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Subscription Management: Merchant Perspective

Laurel
Laurel
  • Updated

Bold Subscriptions allows you access to a full suite of management tools to help you maintain your subscribers and their subscription details.

From the Customers tab within the admin of Bold Subscriptions, you are able to:

  • View your customer's subscribed products from both the past and present.
  • Swap your customer's products.
  • View and edit customer information and shipping details.
  • View and edit your customer's next order dates.
  • Cancel, pause or resume subscriptions.
  • Edit upcoming orders.
  • Log into the Customer Portal as the customer.

This article will guide you through all the changes that can be made on behalf of your customers.

 Pro-Tip

If your store also uses Bold Multi-Currency, then purchases will appear in the currency that they were purchased in.

 


 

From this area, you are able to change which saved card is used for your customers. You can also edit the existing card or add a new card.

 Caution

This will have to be updated within Bold Checkout prior to being able to choose the new card in Bold Subscriptions.

 


 

Change Payment Information 

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details.
  7. Under Payment information, select Edit.
  8. Next to the current payment method, select Edit.
  9. Select Change payment method.
  10. Under Select new payment method, select Credit Card.
  11. Enter the new payment information.
  12. Select Save changes

Allowing customers to change their next order date decreases the churn rate of cancelled subscriptions on your store. You can change the next order date on behalf of your customers if you've disabled these permissions for the customer, or the customer is having difficulty making this change themselves.

You will have two options when changing the upcoming order date:

  1. Only update next order date: This option will only update the next order date in the cycle and skip the previously scheduled next order date. For example, if a subscription generates monthly on the 15th, and the next order date is changed from September 15th to September 10th, the next order will generate on September 10th and then will be skipped on September 15th. All future orders will remain set to recur on the 15th.
  2. Update all future orders based on the selected date: This option will will change the next order date as well as the future order dates. For example, if a subscription generates monthly on the 15th, and the next order date is changed to the 10th, the next order will generate on the 10th as will all future recurring orders. 
 Alert

Orders changed to today's date can take up to 60 minutes to process as Bold Subscriptions runs batches for recurring orders every hour starting at midnight.

 


 

Setup

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Edit beside the Next Order date.

    Select Edit next to Order date

  7. Select a desired order date for the next order.
  8. Select Only update next order date or Update all future orders based on selected date.
  9. Select Save Changes.

Active subscribers may want you to change the order frequency for their active subscription. For example, they may want to change the frequency from once every week, to once every two weeks, or vice versa.

When changing your customers frequency option, you will only be able to choose from the frequency options that are available in that product's current subscription group.

It's important to note that changing the order frequency will not update the next order date. Frequency changes will come into affect once the next order has passed.

 


 

Change Order Frequency

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Under Order frequency, select Edit.

    Edit under Order frequency

  7. Select the dropdown and change the frequency to the desired frequency option.
  8. Select Save.

Once the order frequency has been updated, check to make sure that the upcoming order dates are correct and match the new frequency selected.

Within Bold Subscriptions, you can pause and resume a customer's recurring orders on their behalf.

When paused, the customer will not be billed or receive any orders that have not already been fulfilled.

Pausing subscriptions on your customer's behalf is a great way to reduce churn for your store's subscription orders. Providing your customer the ability to pause their subscription gives your customers flexibility instead of only allowing them to cancel.

 


 

Pause or Resume a Subscription

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Under Active customer subscriptions, select Edit beside the Next Order date.
    Select Edit beside Next Order date
  7. Select Manage upcoming orders.
  8. Select Pause future orders.

    Pause future orders

  9. Select Save changes.

Resuming the subscription can be done by selecting Resume future orders near the top of the subscription details. 

 

You can adjust the quantity of your customer's subscription products within Bold Subscriptions.

This allows you to increase or decrease the amount of products your customers are receiving without requiring the customer to cancel and make another purchase.

 


 

Change Product Quantity

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
  7. Select Edit next to Products in your subscription.

    Select Edit next to Products in your subscription

  8. Adjust the quantity to the desired amount for each product that is in the existing subscription.
  9. Select Save changes.

If a customer needs to cancel their subscription, you can do this on their behalf from within Bold Subscriptions.

 


 

Cancel an Existing Subscription

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to cancel.
  7. Select Select Cancel subscription to expand the menu.
  8. Select Cancel subscription, and Yes, cancel subscription.
    Select Cancel subscription

When a customer requests to reactivate their subscription, this can be done in the app by selecting View Inactive Subscriptions at the bottom of the page, then selecting Reactivate Subscription > Yes, Reactivate Subscription under the subscription that you would like to reactivate.

View_Inactive_Subscriptions.png

Select_Yes__reactivate_subscription.png

You have full access to change your customer's account information within the app. This includes updating their email address, first name, last name and phone number:

Customer information

Updating information from within the app will also make changes within their BigCommerce account profile as well.

 Caution

If the customer's email address changes, the customer must use the new email to log into their account moving forward.

 


 

Setup

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Near the top of right side of the page under Customer info, select Edit Customer Info and make the necessary adjustments.
  7. Select Save Changes.

You are able to adjust your customer's shipping address directly within Bold Subscriptions.

If the shipping information is not updated, there is a strong possibility that future recurring orders will fail due to a payment error with the payment method being used.

 


 

Update Shipping Information

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
  7. Select Edit next to Address and shipping information.

    Select Edit next to Address and shipping information

  8. Select an existing address or enter a new address.
  9. Select Save Changes.

Once the shipping details have been updated, all future recurring orders will automatically reflect this new information when processed.

If a customer would like to subscribe to a different subscription product, Bold Subscriptions allows you to swap out their current product with a new one on their behalf.

This allows you to avoid requiring that a customer cancel and resubscribe, which also reduces your churn rate.

 Caution

It is important to note that you will only be able to swap between products that already exist within the same subscription group that the current subscription product is in. If the product is not inside of the existing subscription group, please see Change a Product's Subscription Group below. 

 


 

Setup

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
  7. Select Products in your subscription.
  8. Select Swap product next to the product you want to swap with.

    Select Swap product

  9. Click Select product next to a product you would like to swap the original product with.

    Click Select product

  10. Select Swap products.

All future orders will generate with the new product after the swap has been completed.

You are able to skip an upcoming order for your customer as well as resume their order(s) at a later date.

Common reasons for skipping an upcoming order may be that there are insufficient funds within the on-file payment method, your customer(s) are moving addresses, or the customer just needed some extra time between orders.

 


 

Skip an Order

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
  7. Select Manage upcoming orders.
  8. Select Skip shipment beside the upcoming order that you would like to skip.

    Select Skip shipment

If a skipped subscription order needs to be reversed, you can follow steps 1-6 and select Recover shipment to reverse the change.

If a customer would like to add a product to their existing subscription order, either as a one-time purchase or recurring order, you can add that product to the customer's subscription on their behalf.

When adding a product to an existing subscription order, there are two options:

  • Add to this subscription. This will add the product as a recurring order along with the existing subscription.
  • Add to next order only. This will add the product to the next subscription order as a one-time purchase only. It will not recur.

The options available to your customers depend on the options you’ve made available for the product on your storefront. These are as follows:

  • If the product is available as a subscription only, your customer will only see the option to Add to this subscription.
  • If the product is available as a one-time purchase only, your customer will see the option to Add to next order only.
  • If the product is available for subscription as well as one-time purchase, your customers will see both options, Add to this subscription, and Add to next order only.

If an existing subscription product is added to a subscription, it will receive the discount associated with the group it is in. If the group does not have a discount then a discount will not be applied. If the added product is in more than one subscription group, it will inherit the discount from the group it was most recently added to.

Full access to this feature requires you to use the Log in as Customer feature. This means you will also need to enable the setting within the customer portal. Please follow the steps below.

 Alert

This feature is not available for customers who have purchased their subscription in a currency that is different from your store's base currency.

Discounts on added products will not be visible from within the admin or Customer Portal, however, they will be applied to the product’s price. For example, a product with a price of $10.00 and a 10% discount applied will appear as $9.00.

 


 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Settings.
  2. Select Customer portal.
  3. Enable the toggle next to Customer can add products to their existing subscriptions.

    Customer can add products to their existing subscription

 


 

Add a Product to an Existing Subscription

To add a product to a customer's existing subscription, follow the steps below.

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
  2. Search for the customer by name or email.
  3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Log in to Customer Portal.

    Note: This is the recommended route. You can also select Manage subscriptions if you want to add a recurring subscription product, however, the option to add a product to the next order only will not be available.

  4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to add the product to.
  5. Within the active subscription overview, select Add Products.

    Add Products

  6. Select the desired product.
  7. If applicable, select the size and quantity.
  8. Select an available option.

    Add

You are only able to swap between products that already exist within the same subscription group that the current subscription product is in.

If the product is not inside of the existing subscription group, you can change the product's subscription group in order to swap between the products in that group.

 


 

Change a Product's Subscription Group

  1. From the BigCommerce admin, select Apps.
  2. Select Bold Subscriptions.
  3. Select Customers.
  4. Search for the customer by name or email.
  5. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
  6. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
  7. Select Edit next to Products in your subscription.
    Select Edit beside Products
  8. Select Edit next to the existing subscription group.
    Select Edit beside the existing subscription_group
  9. Select the subscription group that you would like to move the product to.
  10. Select Confirm.
  11. Select Save Changes.

 

Bold Subscriptions now gives you the ability to log into and view the Customer Portal as one of your customers would. This will enable you to provide hands-on support when troubleshooting any issues reported by your customers, as well as implement changes on your customer's behalf.

When logging in as the customer, you will be subject to any permissions or restrictions you have placed in the Customer Portal settings, just as your customer would be. For example, if you have disabled swapping, you will not be able to swap when logged in as the customer.

In general, it's best to edit as the administrator using one of the methods above unless otherwise recommended. Logging into the customer portal as the customer is best for testing and troubleshooting for your customer.

 Caution

The ability to log in to the Customer Portal as the customer will not work if the setting Restrict to Customer Only is selected when building the Customer Portal page. Please ensure this setting is not selected if you wish to use this feature. For more information please visit Customer Portal Setup.

 


 

Setup

  1. From the app admin go to Settings, then Customer portal.
  2. Under Login as customer link, enter the URL to your customer portal.

    Note: This address depends on if you have customized your customer portal. If you are using the standard setup, the URL will be my-subscriptions.

    Customer Portal link
  3. Select Save.
  4. Select Customers.
  5. Search for the customer by name or email.
  6. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Log in to customer portal.
    Log into customer portal

 

Once logged in as the customer, a blue banner will appear at the top of the customer portal page to let you know that you are logged in as the customer. Any changes made to a subscription here will be logged as completed by the store admin in the customer activity log.

View from the customer portal