Selling Renewals

Overview

You can sell products that have unlimited or limited validity periods (terms).

If a product has an unlimited validity period (term), the customer can use the product for as long as they want after purchasing it.
If a product has a limited validity period (term), the customer can use the product for a particular time only. To continue using the product, the customer must purchase a renewal.

You can use several scenarios to sell renewals for products having limited validity periods (terms).

Options for Selling Renewals

The options differ in the actions that has to be executed before the validity period (term) of a purchased product expires:

Auto-renewable subscription (AR) - A renewal order is created automatically and payment execution is initiated.
Pre-filled Manual Renewal (PMR) - A renewal order is created automatically, the customer receives an email containing an offer to pay for the renewal order. The customer has to execute payment manually.
Renewal Offer Email - The customer receives an email containing a checkout link that allows them to purchase a renewal. When clicking on the link, the customer adds the renewal to the shopping cart on the checkout page. The customer has to execute order checkout and order payment manually.

Compare:

	AR	PMR	Email
Renewal Setup	Use Merchant Portal or Products API	Use Products API
Free Trial Period	Available	Not available
Extra Conditions	Customer explicit consent to auto-renewal is required (if a product does not have a trial period)	No customer action is required
Payment	Payment method must support automatic payments	Payment method must be supported by PMR subscriptions (contact support to set up)	No restrictions
Renewal Order Creation	Automatic		Manual (by customers)
Renewal Order Payment	Automatic	Manual (by customers)
Subscription Data Receipt via API	Available to you via Webhooks, Orders API, Subscriptions API	Available to you via Webhooks, Orders API, Subscriptions API	Not available*
Subscription Data Display	Available to customers on subscription initiator order page	Not available	Not available*
Subscription Management	Available to customers on subscription initiator order page. Available to you via Subscriptions API	Not available	Not available*
Subscription Cancellation	Available	Customers are allowed not to pay for renewal orders. Thus, no new orders are created. Renewal can be cancelled upon request to support	Customers can unsubscribe from receiving emails concerning orders. No reminder is sent after that
Subscription Resumption after Cancellation	Available	Not available	Not available*

* - Renewal Offer Email is not a subscription object.

Using All Options for Processing Renewals

One or several options to process renewals can be configured for the product.
If several options are configured, then the first one that meets the conditions will work. Checking sequence: AR > PMR > Email.

For example:

All three of the renewal processing options are configured for the product.
The customer is offered an AR subscription in the cart on the checkout page.
If the customer does not agree to it, then an attempt to enable a PMR will be made.
If the PMR renewal is not available (e.g., not configured for the selected payment method), then an attempt to enable an email notification will be made.