Introduced in Feature Pack 2

Subscriptions and recurring orders

Subscription support allows retailers to sell subscription-based offerings for products such as magazines and book of the month. The recurring order feature allows you to build a steady stream of repeat orders by automating the process for your customers. Subscriptions and recurring orders are a great way to expand your offerings by building customer loyalty.

What are some examples of subscription-based products and recurring orders?

Examples of subscription-based products and recurring orders include:
  • A twelve month subscription to a monthly magazine.
  • A wine of the month club where a customer pays a flat rate up front and receives different bottles of wine every month for the duration of the subscription.
  • A shopper makes an order for dairy products and then selects the recurring order option so that a new shipment of milk and cheese is delivered to their house on a weekly basis.
  • An office manager sets up a recurring order of printing paper to be delivered to his office on a monthly basis.

What are the benefits of subscription and recurring order support?

Support for subscriptions and recurring orders provides the following key business benefits:
  • Support selling of subscription-based products and services across a variety of industries, such as premium newsletters, publishing, and monthly clubs
  • Support recurring orders at businesses such as pharmacies, grocery stores, and health and beauty stores
  • Helps reduce cost of implementing subscription-based transaction models and enable recurring orders
  • Helps increase customer loyalty and encourage shoppers to buy more frequently

Additional features can be customized.

What are the key features of the subscription and recurring order support?

The service provider solution, which includes support for subscriptions and recurring orders, provides the following key features:
  • Support for subscription-based transactions and repeated order placement in the form of recurring orders
  • New marketing triggers for subscriptions and recurring orders
  • Allow shoppers to manage their subscriptions and recurring orders

Additional features can be customized.

What user roles use subscription and recurring orders?

As a feature of WebSphere Commerce, the subscriptions and recurring orders feature is easily leveraged by the following user roles:
  • Marketing managers can use a Dialog activity to automatically contact customers via email or text message before their subscriptions expire to remind them to renew, or even offer a discount as an incentive.
  • Administrators who want to implement a subscription-based transaction model and enable recurring orders with speed and efficiency

WebSphere Commerce ProfessionalWebSphere Commerce EnterpriseDialog activities are available only in the Professional and Enterprise editions of WebSphere Commerce.

Demo this feature in an hour!

To implement and utilize the subscriptions and recurring orders features for the Madisons storefront, see Task flow: Installing and implementing subscriptions and recurring orders