Get Started with Subscriptions

It is important to take the following steps and understand certain key features before getting started with subscriptions on the Cleverbridge platform.

Share and Store Information

Follow these recommended approaches to ensure you and Cleverbridge share and use a common unique identifier for each customer. It ensures you link subscription purchase data with the appropriate customer:

Provide a unique customer ID to Cleverbridge

At the time of the initial purchase, supply a customer ID value from your internal systems to Cleverbridge for use in the Cleverbridge platform. Using your own customer ID allows your internal applications to interact easily with customer subscriptions and related data in the Cleverbridge platform.

Store the subscription identifier created by Cleverbridge

Upon completion of a purchase, Cleverbridge provides you with a notification containing data such as the subscription ID and the associated customer ID you supplied Cleverbridge. Save the subscription ID within your own applications for API calls and associated Cleverbridge event notifications.

Use the GetSubscription API endpoint to retrieve and store basic information about a subscription at the initial purchase to:

• have basic subscription information readily available for internal use.
• save time by avoiding unnecessaryGetSubscription API calls in the future.

Complete Implementation Tasks

Use the checklist below to get started:

• Request Subscription API access
• Review subscription documentation
• Resolve questions with Cleverbridge Client Experience
• Create your hosted pages
• Complete integration and testing
• Test in production

Set up Notifications

Cleverbridge provides a comprehensive and powerful set of automated notifications, alerting you to events such as when a new subscription is created or when an existing subscription is updated.

Make use of Cleverbridge notifications as they ensure an effective and seamless integration between our platform and your system. For more information, see Notifications Overview.

Subscription Billing

Subscription updates using Subscription API and the subscription payment process are decoupled from one another. This decoupling enhances the subscription API call performance and results in the automatic handling of unprocessed online payments.

If a payment could not be processed:

• The customer receives an email, including a link to update the credit card information or to change the payment method .
• You receive a notification that a payment failed.

If the customer updates the credit card information or changes the payment method, Cleverbridge re-processes the purchase and calculates the next billing date automatically. Upon successful payment, you automatically receive a notification that the purchase has been paid.

Subscription Alignment

Learn more about key parameters before running subscription API calls.

Check: Alignment Settings

Status IDs

Auto-renewal Subscriptions Diagram

The following diagram depicts the statuses that can be set for an auto-renewal subscription at the time of the initial purchase, and how the status can change.