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Overview

If you sell physical products and use subscriptions, this section covers how Journey coordinates the complex logistics of getting items to customers on time, managing inventory, and optimizing delivery costs. What You’ll Learn:
  1. Delivery Synchronization - How Journey intelligently groups multi-frequency items into efficient shipments
  2. Packing Zones - How the system protects your fulfillment team by locking in orders before packing begins
  3. Frequency Management - How customers can adjust delivery schedules without disrupting billing
  4. Automated Processing - How daily billing, payment recovery, and fulfillment work together seamlessly
  5. Payment & Inventory Integration - How payment status controls stock management and delivery timing
Key Business Benefits:
  • Reduced Shipping Costs - Automatic consolidation of multi-frequency items saves on per-delivery fees
  • Operational Efficiency - Packing zones prevent chaos and ensure teams have time to fulfill orders properly
  • Customer Satisfaction - Predictable delivery schedules with flexibility to pause, resume, or adjust frequency
  • Revenue Protection - Automatic dunning (payment recovery) means failed payments don’t block fulfillment
Let’s explore how it all works together:

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Delivery Synchronization Algorithm

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The Problem

With multi-frequency subscriptions, you could end up with many small, inefficient deliveries:
  • Monday: Milk only (weekly)
  • Tuesday: Eggs only (bi-weekly)
  • Friday: Coffee only (monthly)
Result: High shipping costs, poor customer experience, increased carbon footprint. If this is something that the merchant wants to avoid, they can turn on the join-by-week feature.

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The Join-by-Week Algorithm

Journey automatically merges deliveries that are within 5 days of each other into a single shipment. This intelligent consolidation reduces shipping costs for both you and your customers, customers benefit from fewer shipments and lower delivery fees, while you reduce per-unit shipping expenses through bulk consolidation.

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How It Works

1

Calculate Next Date for Each Item

For each product in the subscription, Journey calculates when it’s next due based on its frequency:
Milk (weekly):    Last delivered Oct 1 → Next: Oct 8
Eggs (bi-weekly): Last delivered Oct 1 → Next: Oct 15
Coffee (monthly): Last delivered Sep 1 → Next: Oct 1
2

Find Earliest Date

Which item is due first is identified:
Earliest: Oct 1 (Coffee)
3

Check 5-Day Window

We check which other items are due within 5 days of the earliest date:
Coffee:  0 days away → Include ✅
Milk:    7 days away → Don't include (outside window)
Eggs:    14 days away → Don't include
Result: Ship only Coffee on Oct 1
4

Repeat for Next Batch

On Oct 8, the process is repeated:
Milk:    0 days away → Include ✅
Eggs:    7 days away → Don't include (but getting close!)
Coffee:  Already fulfilled
Result: Only milk is shipped on Oct 8On Oct 15:
Eggs:    0 days away → Include ✅
Milk:    Already fulfilled (next due Oct 15)
Wait! Milk is also due Oct 15. Both within window:
Eggs:    0 days away → Include ✅
Milk:    0 days away → Include ✅
Result: Milk + Eggs are shipped together on Oct 15

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Business Benefits of Consolidation

By intelligently grouping deliveries within a 5-day window:
BenefitImpact
Reduced ShipmentsCustomers receive fewer packages (fewer shipping fees pass to them)
Lower Per-Unit CostsConsolidating multiple items onto one truck reduces your cost per delivery
Improved MarginsFewer shipments = better profitability on subscriptions
Better Customer ExperienceCustomers prefer consolidated deliveries (less packaging waste, fewer doorstep visits)
Logistics EfficiencyMore items per shipment = better truck utilization and lower carbon footprint
This is why multi-frequency subscriptions (milk weekly, eggs bi-weekly, coffee monthly) don’t result in three separate shipments—the algorithm intelligently batches items that are due around the same time.

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Packing Zones & Weekday Alignment

If you’re shipping physical deliveries, the system protects your fulfillment operations by:
  1. Locking down packing time before each delivery day
  2. Aligning deliveries to allowed weekdays for each postal code
This prevents the chaos of scheduling deliveries during weeks when your team is still packing previous orders.

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Packing Zone Configuration

You configure for each delivery day:
  • When packing starts: typically 1 day before delivery (Wednesday for a Thursday delivery)
  • When new orders are locked in: typically 8 AM on delivery day (by Thursday 8 AM, Thursday’s packing is frozen)
Visual Timeline: 
Wednesday              Thursday              Friday
00:00 ────────────── 08:00 ────────────────
  ↓                    ↓                      ↓
Packing               CUTOFF -              Customer
Starts            No more orders            receives
(prev orders)     for Thursday          (if paid on time)
                  packing locked in
Key Rule: If a delivery date falls within this packing window, it’s automatically pushed to the next allowed weekday for that postal code. Why This Matters:
  • Prevents overwhelming packing teams - Can’t add rush orders once packing starts
  • Guarantees fulfillment time - Cutoff ensures orders are finalized before hand-packing
  • Improves accuracy - No mid-packing changes causing errors
  • Customer benefit - More predictable delivery schedules

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Adjust Delivery Frequency

Customers can change how often they receive deliveries (e.g., switching from weekly to bi-weekly). What Happens: The system uses a simple rule: next delivery date = last delivery date + new frequency interval This means the next delivery is always calculated from when they last received (and paid for) the item, not from today. Example: 
Scenario: Customer has been receiving milk weekly. 
         Today is Oct 20. They want to switch to bi-weekly.

Last delivery:        Oct 15 (successfully charged)
Old frequency:        Weekly (7 days)
New frequency:        Bi-weekly (14 days)
Today:                Oct 20

Calculation:
├─ Start point: Last successful charge = Oct 15
├─ Add new frequency: Oct 15 + 14 days
└─ Next delivery: Oct 29

Timeline:
  Oct 15 (charged)  Oct 20 (change frequency)  Oct 29 (next charge)
      ✓                      ↓
   Last charge          Customer switches       New delivery
                        (4 days in)            (14 days after Oct 15)
Why This Approach:
  • Fair to customers - They don’t get charged earlier just because they made the change late in the week
  • Predictable - Changes don’t create confusing gaps or sudden charges
  • Simple logic - Easy for customers to understand when their next charge will be
Business Impact: Frequency changes are a powerful retention tool—customers who find a subscription too frequent often stick around when they can adjust the cadence.

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Automated Processing

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Daily Billing Process

The system runs a completely automated billing process every day to handle subscription payments. This ensures that recurring revenue is processed consistently without manual intervention, giving your team more time to focus on customer relationships and growth.
1

Process Scheduled Deliveries

The system identifies all subscriptions with deliveries scheduled for today and automatically charges the customer’s payment method.
2

Recover Failed Payments

If a payment fails, the system automatically retries the charge. This recovery process (called dunning) helps maximize revenue by giving customers multiple opportunities to update their payment information before their subscription is interrupted.
3

Monitor Subscription Health

Subscriptions that encounter payment issues are flagged as “at-risk” so your team can proactively reach out to customers before their service is disrupted. Automatic messages (email and SMS) can be configured that get sent to these customers. These messages can e.g. navigate customers to their my pages where they can update their payment information.
4

Enforce Payment Deadlines

After a configurable grace period (default: 20 days), unpaid subscriptions are automatically cancelled. This protects your business from unlimited payment failures while giving customers a fair window to resolve billing issues.
5

Complete Digital Fulfillment

For digital products and automated fulfillment integrations, deliveries are automatically marked as complete when no manual action is required.

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Key Business Outcomes

When a payment is processed, the system automatically updates the subscription status based on the result. Successful charges keep the subscription active and the customer’s service flowing uninterrupted. Failed charges transition the subscription to a “past due” state, triggering your retention workflows and giving you time to recover the revenue. This automated cycle ensures predictable recurring revenue while minimizing churn from payment failures.

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Dunning Management

Journey automatically handles failed payments through a configurable two-layer system that balances recovery opportunities with business protection.

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How It Works: Two Key Controls

The dunning system uses two distinct levers to manage failed payments:
Retry Attempts: How many times the system tries to collect payment (typically one attempt per day)Cancellation Days: After how many calendar days the system gives up and cancels the deliveryThese work independently, giving you flexibility to match your business strategy.
Example Configuration:
  • Dunning Settling Attempts: 25 (retry up to 25 times to maximize recovery)
  • Failed Payment Cancelled Days: 18 (but free up inventory after 18 days for other orders)
Both are fully configurable per your business needs.

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Understanding the Dunning Timeline

Here’s what happens with the example configuration (25 attempts, 18 days):
TimelineWhat HappensSubscription StatusCustomer Experience
Day 1Payment attempt failsChanges to PAST_DUE or ERRORReceives notification with next steps
Days 2-17System retries once per dayStays PAST_DUE/ERRORReceives reminders every 4 attempts
Day 18Delivery cancelled and stock freedStill PAST_DUE/ERRORInventory is reallocated; no more delivery attempt
Days 19-25System continues retrying (attempting to collect debt)Still PAST_DUE/ERRORReceives continued reminders every 4 attempts
Day 25Reaches max retry attemptsChanges to EXPIREDReceives final cancellation notice; subscription suspended
Key Insight: The delivery gets cancelled on Day 18 (freeing inventory), but the subscription keeps trying to collect payment until Day 25 (maximizing revenue recovery). This separation lets you balance operational concerns (inventory) with financial goals (payment recovery).

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Configurable Strategy

You can adjust these settings independently to match your business needs:
ScenarioDunning AttemptsCancelled DaysWhy Different?
Inventory-Focused2518Keep retrying payment longer, but free up stock faster for other orders
Balanced (Default)2020Attempts expire at roughly the same time as delivery cleanup
B2B/High-Value1525Stop automated retries sooner, but keep longer for manual intervention or reconciliation
Fulfillment-Driven2010Keep retrying, but notify warehouse 10 days in to reallocate resources
Key Principle: These two settings let you optimize for different business constraints:
  • Dunning attempts = How aggressive you want to be about recovering revenue
  • Cancelled days = How long you can hold inventory or keep delivery records in limbo
During this entire period, customers can update their payment method at any time. The next automatic retry will use their new card.

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Error Code Classification

Journey categorizes payment failures as either retryable (past_due) or requires intervention (error):
Error TypeError CodesStateRetry?
Insufficient Fundsinsufficient_funds, 51, do_not_honorPAST_DUEYes ✅
Card Declinedcard_declined, 05, 04PAST_DUEYes ✅
Expired Cardexpired_card, 54ERRORNo ❌
Invalid Cardinvalid_card_number, 14ERRORNo ❌
Fraud Detectedfraud_detected, fraudERRORNo ❌
Technical Errorgateway_timeout, 500ERRORNo ❌

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Edge Cases & Special Scenarios

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Customer Updates Payment Method During Dunning

Scenario: A payment fails, but the customer quickly updates their payment information. What Happens:
  • The customer adds and verifies a new payment method
  • The system automatically uses this updated method on the next retry
  • If the charge succeeds, the subscription returns to active status immediately
  • No deliveries are missed and the system continues seamlessly
Business Impact: Self-service payment recovery removes friction and significantly improves retention. Many customers just need an easy way to update their card, and the system handles it automatically from there.

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Changing Frequency Mid-Subscription

Scenario: A customer decides to change how often they receive an item mid-cycle. What Happens:
  • All previously scheduled deliveries continue unchanged (whether paid or unpaid)
  • The new frequency takes effect starting from the latest scheduled delivery date, not the last paid delivery
  • The system recalculates future delivery dates based on the maximum delivery date already in the system (paid or unpaid)
Example: 
Scenario: Customer has weekly milk deliveries. 
          Today is Nov 8. They switch to bi-weekly.

Scheduled but unpaid: Nov 12 (automatically created by system)
Old frequency: Weekly (7 days)
New frequency: Bi-weekly (14 days)
Today: Nov 8

Timeline:
  Nov 5 (charged)    Nov 8 (change)    Nov 12 (scheduled)    Nov 26 (new next)
      ✓                  ↓                   ✓                      ✓
    Last delivery   Customer switches  This still happens     New delivery
                    to bi-weekly       (already in system)    (14 days after Nov 12)
Result:
├─ Nov 5 delivery: Occurred as normal
├─ Nov 12 delivery: Proceeds as scheduled (already exists in system)
├─ Nov 19 delivery: Cancelled/removed because new frequency starts from Nov 12
└─ Nov 26 becomes the new delivery date (Nov 12 + 14 days)
Why This Works:
  • The system doesn’t track “paid vs unpaid” when calculating the next delivery — it tracks all scheduled deliveries
  • When frequency changes, it uses the latest scheduled delivery date as the baseline
  • This prevents overlapping or skipped deliveries
  • Existing orders stay in place to maintain consistency with the fulfillment pipeline
Business Impact: Future deliveries adapt to the new frequency based on the latest scheduled date, ensuring a smooth transition without gaps or overlaps. Existing scheduled orders are preserved regardless of payment status to maintain fulfillment consistency.

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Managing Out-of-Stock Situations

Current Behavior: Users can track the stock count and can review when products become low in stock and out of stock and handle the situation accordingly. For example:
  • Skip the item for this cycle only
  • Reschedule it for a future delivery
  • Substitute with an alternative product
Business Impact: Proactive inventory management prevents service interruptions and maintains customer satisfaction without requiring complex automation.

Subscriptions

Understand subscription setup, customer management, and how delivery integrates with the subscription lifecycle

Recurring Payments

Understand how payments are processed and how payment status drives delivery fulfillment

Communications

Explore how delivery notifications, delays, and updates are communicated to customers

Invoice Claims

Learn about Icelandic invoice claims as an alternative payment method for deliveries