CommerceCommerce GlossaryPart 5 of 12
Subscriptions and Memberships Glossary
29 terms from the Commerce book's Subscriptions and Memberships part, each defined in a line and linked to the chapter that explains it.
- Account updater: a network service that refreshes stored card numbers and expiries when cards are reissued, run before each renewal batch (Stored Cards & Recurring Billing; for subscriptions, Subscription Commerce).
- Anchor (subscription): the day a subscription's cycle aligns to, such as the 15th of each month; without one, the cycle follows the first successful charge (Subscription Commerce).
- Automatic renewal law (ARL): a state statute governing disclosure, consent, reminders and cancellation for subscriptions that renew unless cancelled, California's being the most detailed (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Billing attempt: one try at charging a renewal, keyed by renewal and attempt number so a rerun can't charge twice (Subscription Commerce).
- Breakage (points): points expected never to be redeemed, recognized in proportion to redemptions when the seller expects to be entitled to it (Memberships & Loyalty).
- Build-a-box: a subscription whose contents the customer picks within rules each cycle, read at cutoff (Subscription Commerce).
- Cancellation flow: the screens between a cancel request and its confirmation, including reasons and save offers, configured per jurisdiction and versioned (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Charge lead: the days a renewal is charged before its order ships, which moves the customer's deadline to change it and the anchor for reminders (Subscription Commerce).
- Click to cancel: California's required online cancellation link or button, which must be shown alongside any online save offer (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Continuous service: California's term for a subscription that continues until the consumer cancels, as opposed to a renewal at the end of a definite term (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Curated box: a subscription whose contents the merchant chooses each cycle (Subscription Commerce).
- Cutoff: a buffer before the anchor after which a new or changed subscription misses the current cycle (Subscription Commerce).
- Dunning: the sequence of retries and customer messages after a recurring payment fails; for goods, the renewal order waits until it succeeds (Stored Cards & Recurring Billing; Subscription Commerce).
- Involuntary churn: subscribers lost to failed payment rather than cancellation, reported apart because its fix is billing (Subscription Commerce).
- Loyalty ledger: the append-only record of points earned, vested, redeemed, reversed and expired, from which balances and the liability are computed (Memberships & Loyalty).
- Material right: an option, such as accumulated reward points, that gives a customer something they wouldn't get without the purchase; part of the price is deferred and recognized when the points are redeemed or expire (Memberships & Loyalty).
- Need-timed subscription: a subscription whose dates follow an outside rule (region and season) rather than consumption, as Pestie's reapplication schedule does (Subscription Commerce).
- Paid membership: a fee for access or benefits renewed on a term, such as Costco, Prime or Walmart+; the fee is deferred and recognized over the term (Memberships & Loyalty).
- Prepaid plan: one charge for several scheduled shipments, held as a liability and recognized as each ships (Subscription Commerce).
- Replenishment subscription: a subscription to a product used up at a steady rate, whose interval is the consumption rate (Subscription Commerce).
- ROSCA (Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act): the US federal law (15 U.S.C. 8403) requiring clear disclosure of material terms before billing information is collected, express informed consent and simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Save offer: a pause, skip, swap or discount offered during cancellation, lawful only on conditions such as a visible cancel option or the consumer's permission (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Selling plan: Shopify's name for a subscription offer on a product (interval, anchor, cutoff, pricing), grouped into selling plan groups such as subscribe-and-save or prepaid (Subscription Commerce).
- Skip: a subscriber's choice to miss one cycle, recorded as a skipped renewal rather than an absence (Subscription Commerce).
- Subscribe-and-save: a discount off the one-time price for choosing a subscription, set by the plan's pricing policy (Subscription Commerce).
- Swap: changing a subscription line's variant (flavor, size) from the next renewal (Subscription Commerce).
- Tier (loyalty): a status level earned by qualifying activity in a window, with its own benefits and a requalification date (Memberships & Loyalty).
- Unconditional gift (goods): the rule in California, North Dakota and Oregon that goods sent under an automatic renewal without the required consent are the consumer's to keep, free (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).
- Withdrawal (EU and UK): the consumer's 14-day right to cancel a distance contract without reason, from first delivery for regular deliveries of goods, distinct from cancelling future renewals (Auto-Renewal & Cancellation Law).