less than a minute read • Updated 2 hours ago
How subscriptions work
An introduction to how Foxy handles recurring billing, what to know before getting started, and the key limitations to be aware of.
Foxy handles recurring billing by securely storing your customer’s payment information and automatically processing charges on a schedule you define. Unlike gateway-specific subscription solutions, Foxy gives you full control over billing frequency, start dates, and how failed payments are handled — without being locked into a single payment provider.
Subscriptions are accessible in three ways:
By you, through the Foxy admin or API
By your customers, through links included in their receipt emails by default
By developers, through the API and Subscription XML Datafeed
Before you get started
There are a few important things to understand before setting up subscriptions.
Failed payments are normal. Credit cards expire, get canceled, or become overdrafted. If you have 100 customers on a monthly subscription, expect a handful of failures each month. Foxy can be configured to automatically retry failed payments and send reminder emails, but you’ll need to monitor errors and follow up with customers. Often a customer simply needs a reminder to update their payment information.
Foxy does not send failed payment emails by default. Automatic retry and reminder emails must be configured in your store’s advanced settings. See Failed payments & retries for details.
Your payment gateway needs to be configured for subscriptions. Most gateways require a card security code (CSC/CVV) by default, which cannot be stored or sent for recurring transactions. If your gateway is not configured correctly, all subscription renewals will fail. See Gateway requirements for subscriptions before going live.
Custom shipping snippets do not work with subscriptions. Shipping snippets run as JavaScript in the browser, but subscriptions are processed entirely on the server side. Subscriptions will always calculate shipping based on how the store category is configured.
Testing is required before going live. Always test your subscription setup thoroughly before switching to live payments. See the testing documentation for details. Note that any subscriptions created while your store is in test mode will be set to active and will process once you switch to live servers — make sure to deactivate them first, or use a separate store for testing.