Renew Subscriptions

The Cleverbridge platform supports different ways to renew subscriptions. The components of the Cleverbridge platform that support renewals, along with renewal-related use cases they support, are identified below.

General Platform Functions

	Auto-Renewal Subscriptions	Manual-Renewal Subscriptions
Online Payment Online payment stands for a group of payment options that do not require the customer to submit the payment in an extra step after submitting the order. With an online payment option, the product is delivered almost immediately (as soon as the payment is processed which usually does only take a few seconds). Method	Automatically bill the customer for every subscription renewal. If a payment is declined, automatically email the customer with a link to a page to update payment details or select another payment method.	If a payment is declined, automatically email the customer with a link to a page to update payment details or select another payment method.
Offline Payment Offline payment stands for a group of payment options. With the order confirmation, the customer receives a link with information on how to make the payment. Ordered products are delivered as soon as Cleverbridge receives a payment confirmation from the payment provider. Method	Automatically email the customer with a payment reminder before every billing date.

Commerce Assistant

Change the status of a customer's subscription to Awaiting Reinstate. For more information, see Set Up Subscription Products.

Subscription API

• Increase the customer's subscription renewal price. For more information, see Capture Customer Consent for a Subscription Renewal Price Increase.
• Change the subscription renewal quantity for a customer. For more information, see Change Subscription Renewal Quantity.
• Customize the subscription renewal price for a customer. For more information, see Customize Subscription Renewal Price.
• Customize a subscription's renewal price and quantity for a customer. For more information, see Customize Subscription Renewal Price and Quantity.
• Apply a tiered or volume-based price change with a quantity change effective with the next renewal. For more information, see Make Renewal Quantity and Quantity-based Price Changes.
• Show the customer a message in the Customer Self-Service portal asking them to renew the subscription now. For more information, see Renew a Manual-Renewal Subscription Ahead of Schedule.

Optional Features

For manual-renewal subscriptions (all payment methods), email the customer with a payment reminder before every billing date, and include a link to renew the subscription and bill the payment method.

Database Settings

• Payment Reminder for Auto-Renewal Subscriptions: This setting controls whether customers who purchased an auto-renewal subscription using an online payment method receive a notification, before the renewal date, that a credit/debit card will be charged. The default is not to send it because the customer consented to recurring billing in the checkout process.
• Deactivate/Reactivate Automatic Billing for a Subscription Product: Auto-renewal is a default setting for subscription products. If you want to set up products with manual renewal (using the status Awaiting Reinstate), you must request this capability. This can only be set at the product level and only applies to interval 0 of the subscription. Once active, the subscription cannot go back to the status Awaiting Reinstate.

  When setting up a product that begins with the status Awaiting Reinstate, you can choose to show or hide the "I Agree" checkbox in the checkout process.

  Implications:

  • Hiding the "I Agree" checkbox means that all subscriptions will be set to manual renewal (Awaiting Reinstate) at the time of the purchase.
  • Displaying the "I Agree" checkbox requires the customer to check it, which sets the customer's subscription to the status Active. This means that it will renew automatically.
  • You can later decide to show the "I Agree" checkbox if it is hidden, or you can hide it if it is shown.
• Set All Subscriptions to the Manual-Renewal Type: This setting assigns a manual renewal type to all subscriptions created with an offline payment method even if the customer confirms automatic renewal during signup. This can be useful if you want to send subscription renewal reminders as part of an email campaign and not through the Cleverbridge platform.

Use Cases for Renewing Subscriptions

Capture Customer Consent for a Subscription Renewal Price Increase

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the status Active.
• The price increase takes place at the time of the next billing interval.
• A second subscription product was set up in the Cleverbridge platform that is identical to the current subscription product, except for a higher price.

  Note

  The second product can be omitted from public-facing product catalogs.

• The billing interval is the same for the current and new subscription product.

Description

1. On December 20th, a subscription is automatically renewed for $15.95 for the new monthly billing interval.
2. On January 1st, the client emails the customer the option to accept or decline an increase in the monthly renewal price.
3. On January 5th, the customer clicks a link in the email that redirects the customer to the client's landing page. This landing page uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to obtain and display the next billing date and other details regarding the subscription. The landing page has check boxes for the following options:
   • Accept price increase
   • Decline price increase
4. The customer clicks the check box to accept the price increase and clicks a button to submit the response. The client's landing page uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to replace the item in the subscription with the identical but higher-priced item.
5. On January 20th, the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer $19.95, reflecting the price increase for which the customer consented.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following options are also available:

• Reduce the price of the Paid subscription by applying a discount coupon that was set up in the Cleverbridge platform. This discount is applied to all future billings of the subscription.

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Change Subscription Renewal Quantity

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the status Active.

Description

1. On August 15th, a customer's CRM subscription is automatically renewed for $100 for the new monthly billing interval. The billing amount is based on two subscription items:
   • Access: $50
   • Users: $50, computed at $5 monthly multiplied by ten users
2. On September 4th, the customer logs into the CRM Management Console and navigates to the Edit Subscription page. This page uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to populate the page with the customer's subscription details, including the current user quantity (10), and the next billing date (September 15th).
3. The customer changes the user quantity to 15 in the entry field provided. The customer must choose between two options before the change can be submitted:
   • Update immediately
   • Update at next billing date (September 15th)
4. The customer selects to update at the next billing date. The Edit Subscription page uses the Update Subscription Item API Endpoint to update the quantity of users in the Cleverbridge platform.
5. On September 15th, the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer $125 for the monthly renewal of the subscription, which reflects $50 for access and $75 for 15 users.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Apply a discount coupon that was set up in the Cleverbridge platform to reduce the price of the Users subscription item A subscription item is component of a subscription with its own set of attributes including price, description and feature set..

Illustration

Customize Subscription Renewal Price

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the status Active.

Description

1. On July 8th, a customer purchases a client’s Enterprise Platform subscription, which requires the customer to specify the number of seats for the subscription. The customer chooses 700 seats during the checkout process, which are priced at $22.95 per seat.
2. On July 18th, the client opens an intranet page that uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to display the customer's current subscription details. The client then contacts the customer to thank them for their purchase and ask for feedback.
3. The customer states that they would like to purchase additional seats within the next 60 days and asks for a discount on the price per seat. The client negotiates a modified price per seat of $19.50 to apply to the existing 700 seats at the time of renewal and also to any additional seats that are purchased in the future.
4. The client then changes the per-seat price for the customer’s subscription on the intranet page that uses the Update Subscription Item Price API endpoint to update the newly negotiated price.
5. On August 8th, the customer’s subscription automatically renews, and the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer based upon the number of seats in the subscription and the revised price.

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Customize Subscription Renewal Price and Quantity

Assumptions and Preconditions

The subscription has the status Active.

Description

1. On April 8th, a customer receives a reminder to manually renew their annual subscription by the June 1st renewal date. They contact the client’s account manager, state that they might be interested in increasing the number of subscription licenses from 100 to 300, and ask for “the best price possible” if they do so.
2. The client’s account manager accesses an intranet application that uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to retrieve details for the customer’s subscription.
3. The client offers to reduce the customer’s per-license price from 29.95€ to 24.95€ at the time of renewal, contingent upon the customer renewing the subscription with a quantity of 300 licenses.
4. The customer consents to the proposed changes. The account manager accesses an internal application that uses the Update Subscription Item Price API endpoint to change the price per license and the quantity of licenses, effective with the next billing date.
5. On June 1st, the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer for the annual renewal at the new subscription per-license price and quantity.

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Make Renewal Quantity and Quantity-based Price Changes

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the status Active.

Description

1. On April 1st, a customer clicks through an email reminder to manually renew their annual anti-virus subscription by the June 1st renewal date. The email redirects the customer to a landing page that explains how the per-desktop license annual renewal price varies depending upon the quantity of desktop license renewals:

   Total Desktop Licenses	Per-License Renewal Price
   Less than 100	30€
   100 – 499	25€
   500 – 999	20€
   1,000 – 4,999	15€
   5,000 or more	10€

2. For the previous billing interval, the customer was billed 19,200€ (1,280 desktop licenses at 15€ each). The customer decides to renew only 800 licenses, enters this quantity in the field provided for this purpose, and then clicks the “Calculate Renewal Price” button on the page.
3. The page displays the price that applies to 800 desktop license renewals, and then displays the following to the customer:

   Renewal price for 800 desktop licenses at 20€ each: 16,000€

4. After reviewing the renewal price and quantity, the customer confirms that they want to proceed. The page uses the Update Subscription Item Price API endpoint to update the desktop license quantity and price for the customer’s subscription in the Cleverbridge platform.
5. On June 1st, the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer 16,000€ for the next monthly billing interval.
6. After reviewing the renewal price and quantity, the customer confirms that they want to proceed. The page uses the Update Subscription Item Price API endpoint to update the desktop license quantity and price for the customer’s subscription in the Cleverbridge platform.
7. On June 1st, the Cleverbridge platform automatically bills the customer 16,000€ for the next monthly billing interval.

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Renew a Manual-Renewal Subscription Ahead of Schedule

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the Manual renewal type, which requires the customer to initiate the renewal at the end of the billing interval.
• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment Alignment is the act of consolidating the billing for two separate subscriptions into a single recurring billing event. of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On May 15th, 2016, a customer purchases a client's anti-virus subscription for $80 annually but does not confirm automatic renewal. Instead, the customer decides to manually renew the subscription at the end of the billing interval.
2. On March 15th, 2017, the customer sees a message in the client's Customer Self-Service area asking them to renew their subscription now because it will soon expire. The message redirects the customer to a page that uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to obtain and display the price, new expiration date (May 15th, 2018), and other details regarding the subscription.
3. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking a Buy Now button on the page. The page uses the Renew Subscription API endpoint to renew the customer's anti-virus subscription immediately.
4. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the full $80 price for the next billing interval, which starts immediately. The remaining two months from the current billing interval are added to the next billing interval, moving the next billing date to May 15th, 2018.
5. The customer sees a confirmation page The confirmation page is displayed after a customer makes a purchase. The confirmation page contains the order confirmation and delivery information., which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription, for example, from monthly to yearly or from basic to premium. For more information, see Combine an Immediate Upgrade with an Early Renewal (Monthly to Yearly) and Combine an Immediate Upgrade with an Early Renewal (Basic to Premium).

Renew an Auto-Renewal Subscription Ahead of Schedule

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The subscription has the Automatic renewal type, which does not require the customer to initiate the renewal at the end of the billing interval.
• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On February 15th, 2018, the IT department at Net Corp signs up for a subscription to anti-virus software. They receive 100 seats for $5,000 annually. The subscription renews automatically on February 15th of each year.
2. On December 22nd, 2018, the director is informed that he has excess budget in the IT department which must be spent before December 31st. To spend his excess budget, the director decides to renew Net Corp's anti-virus subscription early.
3. The director logs onto his Customer Self-Service and clicks on the Renew Now button. The Renew Now button redirects the customer to a review page The review page contains summary information about the purchase a customer is about to make. that uses the Renew Subscription API endpoint to obtain and display the price, new expiration date (February 15th, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
4. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking a Buy Now button on the review page. The page uses the Subscription API to renew the customer's anti-virus subscription immediately.

5. The Cleverbridge platform immediately bills the customer the price for the next billing interval ($5,000). The next billing interval starts on February 15th, 2019.

   Note

   The remaining days of the current billing interval (December 22nd, 2018 - February 15th, 2019) were paid for when the customer completed the initial payment on February 15th, 2018.

6. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription, for example, from monthly to yearly or from basic to premium. For more information, see Combine an Immediate Upgrade with an Early Renewal (Monthly to Yearly) and Combine an Immediate Upgrade with an Early Renewal (Basic to Premium).

Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Full Price

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On January 1st, 2020, a customer signs up for a client's proxy service for $80 monthly. The plan has a data limit of 5GB for the month.
2. On January 15th, 2020, the customer used up the 5GB data limit and receives an email from the client. The client tells the customer that they can regain access to the service by renewing immediately. The message redirects the customer to a page that uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to obtain and display the full price of the subscription, current expiration date (February 1st, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
3. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking a Renew Now button on the page. The page uses the Renew Subscription API endpoint to renew the customer's subscription immediately.
4. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the full $80 price for the next billing interval, which starts immediately and ends on February 15th, 2020.
5. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Renew early at a discounted price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Custom Price.
• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a custom-price upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Custom-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a downgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine a Downgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.

Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Custom Price

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On January 1st, 2020, a customer signs up for a client's proxy service for $80 monthly. The plan has a data limit of 5GB for the month.
2. On January 15th, 2020, the customer used up the 5GB data limit and receives an email from the client. The client tells the customer that they can regain access to the service by renewing immediately at a discounted price of $75. The message redirects the customer to a page that uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to obtain and display the price, new expiration date (February 15th, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
3. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking a Renew Now button on the page. The page uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to renew the customer's subscription immediately at the discounted price.
4. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the discounted $75 price for the next billing interval, which starts immediately and ends on February 15th, 2020.
5. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Renew early at full price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Full Price.
• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a custom-price upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Custom-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a downgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine a Downgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.

Combine an Upgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On January 1st, 2020, a customer signs up for a client's proxy service for $80 monthly. The plan has a data limit of 5GB for the month. Another subscription would have been available for $220 and with a data limit of 20GB, but the customer is not ready to make that commitment.
2. On January 15th, 2020, the customer used up the 5GB data limit and receives an email from the client. The client tells the customer that they can regain access to the service by renewing immediately and upgrading to the 20GB package. The message redirects the customer to a page that uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to obtain and display the full price of the upgrade, new expiration date (February 15th, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
3. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking an Upgrade Now button on the page. The page uses the Update Subscription API endpoint to upgrade and renew the customer's subscription immediately.
4. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the full price of $220 for the next billing interval, which starts immediately and ends on February 15th, 2020.
5. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Renew early at full price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Full Price.
• Renew early at a discounted price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Custom Price.
• Combine the early renewal with a custom-price upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Custom-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a downgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine a Downgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.

Combine an Upgrade with an Early Custom-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Align Subscriptions.

Description

1. On January 1st, 2020, a customer signs up for a client's proxy service for $80 monthly. The plan has a data limit of 5GB for the month. Another subscription would have been available for $220 and with a data limit of 20GB, but the customer is not ready to make that commitment.
2. On January 15th, 2020, the customer used up the 5GB data limit and receives an email from the client. The client tells the customer that they can regain access to the service by renewing immediately and upgrading to the 20GB package at a discounted price of $210. The message redirects the customer to a page that uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to obtain and display the discounted price of the upgrade, new expiration date (February 15th, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
3. After reviewing this information, the customer confirms this purchase by clicking an Upgrade Now button on the page. The page uses the Update Subscription API endpoint to upgrade and renew the customer's subscription immediately.
4. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the discounted price of $215 for the next billing interval, which starts immediately and ends on February 15th, 2020.
5. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Renew early at full price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Full Price.
• Renew early at a discounted price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Custom Price.
• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a downgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine a Downgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.

Combine a Downgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription

Assumptions and Preconditions

• The current billing interval has started and the next billing date has not been reached yet.
• The renewal is not combined with an alignment of the subscription. For more information, see Subscription API Guide.

Description

1. On January 1st, 2020, a customer signs up for a client's proxy service for $220 monthly due to an important project. The plan has a data limit of 20GB per month. Another subscription would have been available for $80 and with a data limit of 5GB, but this was not enough for the customer at the time.
2. On January 15th, 2020, the customer used up the 20GB data limit and receives an email from the client. The client tells the customer that they can regain access to the service by renewing immediately via the client's My Account portal.
3. After logging into the My Account, the customer decides that they no longer need 20GB because the project is nearly complete. However, the customer decides to switch to the 5GB plan to keep access to the service. When they click the Change Plan button, the website uses the Update Subscription Item API endpoint to obtain and display the price of the downgrade, new expiration date (February 15th, 2020), and other details regarding the subscription.
4. The customer confirms this purchase by clicking a Renew Now button on the page. The page uses the Update Subscription API endpoint to downgrade and renew the customer's subscription immediately.
5. The Cleverbridge platform bills the customer the renewal price of $80 for the next billing interval, which starts immediately and ends on February 15th, 2020.
6. The customer sees a confirmation page, which is either created by the client or provided by the Subscription API. If the transaction is not successful, the page provided by the API will inform the customer about the next steps, such as updating the payment details in case of a failed payment.

Options

Although not utilized in this use case, the following option is also available:

• Renew early at full price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Full Price.
• Renew early at a discounted price. For more information, see Renew a Data-Limited Subscription Early at Custom Price.
• Combine the early renewal with an upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Full-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.
• Combine the early renewal with a custom-price upgrade of the subscription. For more information, see Combine an Upgrade with an Early Custom-Price Renewal of a Data-Limited Subscription.

Turn Off Automatic Renewal

Assumptions and Preconditions

The subscription has the status Active.

Description

A client offers a subscription product, Extreme Sports Training Portal, that includes real-time tracking of customer fitness training activities using the customer's smartwatch.

1. On June 2nd, a customer of the product gets injured and must withdraw from sporting activities for three months. Intending to cancel the subscription, the customer logs into the portal and clicks a link to access the subscription information. The portal uses the Get Subscription API endpoint to retrieve the subscription details from the Cleverbridge platform.
2. The portal offers the customer the option to turn off automatic renewal of the subscription, which does the following:
   • Prevents the customer's fitness tracking data from being deleted
   • Changes the status of the customer's subscription to Deactivated
   • Changes the renewal type of the subscription from Automatic to Manual
   • Stops billing until automatic renewal is reactivated
3. The customer clicks the button to turn off automatic renewal of the subscription. This triggers the portal to use the Deactivate Subscription Items API endpointUpdate Subscription Renewal Type API endpoint to update the subscription in the Cleverbridge platform, deactivating itchanging its renewal type to Manual.

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