Subscription Management: Customer Perspective

After purchasing a subscription product on your store, your customers will be able to make adjustments to their subscriptions in the Customer Portal. The adjustments they have access to will depend on the settings you have enabled. The Customer Portal can be accessed by your customers by logging into their account page on your store and selecting My Subscriptions. Customers will need to log in to your store with the same email they used to purchase the subscription.

 Pro-Tip

The Customer Portal lives inside the BigCommerce customer account page. If your customer needs to reset their account password, they will need to do this from your storefront account page. For more information, please visit this BigCommerce article.

This article will detail all of the changes that a customer can make to their active subscriptions, as well as outline the steps that can be followed by a customer to make those changes.

 


 

Allowing customers to change their next order date decreases the churn rate of cancelled subscriptions on your store. Once this setting is enabled, your subscribers will be able to sign in to the Customer Portal and choose a date for their next order.

Your customers 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 checks for recurring orders every hour starting at midnight.

 


 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

To allow subscribers to change the next order date in the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Settings.
  2. Select Customer portal.
  3. Select the toggle beside Customers can change their next order date.

    Toggle on Customers can change their next order date

Once this setting has been enabled, customers will be able to change their order renewal date for the next upcoming order or for all future recurring orders.

 


 

Change Upcoming Order Date in the Customer Portal

For subscribers to change the next order date in the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From the storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription. 
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Under Active subscriptions, select Edit future orders under the product that you would like to adjust the order date for.

    Edit future orders text link

  4. Select the order text and choose a desired order date.
  5. Select Only update next order date or Update all future orders based on selected date.

    Note: The feature for pausing future orders will be present if enabled in the Bold Subscriptions app settings. To enable this feature, please navigate to Settings > Customer portal within the app.

  6. Select Save Changes.

Active subscribers may need to change the frequency of their recurring orders. For example, your customer may wish to switch from weekly, to every two weeks in order to receive less of a product. Alternatively, they may wish to increase the frequency in order to receive the product more often.

When subscribers are adjusting their order frequencies, they can only select from the frequency options that you have made available in the product's 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.

 


 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

To allow your customers to change the next order date within the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Settings.
  2. Select Customer portal.
  3. Select the toggle beside Customer can change their order frequency.

    Select toggle beside Customer can change their order frequency

 


 

Change Order Frequency in the Customer Portal

To adjust the order frequency of an existing subscription via the Customer Portal, please follow these steps: 

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Under Order frequency, select Change frequency.

    Change frequency link

  4. Select the dropdown and change the frequency to the desired frequency option.
  5. Select Save.

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

Within Bold Subscriptions, you can enable the feature that allows subscribers to pause and resume their recurring orders. Enabling this setting will give your subscribers the ability to put their subscriptions on hold whenever they need to, for as long as they need.

During this time, they will not be billed or receive any orders that have not already been sent.

Enabling this feature is a great way to reduce churn for subscription orders. This is because it gives your customers the flexibility to pause their subscriptions at their leisure, instead of cancelling completely.

 


 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

To enable the pause/resume feature for customers, please follow these steps:

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Settings.
  2. Select Customer portal.
  3. Select the toggle next to Customers can pause and resume their subscriptions.

    Toggle for Customers can pause and resume their subscriptions

After this setting has been enabled, customers will be able to pause an active subscription within the Customer Portal.

 


 

Pause or Resume a Subscription in the Customer Portal

To pause or resume an existing subscription within the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription that you would like to pause.
  4. Select Manage upcoming orders.
  5. Select Pause Future Orders.

    Pause Future Order link

If a customer would like to resume a subscription, this can be done by selecting Resume future orders near the top of the subscription details: 

Resume future orders link

Customers can adjust the quantity for a product on a subscription within the Customer Portal. This allows existing subscribers to easy increase or decrease the amount of products they are receiving, without the need to make another purchase on a separate order.

 


 

Setup

For customers to update the product quantity within an existing subscription, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to increase or decrease the quantity for a product.
  4. Select Edit next to Products in my subscription.

    Edit Products in my subscriptions link

  5. Adjust the quantity to the desired amount for each product that is in the existing subscription.
  6. Select Save.

If a customer needs to cancel their existing subscription, they can complete this within the Customer Portal on your store. 

Some common reasons a customer may look at cancelling their subscription on your store are as follows:

  • The product is too expensive.
  • Unhappy with the product.
  • Receiving too much of the product.
  • Rather order one-time purchases of the product rather than a recurring order.
  • Address change.

 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

To allow your customers to have the option to cancel their orders within the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From the Bold Subscription admin, select Settings.
  2. Select Customer portal.
  3. Select the toggle beside Customers can cancel their subscriptions.

    Toggle for Customers can cance their subscriptions

Once this setting has been enabled, customers will be able to cancel their subscriptions in the Customer Portal.

 


 

Change an Existing Subscription in the Customer Portal

To cancel an existing subscription within the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription that needs to be cancelled.
  4. Select Cancel Subscription three times.
  5. Choose a cancellation reason.

    Note: Cancellation reasons will only appear if a Cancellation Flow has been created in Bold Subscriptions. Please visit Cancellation Management in Settings in Bold Subscriptions for steps on setting up a cancellation flow.

    Cancellation reasons

  6. Select Confirm.

If a customer needs to reactivate a subscription, this can be done in the Customer Portal 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 Subscroptions button

Reactivate Subscription button

Existing subscribers have full access to changing their account information within the Customer Portal. This includes updating their email address, first name, last name and phone number:

Account info fields

Updating information within the Customer Portal will also make the changes within their customer account in BigCommerce.

Note: If a customer changes the email address on the Customer Portal, the user must use the new email address to log into the account going forward on your storefront.  

 


 

Setup

To change their account information, please have your customer follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to an account that has an active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Near the top of the page under My account info, make the necessary adjustments.
  4. Select Save Changes.

If a customer's payment method or billing address needs to be updated, they can complete this change through the Customer Portal.

It is important that customers know that they have the ability to update their payment details for their existing subscriptions as their subscription could become cancelled depending on your Failed Transaction limit. For more information, please visit Dunning Management at Settings in Bold Subscriptions.

 


 

Setup

To update their payment method or billing address, please have your customer follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to update the payment method or billing address for.
  4. Select Payment information.
  5. Select Change Payment Information.
  6. Check the email that is registered to the subscription account.

    Note: If you are having issues receiving the email, please check your spam and junk folders.

  7. Open the email titled Edit your payment details and select Edit payment details button within the email.

    Edit payment details button

  8. Select Change.

    Change button

  9. Enter the new payment credentials.
  10. Under Billing address, update the billing address that matches your new credentials.
  11. Select Update card.

Once the payment credentials have been saved, the new credentials will be used on the next upcoming recurring order interval. 

Customers are able to adjust their shipping address directly within the Customer Portal of the store. If the correct information is not updated, there is a strong possibility that the future recurring orders will automatically fail due to a payment error with the payment method being used.

 


 

Setup

For customers to update the shipping address of an existing subscription, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription you would like to update the shipping address for.
  4. Select Edit next to Address and shipping information.

    Edit link next to Address and shipping information

  5. Select an existing address or enter a new address.
  6. Select Save Changes.

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

If a customer would like to subscribe to a different product within their subscription, Bold Subscriptions offers the ability for customers to swap their current product with a new one. This allows them to avoid cancelling and resubscribing, and all can be done easily within the Customer Portal.

Customers will be able to swap between products that have been chosen in the subscription group that the existing product they are subscribed to resides in.

 


 

Setup

To swap a product within an existing subscription, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription that contains a product you want to swap with another product.
  4. Select Products in my subscription.
  5. Select Swap product next to the product you want to swap with.

    Swap button

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

    Select product button

  7. Select OK.

All future orders will generate with the new product after the swap has been completed. Customers can continue to swap products on each order by following these steps between each recurring order date.

Customers are able to skip an upcoming order within their subscription, and resume the order on a later date.

Some possible reasons a customer may want to skip an upcoming order are:

  • Insufficient funds in the payment method on file.
  • They are moving.
  • They just need some extra time between orders.

 


 

Setup

To skip an order within the Customer Portal, please follow these steps:

  1. From your storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription. 
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Select Show details under the subscription that you would like to skip a future order for.
  4. Select Manage upcoming orders.
  5. Select Skip shipment beside the upcoming order that you would like to skip.

    Skip shipment text link

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

 Alert

This feature is only available to customers who are using the same currency as your store’s base currency.

When this feature is enabled, your customers can add a product to one of their active subscriptions from within the Customer Portal. The options available are as follows:

  • 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 a subscription product is added to the existing subscription, the new subscription product will share the same order frequency of the existing subscription. In addition, the added product will take the discount of the subscription group it belongs to. If it belongs to more than one subscription group, the discount from the last group it was added to will apply.

A new shipping rate will be calculated at the time the new product is added.

 


 

Enable Setting in Bold Subscriptions

To allow your customers to add a new product to their existing subscription, please follow the steps below.

  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 an existing subscription, your customer can follow the steps below.

  1. On the storefront, log in to the account that has the active subscription.
  2. Select My Subscriptions.
  3. Within the active subscription overview, select Add Products.

    Add Products

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

    Add

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