Gift Subscriptions
Last updated
Last updated
Mavenseed supports multiple different types of gift subscriptions, ranging from simple discounts to subscriptions that customers can gift other customers. These are created just like a normal gift card, except that for a gift subscription, you'll specify a subscription plan (that you've already created) that the customer will be placed on once they claim the gift subscription.
To start, create a Gift Card like you normally would under the eCommerce tab.
To make this gift card a gift subscription, select the Subscription Plan that you would like to associate with this gift subscription. For example, if you would like to sell a gift card for a 30 day subscription, select any of your monthly plans. If you want to sell a yearly gift subscription, then select any of your yearly subscription plan offerings.
For the price, fill the amount that you'd like to sell the gift card for. In most cases you would just fill out the cost of the subscription plan, but there are some cases where you might want to charge more (or less). This is the price that the purchaser will pay for the gift card.
Once you've created the gift card you will see it together with the other gift cards on your site at yoursite.com/gift-cards.
The purchase process follows just like a normal gift card purchase.
Recipients of gift card subscription are sent an email immediately after a gift card purchase is made. The email is sent to the recipient email address that the purchaser filled out when purchasing the gift subscription.
Upon clicking the link they are brought to a page on your site that allows them to claim the gift subscription.
Depending on a variety of factors will determine what happens next. Mavenseed supports gift subscriptions for:
new customers
existing customers without a subscription
existing customers with a subscription
existing customers with a manually created, or recently claimed gift subscription
If the recipient isn't a customer on your site, then they will see the following screen:
The subscription will be created with the plan that you attached to the gift card. The payment method of the subscription will be set as "gift" and the expiration will be set according to the plan interval. For example, if the plan was for "monthly" then the expiration will be set 30 days from the date the gift was claimed. If yearly, it will be set to 1 year from the date the gift was claimed.
If the recipient already has an account on your site, but does not have a subscription, the app will recognize them with a personal greeting. This is the screen that they will see.
Clicking log in will take them to the log in screen, and upon successful login will redirect them back to the Claim Gift page, with a button for them to claim the gift subscription.
The subscription will be created with the plan that you attached to the gift card. The payment method of the subscription will be set as "gift" and the expiration will be set according to the plan interval. For example, if the plan was for "monthly" then the expiration will be set 30 days from the date the gift was claimed. If yearly, it will be set to 1 year from the date the gift was claimed.
If the customer has an existing subscription, the system will respond in one of three different ways depending on the payment method.
Stripe - For customers who's subscription payment method is Stripe, a credit will be applied to the customers balance (by way of a Balance Transaction) in the amount of the subscription plan. So if a $29 plan is attached to the gift card, then it will create a $29 credit that's automatically applied to the next invoice.
Customers will be able to see this credit for themselves on their account page:
Gift or Manual - For customers that have an existing gift subscription, or if their subscription was created manually, then the date of the expiration is set depending on the interval of the attached plan. For example, if the Gift Subscription is still active, and a monthly subscription is gifted, then 30 days will be added to the end of the current expiration.
PayPal
For customers paying with PayPal, unfortunately we're limited by what we can due to limitations from PayPal. In this case, the customer is prompted to contact you via the default email set in your sites settings.
From here you have at least one option, by canceling their subscription in Braintree and creating a new one with the new expiration date.
The person who purchased the gift subscription will be able to tell whether or not the subscription was claimed. They can also resend the email to the recipient, or they can copy the link provided if they want to send the link to them manually.
