MINIBC allows prepaid subscriptions to be created and this guide will make sure you set these types of subscriptions up correctly to allow subscribers to be billed correctly.
Subscription Settings
When setting up your prepaid subscriptions, you'll be using the below section. We've defined each column and its relevance to this style of subscription.
Shipping Frequency: This is used to determine the timing between shipments.
Bills Every: Here you're entering the number of times MINIBC should ship (for free) before the subscriber is rebilled.
On-Going: If you want the subscription to continue to re-bill after each pre-paid term leave this enabled. If you would like the subscription to stop after a certain amount of shipments disable this item.
Stop After: If you would like the subscription to stop after certain amount of shipments and not rebill fill in this value (after disabling On-Going).
Subscription Stories
We've created the below subscription stories and set out the expected settings that should be chosen. These stories should provide a head start on setup and further illustrate how different types of prepaid subscriptions would be setup.
Subscription #1
Story:
A subscriber pre-pays for monthly shipments for 1 year. That then renews automatically the next year.
Setup:
Frequency: 1 Month
Bills Every: 12 Shipments
On-Going: Enabled
Notes:
The subscriber pays up-front for 12 monthly shipments. After 12 shipments on the 13th shipment they'll be billed again for another 12-shipment term.
Subscription #2
Story:
A subscriber pre-pays for a shipment every 6 months for 1 year. That then renews automatically the next year.
Setup:
Frequency: 6 Months
Bills Every: 2 Shipments
On-Going: Enabled
Notes:
The subscriber pays up-front for 2 monthly shipments. The subscriber would receive two shipments and on the 3rd shipment be billed again for two shipments.
Subscription #3
Story:
A subscriber pre-pays for monthly shipments for 6-months. That will not renew at the end of the term.
Setup:
Frequency: 1 Month
Bills Every: 6 Shipments
On-Going: Disabled
Stop After: 6 Shipments
Notes:
The subscriber pays up-front for 6 monthly shipments. The subscriber will not be re-billed at the end of the term.
Subscription #4
Story:
A subscriber pre-pays for monthly shipments for 3-months. That will auto-renew at the end of the term.
Setup:
Frequency: 1 Month
Bills Every: 3 Shipments
On-Going: Enabled
Notes:
The subscriber pays up-front for 3 monthly shipments. On the 4th shipment they'd be rebilled for another 3 shipments and this would continue until cancelled.
FAQs
Q: Can subscribers skip or change payment dates for pre-paid subscriptions?
A: Yes, MINIBC only counts successful shipments; so skipping or changing dates is supported.
Q: If an unpaid subscription renewal fails, does it count towards the shipment count?
A: Only successful orders (shipments) are counted against the subscription. If an order isn't successful it isn't counted. Retries for prepaid subscriptions will follow the standard MINIBC renewal process.
Q: Is there an API end-point for an products remaining shipments?
A: MINIBC stores the successful shipment count for each item. The count remaining will need to be calculated outside of MINIBC.
Q: Can prepaid subscriptions automatically renew at the end of their term?
A: Yes, MINIBC allows merchants to choose if the prepaid subscription is 'On-Going' or not. See our examples above for more details.
Q: Will prepaid orders (renewals) be made BigCommerce with a zero dollar item value?
A: Yes, MINIBC will renew orders at $0.00 if they are within the prepaid subscription plan.
Q: Can I (the merchant) set a custom price for the prepaid subscription item?
A: Yes, MINIBC supports the ability for merchants to customize the price of the item and grandfather its price for renewal.
Q: Can customer edit or change the frequency of an existing prepaid subscription?
A: MINIBC does not support the editing of prepaid subscriptions details.
Q: Can I (the merchant) charge shipping on prepaid renewals outside of the prepaid cost at checkout?
A: Renewals for prepaid items cannot be charged additional shipping. If other items within the renewal that are not prepaid, those will be subject to shipping charges as is setup within the merchants store.