Subscriptions

What is a Subscription?

A subscription in Journey is a recipe-based recurring billing container that automatically generates orders and processes payments based on defined frequencies. Unlike traditional subscription systems, Journey supports different billing frequencies for each item within a single subscription.

Key Innovation: Journey’s multi-frequency system allows items like “milk weekly, eggs bi-weekly, and coffee monthly” to coexist in one subscription, with intelligent delivery synchronization to minimize shipping costs.

The Recipe Model

Journey’s subscription system works like a recipe:

Subscription = Container

Holds customer information, delivery preferences, and payment processor configuration

Subscription Order Items = Recipe

Defines what products to deliver and how often (the “ingredients”)

Orders = Execution

Created automatically from the recipe on each billing cycle

Deliveries = Charging Events

Represent when the order will be delivered AND charged (dual purpose)

Payments = Financial Tracking

Track the transaction status for each order

Example: Multi-Frequency Subscription

{
  "subscription_id": 789,
  "customer_id": 42,
  "subscription_status": "active",
  "order_items": [
    {
      "product_variation_id": 5,  // Milk
      "quantity": 2,
      "subscription_frequency_id": 1  // Every 7 days (weekly)
    },
    {
      "product_variation_id": 8,  // Eggs
      "quantity": 1,
      "subscription_frequency_id": 2  // Every 14 days (bi-weekly)
    },
    {
      "product_variation_id": 12, // Coffee
      "quantity": 1,
      "subscription_frequency_id": 3  // Every 30 days (monthly)
    }
  ]
}

Subscription States

Status Definitions

Incomplete

Customer information and subscription created but missing payment information. This typically occurs when customers start the signup process but don’t complete it—they enter their details but never add a payment method (known as an “abandoned cart”). No charges are attempted until a payment method is added. This represents a recovery opportunity to re-engage these customers.

Active

The subscription is processing normally. Orders are created and payments are charged according to each item’s billing frequency. This is the healthy state.

Past Due

A recent payment failed with a retryable error (insufficient funds, card declined). The dunning process has started and will retry daily.Trigger: Payment declined with error codes like insufficient_funds, card_declined

Error

Payment failed with a card-related error (expired card, invalid card, fraud detection). Journey retries daily to settle payment but the error requires manual intervention or customer action, such as update payment method.Trigger: Technical payment errors or card issues

On Hold

The subscription is paused by customer or merchant. No new orders or charges occur. Can be resumed (on my pages and/or Journey admin) at any time without losing configuration. We encourage merchants to use on hold if the customer requests to stop subcription.Use Cases: Vacation, temporary or permanent financial hardship, seasonal or permanent pause.

Expired

The subscription has been automatically put to status expired after extended payment failure (exceeding failed_payment_cancelled_days, default 20 days). All pending deliveries are cancelled and the past due process has finished.Final State: Cannot be reactivated except with manual intervention by admin

Subscriptions progress through clearly defined states with automatic or manually triggered (on my pages) transitions:

Creating a Subscription

Setting up a new subscription follows a straightforward four-step process. Each step ensures the customer is verified, their payment method is secured, and their recurring order preferences are captured.

Capture Customer Information

Collect the customer’s basic information including name, email, phone number, and delivery address. This information is used for billing, customer communication, and order fulfillment.

Secure Payment Method

The customer adds and verifies a payment method (typically a credit or debit card). This is handled through a secure payment interface that keeps sensitive payment data protected while confirming the card is valid and active.

Create the Subscription

Once customer details and payment are confirmed, the subscription is activated. You can specify the start date and choose which delivery schedule option the customer prefers (e.g., weekly, bi-weekly, monthly).

Configure Recurring Items

The customer selects which products they want to receive and how frequently. For example, they might want item A delivered weekly and item B delivered bi-weekly. The system tracks these preferences and uses them during each automated billing cycle.

System Auto-Generates Orders

Once the subscription is live, the system automatically handles the rest:

Calculates when each item needs to be delivered based on the customer’s chosen frequency
Optimizes delivery dates to consolidate multiple items when possible
Coordinates with regional delivery schedules for efficiency
Creates orders and schedules deliveries
Charges the customer on their delivery date

Managing Subscriptions

Your team has full flexibility to manage active subscriptions, making it easy to retain customers through life changes and evolving needs.

Pause a Subscription

Allow customers to temporarily stop their subscriptions without canceling. This is useful for vacations, budget constraints, or seasonal needs. Control the Customer Experience: You decide whether customers can pause on their own or must contact your support team. This gives you options:

Self-service pause - Customers pause immediately through their My Pages (reduces support burden)
Manual pause - Customers email support to pause (gives you a chance to intervene and offer alternatives)

Capture Why They’re Pausing: You can define custom pause reasons for customers to choose from. Examples:

“Going on vacation”
“Budget constraints”
“Seasonal - will resume in spring”
“Product quality concerns”
“Too frequent deliveries”
“Switching to competitor”

Suggest Alternatives Before Pause: When a customer selects certain reasons, you can automatically suggest alternatives:

For “Too frequent” → “Would you prefer bi-weekly instead of weekly?”
For “Budget constraints” → “Would you like to delay your next delivery by 2 weeks?”
For “Seasonal” → “Would you like to resume automatically on [date]?”

This data helps you understand churn reasons and gives you opportunities to retain customers with adjusted terms rather than lost revenue. What Happens:

The subscription is placed on hold
No new charges occur
Customers can resume at any time without signing up again
Optionally, any pending deliveries can be cancelled if the customer prefers

Business Impact: Pause functionality significantly reduces churn because customers can easily come back without friction.

Resume a Subscription

When customers are ready to restart, they can resume their subscription instantly. What Happens:

The subscription becomes active again
The system recalculates delivery dates based on the resumed date
New orders begin generating immediately
You can optionally apply a “welcome back” discount to encourage re-engagement

Business Impact: Reactivating paused subscriptions is pure revenue recovery with minimal effort.

Update Product Selections

Customers can change which products they want to receive or adjust quantities at any time. What Happens:

New product preferences take effect immediately for future deliveries
Any orders already paid continue as-is (no disruption)
Changes only apply to upcoming deliveries, protecting your revenue pipeline

Business Impact: Flexibility here reduces churn from customers with changing preferences.

Subscription Frequencies

Each subscription item can have its own billing frequency:

Frequency	Description	Interval	Common Use Cases
Weekly	Every 7 days	7 days	Fresh groceries, meal kits
Bi-weekly	Every 14 days	14 days	Household supplies
Monthly	Every 30 days	1 month	Insurance premiums, SaaS
Bi-monthly	Every 60 days	60 days	Quarterly-lite products
Quarterly	Every 90 days	3 months	Seasonal items, insurance
Semi-Annual	Every 180 days	6 months	Long-term services
Annual	Every 365 days	12 months	Annual memberships

Each business can customize which frequency options are available for their subscriptions. This allows you to offer only the delivery schedules that make sense for your business model.

How Delivery Dates Are Calculated

The system automatically calculates when each item should be delivered next, based on its frequency. This calculation is more sophisticated than it might seem, especially for monthly deliveries. Examples:

Frequency	How It Works
Weekly	Each delivery is exactly 7 days after the previous one
Monthly	Delivered on the same date each month (e.g., always on the 15th), accounting for months with different numbers of days
Quarterly	Delivered every 3 months on the same day of the month

For instance, if a customer’s monthly delivery is on the 31st and one month only has 30 days, the system intelligently handles this edge case. This accuracy is critical for building customer trust and ensuring consistent, predictable billing. This ensures that subscriptions created on Jan. 31 will be billed on Feb. 28 (not March 3).

Common Use Cases

Insurance Premium Subscriptions

Perfect for recurring fees or premium charges with no physical product involved.

Aspect	Details
Items	1 monthly premium charge
Frequency	Monthly
Example	Car insurance premium auto-renewed each month

SaaS Subscriptions

Ideal for SaaS platforms offering tiered access or service levels.

Aspect	Details
Items	1 software plan/tier
Frequency	Monthly or annually
Example	Pro Plan subscription renewed every 12 months

E-commerce Box Subscriptions

Curated collections delivered as a complete package each month.

Aspect	Details
Items	Multiple curated products (e.g., 2 full-size + 1 sample item)
Delivery	Monthly shipment
Frequency	All items ship together monthly
Example	Beauty box with 3 items arriving together each month

Mixed-Frequency Grocery Subscription

The most powerful example: a single subscription with items delivered at different frequencies, all intelligently synchronized. Subscription Contents:

Item	Quantity	Delivery Frequency
Fresh Milk	2 bottles	Every week
Eggs	1 dozen	Every 2 weeks
Coffee	1 bag	Every month

How it Works: The system automatically orchestrates these different schedules. Some weeks the customer receives just milk. Other weeks, milk arrives with eggs. Once a month, all three items come together. The customer never has to think about it and the system coordinates everything automatically. Timeline Example:

Week 1: Milk arrives (charged) + Coffee arrives (charged)
Week 2: Milk arrives (charged) + Eggs arrive (charged)
Week 3: Milk arrives (charged)
Week 4: Milk arrives (charged) + Eggs arrive (charged)
Week 5: Milk arrives (charged) + Coffee arrives (charged)
(pattern repeats)

This is where Journey’s intelligence shines, managing complex recurring orders that would otherwise frustrate customers or require manual coordination.

Delivery & Fulfillment

Learn about deliveries of physical products are handled

Recurring Payments

Understand payment processing and billing cycles

What is Journey?

Payments

Customer Engagement

Analytics

Subscriptions

What is a Subscription?

The Recipe Model

Example: Multi-Frequency Subscription

Subscription States

Status Definitions

Creating a Subscription

System Auto-Generates Orders

Managing Subscriptions

Pause a Subscription

Resume a Subscription

Update Product Selections

Subscription Frequencies

How Delivery Dates Are Calculated

Common Use Cases

Insurance Premium Subscriptions

SaaS Subscriptions

E-commerce Box Subscriptions

Mixed-Frequency Grocery Subscription

Delivery & Fulfillment

Recurring Payments

​What is a Subscription?

​The Recipe Model

​Example: Multi-Frequency Subscription

​Subscription States

​Status Definitions

​Creating a Subscription

​System Auto-Generates Orders

​Managing Subscriptions

​Pause a Subscription

​Resume a Subscription

​Update Product Selections

​Subscription Frequencies

​How Delivery Dates Are Calculated

​Common Use Cases

​Insurance Premium Subscriptions

​SaaS Subscriptions

​E-commerce Box Subscriptions

​Mixed-Frequency Grocery Subscription

​Related Concepts

Delivery & Fulfillment

Recurring Payments

What is a Subscription?

The Recipe Model

Example: Multi-Frequency Subscription

Subscription States

Status Definitions

Creating a Subscription

System Auto-Generates Orders

Managing Subscriptions

Pause a Subscription

Resume a Subscription

Update Product Selections

Subscription Frequencies

How Delivery Dates Are Calculated

Common Use Cases

Insurance Premium Subscriptions

SaaS Subscriptions

E-commerce Box Subscriptions

Mixed-Frequency Grocery Subscription

Related Concepts