Maropost for Commerce supports subscription-based products and products that can be optionally paid on installment.
You can create different Subscription Plans for different payment options, and even offer different subscription plans for the same product. When a product has more than one subscription plan, each plan will appear in the shopping cart, giving your customers the option to choose.
Subscription Plans define the number of billing cycles within a subscription (or installment) period, the time between each billing cycle, whether you want to offer a discount, and whether you want to offer a free trial period.
General Rules
Payment is always captured at time of purchase, and will rebill on the same date as the original purchase date. If your subscription plan includes a free trial period, then the first payment is captured on the date after the expiration of the free trial with subsequent rebills falling on the same date.
If a subscription is purchased on a date at the end of a month (e.g. January 31) and the following rebill date does not exist (e.g. February 31), then the rebill date for that month will be automatically adjusted to the last day of the month (i.e. Februrary 28 or 29 of a leap year).
The product price is the monthly charged amount that is used to calculate the actual charge to the customer's credit card each billing cycle. For example, a one-year subscription billed monthly for a product price of $100 will result in $100 charged to the customer's credit card each month. A one-year subscription billed annually for the same product will result in $1200 charged to the customer's credit card each year.
Create a Subscription Plan
Mouse over your user name in the top right corner of the main navigation bar. Then, select Settings from the Settings menu. Select Plans on the left hand nav bar. Click the [+Subscription Plan] button on the top right corner of the page.
- Name -- the name of the payment plan as it will appear within Product forms and other screens.
- Duration Unit -- the unit of measure of the billing period.
- Duration Terms -- how long the billing period lasts before the next rebill.
- Payments -- the number of rebills for the duration of the subscription. For example, a one-year subscription paid in a single up-front payment would have Duration Unit = Monthly, Duration Terms = 12, and Payments = 1. One the other hand, a one-year subscription that is rebilled every month would have Duration Unit = Monthly, Duration Terms = 1, and Payments = 12.
- The special value of '0' indicates that the subscription is on-going. For example, a month-to-month on-going subscription would have Duration Unit = Monthly, Duration Terms = 1, and Payments = 0.
- Attempts -- the number of attempts to retry charging a customer's credit card if the initial attempt fails. If the charge attempt fails, then Maropost for Commerce will wait one day and retry. It will continue to retry the specified number of times until either the charge is successful or the payment attempt still fails.
- Plan Active -- only active payment plans will appear in the shopping cart for the customer to choose from.
- Description (optional) -- enter a more descriptive explanation of the subscription plan.
- Discount Percentage (optional)-- Use this option if you want to offer an up-front discount trial period.
- Discount Term (optional) -- enter how many Duration Terms you want the discount to last. For example, you can offer your customers a 10% discount off the total price-per-month of a one-year subscription if they pay the full amount up front. In this case, the subscription plan would have Duration Unit = Monthly, Duration Terms = 12, Payments = 1, Discount Percentage = 12, and Discount Terms = 12.
- Free Trial Days (optional) -- enter the number of days you want to extend a free trial to your customers. The billing date will immediately commence the day following the expiration of the free trial period.
