Prerequisites

• Before you add Subscription Products, make sure you follow the steps in this article to set up the integration between your Stripe account and your Siteglide Site.

• You will need to have installed the Secure Zones Module on your Site, as this is required by Subscriptions.

Introduction

Now you've set up your Payment Gateway, this article will explain how you can add Subscription products using the Siteglide Admin.

We'll also explain how you can set prices for these products and define which Secure Zones a customer will gain access to while they have an active Subscription to each Product.

We'll be adding additional features in later releases which will expand your options in future.

Adding Products

You can view a list of existing Subscription products and add new ones under ECOMMERCE > Subscriptions

Step 1 - Add Details

Add all the information you need to about the Subscription product, add SEO metadata and assign to Categories if you wish.

Step 2 - Set the Interval

Here you need to define the length of time each billing cycle will last.

You need to choose:

• An interval unit from the available options

• An integer for the number of days / weeks / months

In future we plan to add additional options here. However, if you need to have alternate payment plans for the same Product now, we recommend you create multiple Subscription items each with the same details, but with different intervals and prices.

Step 3 - Save

Saving at this point will send an API Call to Stripe to create the product in Test and Live mode. Once created, it will be possible to add additional options and further tabs will appear.

Step 4 - Pricing

Pricing works in a similar way to other eCommerce Products.

You currently must choose the same currency as your Site currency.

The chargeable price is the price your customers will pay each interval.

The display-only price is available if you need to display the price without sales tax, a recommended retail price- etc.

Step 5 - Secure Zones

If you would like to use your Site to deliver content or services to customers who sign up to a Subscription, you can do this with Secure Zones.

In the Secure Zones tab, select the Secure Zones that you'd like to assign to customers while they have an active Subscription.

The same list of Secure Zones will also be taken away from the User when their Subscription is cancelled, so we recommend that you don't include a generic "Account" Secure Zone here, or your Users may also lose this when their subscription ends.

If you would like to learn more about creating and using Secure Zones, .

Using your Stripe Account

You'll notice Stripe gives you the option to add additional Products in the Stripe Dashboard. We'd recommend for now that you create Subscription Products within the Siteglide Admin- as this will mean we only provide options to add features that are fully supported by the integration.

Introduction

In this article, we'll look at how you can set up a Form which will:

• Allow Users to Sign Up for a Subscription

• Allow Users to change the payment method Stripe will be charging for an existing Active Subscription, or a Subscription which is "past_due" and requires a change in payment method.

• Allow users to authorise an existing payment method using 3D secure.

• Re-activate a Subscription that is no longer Active- this may include any Subscription with either the "incomplete" or "unpaid" status.

In a standard Subscriptions flow, all these use-cases are handled by a single Form so that we can identify the User, their current Subscriptions and work out the most appropriate course of action.

You'll also be able to use the same form for any Subscription Product. You can set which Subscription Product the Form will sign users up to, by outputting the Form on that Subscription's Detail Page.

Creating the Form

Firstly, navigate to CMS > Forms and select the "Add New Form" button:

Add details to the Form as you normally would. (To recap standard Form creation in Siteglide - .)

When setting the name, remember this can be a Form for all Subscriptions, so you don't need to name it after a product.

Setting the Form as a Payment Form

Next, in the payments tab, toggle Payments on and select Subscription from the Payment form type options.

Adding Secure Zones

It's important that all Users who sign up to Subscriptions have an account with an email and password on Siteglide. This will allow them to manage their Subscriptions.

The easiest way to do this is to set a Secure Zone to this Subscription Form to serve as the User's account - it will make sure that User's are given the chance to sign up for an account - or log in - at the same time as they sign up for the Subscription and enter payment details.

You can do this by adding any Secure Zone to the Form in the Secure Zones tab:

If you already have a Secure Zone which serves this purpose on your Site, you can of course use it here. We'd recommend not using a Secure Zone directly associated with a Subscription, as this could be removed from a User if they cancel their Subscription.

Outputting the Form

In order to use the Form, it must be outputted inside a Subscription Detail Layout. This defines which Subscription the Form will sign customers up for.

There are two main places where this will need to be as a minimum:

• The Page where you want Users to sign up to the Subscription. Most commonly this will be the Subscription's Detail Page.

• The System Page where Users will be sent via email if a payment method needs updating or authorising. We'll include the Detail View for the correct Subscription automatically, but you may select the Detail Layout used.

Outputting the Form inside a Detail Layout

You can include the Form by adding the standard Liquid for including a Form:

{% include 'form', id: '10', layout: 'default' %}

You'll need to use the ID of your Subscription Form which you'll be able to find in the Admin.

Outputting the Form on the Subscription System Page

We'll output a Detail View on the System Page for you, you'll just need to select a Subscription Detail Layout of your choice where Form has already been included as above.

We'll explain in more detail here: Editing the

Introduction

Most database items in the Siteglide database can be safely edited without affecting existing customers. For example, you can change the price of a physical product and everyone would expect to pay the new price for the product in future.

For Subscriptions, we've set it up so that Price changes on a Subscription will not affect existing subscribers. Instead only new subscribers will have to pay the new price.

Currently, we don't support allowing customers to choose their Plan when signing up to a Subscription. Instead, only the most recently created Plan will be available for new customers. We may add this functionality in the future, but for now, we suggest creating separate Subscription items with different periods and chargeable prices if you want to give customers different payment options for the same services.

Glossary

• Subscription (on Siteglide) - equivalent to a Product on the Stripe Dashboard - This is a Subscription Product which can be connected to a Plan. Plan (on Siteglide) - equivalent to a Plan on the Stripe Dashboard. This defines the price charged and the interval between charges.

• Subscription Order (on Siteglide) - equivalent to a Subscription on the Stripe Dashboard - This is a record of the order a customer has made to subscribe to a Subscription. It holds a record of the Plan and Pricing that the customer originally signed up for. It also has a status, which keeps track of whether this Subscription Order is "Active". Creating a New Plan Changing the Price of a Subscription will Create a new Plan There are three main variables that will affect the amount users will pay for a Subscription:

• Chargeable Price

Changing the Interval or Interval Count will not trigger an API call to Stripe to create a new Plan on its own.

If you want the new Plan to have a new Interval you should follow the following steps:

1. Change the Interval and/or Interval Count on Siteglide

2. Save the Chargeable Price in the prices tab on Siteglide. This will create a new Plan which will include the new values for Interval and Interval Count. (Changing the price before saving is optional- all that's needed to create the new Plan is to "save" the prices tab- you can leave it the same if you wish).

How a new Plan affects existing customers

Existing customers will not be affected by the new Plan. Their Subscription Order will be connected to the original Plan they signed up to.

How a new Plan affects new customers

New customers will not be shown information about the old Plan. They will sign up to the newest Plan only.

Introduction

When adding eCommerce functionality to their Site, your Client will want to be confident that they are as compliant as possible. Here, we'll share tips from Stripe about how to be transparent with customers about how you and Stripe will use their payment methods.

Obtaining a Customer's consent to make regular Subscription charges on their behalf

The following Articles from Stripe are well worth a read if you are adding Subscriptions functionality to your Site. You may wish to use the advice within to help you word a consent Checkbox to your Subscription Sign Up Form for example.

Updating your terms and conditions to make sure customers have been given a mandate to collect recurring payments for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) purposes

Merchant Initiated Transactions

Introduction

Subscription Orders in Siteglide represent an individual User's Subscription to a specific Product. Their status is explained here.

You can use it to track which Subscription Orders need action from the User and which are Active and generating income.

Subscription Order Status

Available statuses in Siteglide are:

• Incomplete - It was not possible to pay the first invoice on a new Subscription. Access to Secure Zones will not be granted.

• Active - A Subscription is active and Stripe was able to successful pay the latest invoice. Access to Secure Zones will be granted.

• Past Due - It was not possible to pay the most recent invoice on a new Subscription. As a Subscription Order enters this status, Siteglide will send a System Email notification to the User telling them what they can do to return the Subscription Order to Active. We won't remove access to Secure Zones at this stage. Access to Secure Zones will not be removed yet, but it will be if the status changes to Cancelled or Unpaid.

The following statuses will cause the Subscription Order to be deleted on Siteglide and the Subscription to be deleted on Stripe, so will never be seen here. Read more about Subscription Statuses and what you can do to control what Stripe does with persistently unpaid Subscriptions .

• Incomplete Expired - Stripe has decided not to continue attempts to pay the first invoice. We deleted the Subscription Order from the Database to save space. Other options may be available in future. Access to Secure Zones will be removed.

• Cancelled - Stripe has decided not to continue attempts to pay the latest invoice. Your Stripe Dashboard settings caused this Subscription Order to be deleted from the database to save space. Access to Secure Zones will be removed.