposes of billing, email notifications, and fulfillment) if the subscriptions meet certain criteria and expire within a particular number of days of each other. Once the renewals are combined they are also eligible for bundle offers and tiered pricing on the renewals.

Conditions for Subscriptions to be Combined

The following outlines the conditions that must be met before a subscription will be combined with another subscription:

At least one of the subscriptions the shopper wants to combine has been set up to allow it to be combined with other subscriptions (the setting to enable that is in the product settings).
All orders for the subscriptions to be combined must be from the same user.
All orders for the subscriptions to be combined must use the same payment method.
If the subscriptions are physical products, all orders for the subscriptions to be combined are shipped to the same address and use the same shipping method.
Only subscriptions purchased from the same site can be combined. Subscriptions from different sites owned by the same company cannot be combined.

How Subscriptions are Combined

Subscriptions are combined only if the following conditions are met:

The expiration date is exactly the same for two or more subscriptions; the billing and shipping information is the same; and the "User Autorenew Subscription Combined Renewal" notification is enabled for the site. This is true even if the product is not enabled for combined subscriptions.
The products are enabled to be combined and the expiration date(s) are within the number of days specified on the product setup; the billing and shipping information is the same; and the "User Autorenew Subscription Combined Renewal" notification is enabled for the site.
A shopper visits FindMyOrder.com (or calls Customer Service) and selects to combine one or more subscriptions prior to their expiration date.

As long as the subscriptions meet the criteria listed above the notifications, billing, and shipping for those subscriptions will be combined.

To Use This Feature

If you want to use the combined subscriptions feature on your store, contact your Store Operations team. They can help you determine what changes need to be done on your site to ensure that this feature works as expected.