Subscription Renewal Process Summary

The renewals can be handled or offered with two different methods, manual, or automatic renewals. Both of these methods are supported by our Subscription support for our Ingenico.

WooCommerce provided a flow chart that maps out the most important actions being performed when handling a subscription renewal. You can check it out below:

From the flow chart, we can follow each flow and see which steps WooCommerce Subscriptions performs for both the automatic and manual renewal methods.

This table summarizes the differences between manual and automatic renewal methods:

	Manual Renewals	Automatic Renewals
Customer Involvement	Customer must log into your store and pay to renew the subscription.	No action is required by the customer to renew the subscription.
Coupons	Customer can use product and cart coupons to reduce the price of renewal because customer completes renewal via the normal checkout process.	Only recurring coupons applied at the start of the subscription will discount renewal payments as the customer is not involved in renewal payments.
Taxes	The tax charged for each renewal payment is calculated at the time the payment is processed because the customer completes renewal via the normal checkout process. Taxes on a pending renewal order reflect the tax line items on the subscription prior to checkout.	Taxes calculated at the time of sign-up are applied to all renewal payments. If you need to change recurring taxes, you need to manually change recurring tax line items for the subscription.
Payment Method	All payment gateway extensions can be used to process manual renewal payments. Customer can choose a different payment method for each renewal payment.	Some payment gateways support automatic renewals. The Subscription Payment Gateway Guide has a list of those that support automatic renewal payments. The The same payment method is used for all renewal payments (unless payment fails).
Shipping Method	Customers can choose a different shipping method for each renewal payment.	The same shipping method is used for all renewal payments (unless payment fails).
Changing Address	Customers can enter a different billing and/or shipping address for each renewal.	The same billing and shipping address are used for each renewal. This address is from the original order. Customers can change address for renewal orders to use a different one.
Email Notifications	If enabled, the Customer Renewal Invoice is emailed to the customer to prompt them to log in and pay to renew their subscription. After the customer has completed the payment, they receive the Processing/Completed Renewal Order email, and A New Renewal Order email is sent to Store Manager.	If enabled, the Processing or Completed Renewal Order email is sent to the customer as a record of automatic payment. The store Manager is emailed the New Renewal Order notification immediately as the payment is processed immediately.

If you’re interested in learning more about these processes, WooCommerce’s documentation team provided the full details in their guide – Renewal Process

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