How do prepaid subscriptions work?
Prepaid subscriptions allow customers to prepay for a specific number of orders. After the initial payment, they'll receive the remaining orders at no additional cost. Once all prepaid orders are fulfilled, the subscription will either renew automatically or expire.
Prepaid subscriptions are popular for gifting, enabling your customers to introduce their friends to your brand for a set number of orders.
To learn more about getting started with prepaid subscriptions, please see our article on setting up prepaid selling plans.
How is pricing for prepaid subscriptions determined?
Stay AI uses the Shopify Subscription APIs to automatically determine the correct pricing associated with prepaid subscription purchases.
The price of the item minus the selling plan discount is multiplied by the number of orders to determine the final price.
In the example below, the Prepaid Standard Product has a price of $10, a selling plan discount of 10% ($10 x 10% = $1), and the prepaid selling is set up for three shipments.
($10 full price - $1 selling plan discount) x 3 shipments = $27 total for each checkout and renewal.
Here is an example of how a prepaid subscription looks at checkout.
This is a prepaid subscription checkout order in the Shopify admin. Since Stay AI uses the Shopify Prepaid Subscription API, there will be scheduled orders. We’ve set these scheduled orders to the year 4999 to prevent updates that could cause fulfillment issues.
Recurring orders follow the same format but include the Active Subscription tag.
It's important that your fulfillment provider fulfills the inventory based on the fulfillable_quantity (single shipment for an order) of the product and not the quantity (the total quantity for all shipments in the prepaid plan) of the product.
Here is an example of the line_items order JSON for a Shopify Prepaid order showing the quantity and fulfillable_quantity.
Subscription Management
From the Stay AI merchant portal, you can assist customers in managing their prepaid subscriptions. Expedite their orders, update shipping addresses, skip orders, set billing dates, cancel subscriptions, and prevent prepaid renewals - all directly from your Stay AI merchant portal!
To manage a prepaid subscription, navigate to the merchant portal.
Click Customers, then click Subscriptions.
Search for the relevant prepaid subscription.
Click on the Subscription ID.
On the Subscription Details page, click Edit Subscription.
Select the relevant action from the drop-down menu.
Get Order Now
To fulfill a customer’s prepaid order early, use the "Get It Now" option for one of the remaining prepaid orders in the Merchant Portal.
Recurring prepaid orders will be $0 until the subscription renews.
Prevent Renewal
Preventing Renewal on Prepaid will set it to expire once it reaches zero remaining prepaid orders instead of renewing. This will be the primary way you will "cancel prepaid subscriptions" for customers as they will likely still want to receive the remaining orders on their prepaid subscription.
Preventing Renewal on Prepaid will set it to expire once it reaches zero remaining prepaid orders instead of renewing.
A prepaid that will not renew will show an Expiring Prepaid badge and the text “This subscription will be canceled at the end of this cycle.”
Once a prepaid is expired, it will have an Expired status in the merchant portal.
Canceling a prepaid subscription
In rare instances, a customer may want or need to cancel their prepaid and remaining orders. When canceling a subscription for a customer, the subscription is canceled, and all paid orders are removed.
Important Note
You will need to find the last paid order and refund the subscription based on the remaining orders canceled. Please make sure you account for both the product and shipping multiplied by the number of orders.
Once the prepaid is canceled, you'll see a Cancelled badge, and the remaining orders will be set to 0.
The Customer Portal Experience
Customers who order prepaid subscriptions will be able to manage them through the customer portal. Using the customer portal, subscribers can access options like Get My Order Now, Update Shipping Address, Update Billing Information, and Skip My Next Order. If a customer has a renewing prepaid subscription, they will be able to use the Cancel Subscription option to prevent the renewal.
Prepaid Details can be seen on the Subscription Hub page as well.
Below is an example of a prepaid subscription that will be renewed on its next order. The next order will be charged the full amount for the prepaid.
Subscriptions that will expire will show an Expiration badge in the Subscription Tab and in the Subscription Hub.
When Customers Cancel a Prepaid Subscription
When a customer cancels their prepaid through the RetentionEngine cancel survey in the Customer Portal, they will be served the Lost a Prepaid Customer screen indicating their subscription will be canceled when all remaining prepaid orders are completed. Their prepaid subscription will then be set to expire.
The Lost a Prepaid Customer screen can be managed in RetentionEngine. To access this, navigate to the merchant portal.
Click Tools.
Click RetentionEngine.
Click Elements.
Scroll to Final Exit Screen in the righthand panel.
Click the dropdown next to Lost a Customer.
Navigate to Lost a Prepaid Customer.
Gifting Prepaid Subscriptions
Gifting prepaid subscriptions use additional lines in the Shopify order, which are processed by Stay AI to create special gift giver and gift recipient portals.
Gifted Prepaid Subscription at Checkout.
The gift giver will fill out the gift recipient's information on the product detail page. These details can be seen attached to the product at checkout.
A gifted order in Shopify will appear similarly to a regular prepaid order with the additional fields associated with the gifted products.
A Gift Recipient’s Prepaid Customer Portal
The recipient's customer portal has some limited functionality, but they are able to expedite their orders, update their address information, set their next order date, and skip their order.
There are also indicators that it is a gift subscription and that it will expire once all prepaid orders are complete.
A Gift Giver's Prepaid Customer Portal
The gift giver portal is similar, with further reduced functionality. The gift giver can update the shipping address, but they cannot adjust the billing date.
The gift giver portal has the Account settings to allow for the gift giver to manage their information. This is the portal that is accessible through the magic link in the merchant portal.
