How To Guides
Subscription Management
Enabling Subscriptions for a Product
Customer Subscription Management
Handling Multiple Subscriptions
Google Analytics for Subscription Management
Enabling Subscriptions for a Product
Any product can be converted into a subscription product. This is done under the Edit Product Details Screen in the Subscription Settings tab group.
Enabled - If checked, will allow give customers the option to choose a subscription when purchasing this product.
Require Subscription When Purchasing Product - If checked, will only allow customer to purchase this product as a subscription. It will force them to select a subscription term when adding the product to the cart.
Allow Subscription to be Cancelled Prior to Expiration - If checked, will allow customers to cancel subscription anytime, prior to the term end date (if one exists)
Allow Quantity to be Changed - If checked, will allow customer to log into their account and change the quantity of the item in the subscription.
Allow Subscription Term to be Changed - If checked, will allow customer to log into their account and modify the subscription term. For example if you offer a term of 30 days, 60 days and 90 days if the customer originally selected a 30 days term, they would have the option to change this to one of the other terms offered for this product.
Allow Delivery Date to be Changed - if checked the customer can log into their account and change the delivery date including skipping a delivery.
Subscription Product Terms
Each subscription product must have at least one term defined. A term is the number of orders which will be included in the subscription. This can be a fixed amount like 12 or indefinite which means the subscription would continue until cancelled. For each term you must also choose a frequency. This defines how often a new order is generated for the subscription.
To create a subscription term, edit the product and go to the Subscription Terms tab (Note: this may be located under 3 dot “more” menu)
Click the add icon to add a new subscription term for this product.
Term Frequency
Miva offers 11 flexible frequencies to choose from.
Based on the frequency you choose, you’ll be prompted to define the details of that frequency. For example if you select “Every N Days (From Purchase Date)” you will be prompted to select how many days you want.
Term Description
The term description defines the text the customer sees in the drop down when selecting the frequency of reorder for the product.
Generate Based on Input Parameters - This is use the Frequency you select and generate the text for you.
Custom - This allows you to put any custom text you want.
Purchasing a Subscription
If a product is eligible to be purchased as a subscription, the terms available for that product will be displayed on the product page. If the subscription is optional the first option in the drop down will be “No Subscription”. Only terms available for this product will be shown.
When an order is placed that contains one or more subscription products, each subscription product is split out into its own subscription that is managed individually. A subscription can only ever have a single product but multiple quantities of that product.
When the order is placed, the customer will get a confirmation email of their new subscription (in addition to the standard order confirmation email)
Customer Subscription Management
Any subscription tied to a customer's account can be self managed by the customer. From their My Account page there is a link to “Manage Subscriptions”
This will take them to a list of their active subscription:
From here you can edit any subscription:
The fields customers can edit depends on the subscription settings set for each product
Note: Any changes to shipping or quantity, will not be reflected in the price until you click “Update Subscription”
Admin Subscription Management
Any subscription for a customer can also be managed via the Miva admin under the customer account.
Edit any customer and go to the subscriptions tab. Here you can see a list of all subscriptions tied to that customer and edit them as needed.
Editing a Subscription Dialog
From this screen you can:
- See Subscription Status
- Changed Address (must be in Address Book)
- Change Payment Card
- Change Quantity
- Change Term
- Set Next Order Date
- Cancel Subscription
- Reset Remaining Orders
- Change Shipping Method
By selecting on any individual subscription you can also view past orders generated from that subscription, or process the subscription.
All Subscriptions View
Under Order Processing -> Subscriptions Tab You can get a global view of all subscriptions in your store and filter down to view only what you need to see.
Filters:
Search for upcoming subscriptions based on a timeframe.
Search by subscription status: Active, Cancelled, Error
For example, if you wanted to see all Subscriptions which were in an error state, meaning they failed to create the next order, you can set the status to Error. Clicking on the subscription will give you more details about the error:
In this case you could call the customer to get a new credit card to charge the order.
From this global subscription screen you can also select a record and do the following actions:
Cancel, Process or View the Customer Record.
Processing A Subscription
Clicking the process button for a subscription will cause Miva too look at the settings configured for the subscription and attempt to create a new order for that subscription (if the settings dictate a new order is ready to be created).
The order will be created, credit card charged and emails sent.
Other than manually processing than an subscription, subscriptions will get processed in bulk at a set timeframe using scheduled tasks.
Under Store Settings ->Scheduled Tasks you’ll find the scheduled task setup to bulk process all subscriptions.
By default this is set to run once per day. When this runs it will look at all subscriptions and attempt to create a new order for each subscription where the next order date is today. Time the orders was placed (hours, minutes and seconds) is ignored. So all orders for any day should get processed when this runs.
Any orders that failed to be created will be set to a “failed” status and can be looked up via the Miva admin to resolve.
Subscription Emails
There are 4 new emails that can be configured for subscriptions
Subscription Authorization Failure - This email gets sent when a order for a subscription fails to be created because the credit card was declined. By default it gets sent to the customer but can be cc’ed or bcc’ed to the merchant to help resolve.
Subscription Created - Sent to the customer letting them know when they place an order for a recurring subscription.
Subscription Cancelled - Sent to the customer confirming their cancellation
Subscription Changed - Sent to the customer anytime they change their subscription
Example Email:
Subscription Discounts
It is possible to create price groups in Miva that are limited to only apply to subscriptions (and their recurring orders). An example of this would be if you wanted to give your customers a 10% discount for subscribing.
To do this, create a new price group with a 10% discount.
Then select the subscription record and you will see a new button to limit the price group by subscription
Clicking this will bring up a list of subscriptions this Price Group applies to:
Now, when a customer adds any of these subscriptions to the cart, they will automatically get a discount on this order as well as all future orders tied to this subscription.
Subscription Reporting
Miva has 3 built in reports to help you gain some visibility to what is happening with your subscription products.
Subscription Metrics - This report give you two important stats: Churn Rate and MMR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Churn Rate - This is the number on cancellations over a 30 days period divided by the number of subscriptions at the start of that period. This number will give you a good gauge of the number of customers that are cancelling their subscriptions over a time period.
Monthly Recurring Revenue - This is your number of active monthly subscription x subscription, price normalized to a 1 month period. For example if you have a yearly subscription, its total value would be divided by 12 to get the monthly value of the subscription.
Both these metrics also show historical values so you can easily compare to past data to see trends.
Subscription Statistics - This report shows the following data points across all subscriptions
- Active Subscriptions
- New Subscriptions
- Cancellations
- Gross Revenue
- Average Subscription Age
Subscription Product Statistics - This shows the same data as above but on a per product basis.
How Multiple Subscriptions Items Are Processed For The Same Customer
If the following are true:
- Same Date for Re-Order
- Same Payment Card
- Same Address
- Same Shipping Method
Then those items that meet the above criteria will be grouped together into a single order, with a single credit card charge and a single email confirmation.
For example: If you own a web site that sells shaving products, and a client orders four products with the same card, that renew on the same renewal date, are sent to the same shipping address and are using the same shipping method, then they will only be charged once on their credit card, charged only one shipping charge, and everything will be shipped together in one box. Each item will still remain separate subscriptions though, so they can be edited, have their subscription date changed, or make any other changes that are needed.
Google Analytics for Subscription Management
If you're using a ReadyTheme, the Google Analytics Module will already be installed and active.
If you're not using a ReadyTheme, then you'll need to install this module in your store. To do that, click on "Menu," then scroll down to "Utilities," click on "Add/Remove Modules," and then click on the "Install" button under the "Google Analytical" option. There's a checkbox under the new "Google Analytics Tracking Code" tab that you can click so that all subscription orders will automatically be updated to your Google Analytics account. Now click on the check box that says, "Enable Ecommerce Transaction Tracking." Now, whether you're using a ReadyTheme or not, you'll need to check the new box that says "Track Subscription Orders" for it to send all the subscription info to your Google Analytics site.
