Overview

A common pitfall throughout the eCommerce landscape is represented by focusing on customer base growth at the expense of neglecting existing customers. While growing your customer base is key to a business's success, customer retention is equally important, especially from a financial standpoint. One of the most frequent mistakes businesses do in terms of customer retention is ignoring the customers once they brought them on board.

Analyzing customer data from hundreds of companies in our portfolio, we’ve concluded that shoppers are much more invested in continuing their subscriptions when approached through proactive retention strategies. As a result, online renewals proved to be more than twice as effective as offline ones, while automatic renewals saved three times more subscriptions than manual ones.

While developing your retention subscriber retention strategy, make sure to clearly inform your users about the incurred charges and billing cycles, and give them the ability to easily cancel automatic renewals, should they not need them. Keep in mind that placing your customers in control of their subscription management process is paramount to preventing and reducing your refunds and/or chargeback rates.

2Checkout’s retention tools introduce a smart and easy way to reduce customer churn and gain useful insights about what drives customers to cancel automatic renewals. Use 2Checkout’s out of the box retention capabilities to:

• Leverage proactive subscription enrollment to increase renewals and generate additional revenue. Use special deals to deepen loyalty and incentivize your customers to enroll in automatic subscription renewals.
• Decrease churn and prevent recurring revenue from “leaking” by converting cancelations into continued subscriptions. Offer the right incentives to the customers that decided to cancel their subscriptions and make them change their mind at the point of exit.
• Turn threats into opportunities by capturing your customers’ feedback at the point of cancelation.

Auto-renewal enrollment

If your customers purchased subscriptions from you and disabled the automatic renewal upon purchase, try to convert them to a recurring billing plan. An easy way to increase your revenue and customer retention rate is by proactively incentivizing your customers to enroll in auto-renewal campaigns. Do this via 2Checkout’s retention tools and configure discounts for one or multiple billing cycles. Your customers see the discounts in 2Checkout myAccount and they can quickly enable automatic renewal from their account.

Important: 2Checkout triggers auto-renewal enrollment campaigns only for products/subscriptions paid for with online payment methods.

2Checkout recommendations

Based on existing auto-renewal enrollment campaigns, 2Checkout recommends starting with a 15% discount for one billing cycle.

2Checkout vendors have successfully configured proactive enrollment campaigns offering discounts from 15% up to 25% for one billing cycle. This ultimately led to increases in sales of up to three times the value of the awarded discounts without counting the entire customer lifecycle value.

We recommend testing such campaigns for specific products with different time intervals and with different tiers of discounts. This way you can choose the best discounts for your customers and increase revenue and their lifetime value.

Behavior

Use promotions to enroll your customers in auto-renewal campaigns by leveraging 2Checkout myAccount. Your customers will see campaign teasers such as the one below.

Churn prevention

Subscribers enrolled in auto-renewal campaigns are 3.5 times more likely to continue their subscriptions. Churn prevention tools help you prevent recurring revenue from “leaking” by converting terminations into continued subscriptions.

2Checkout gives you an easy way to configure churn prevention campaigns so that you can:

• Engage and collect feedback from your churning subscribers to optimize your products, marketing campaigns, and business operations. You can extract valuable information from cancellation reasons, such as pricing, feature ideas, competitor information, or just service quality improvements.
• Solidify your recurring revenue by offering discounts to customers who want to cancel recurring billing, incentivizing them to keep auto-renewal enabled for their subscriptions.

2Checkout recommendations

Based on existing churn prevention campaigns, 2Checkout recommends asking for customer feedback and subsequently offers a 15% to 35% discount for one billing cycle. This configuration ultimately led to an increase in recovered volumes of more than 4 times the value of the awarded discounts, not considering the entire customer lifecycle value.

Behavior

Once you've started the campaign, your shoppers are notified in myAccount whenever they try to stop subscription auto-renewals for the products included in the campaign. You can customize the message displayed to your shoppers and choose whether or not to gather feedback.

The first pop-up displays either the default message shown below or the one you customize.

The next pop-up asks for a cancellation reason and shopper feedback (if you choose to gather it).

The last pop-up shows the discount that you offered for keeping the auto-renewal.

Should customers accept your discount, 2Checkout renews the subscription at the specified discounted price and improves your churn rate.

Conclusion

2Checkout’s retention tools are a key feature in increasing your revenue and customer lifetime value through customer incentives. At the same time, they can help you get important insights on how your customers see your products, what they love and/or dislike about them and what you can do to stay competitive.

Make sure you configure retention campaigns and test multiple scenarios. Different customers have different needs, so they might react differently to unique discounts. Incentivize them to keep their subscriptions active and fine-tune your retention campaigns for maximum impact on your revenue and churn rate.

Overview

Upload usage data through the 2Checkout API from a CSV (comma-separated values) file. 2Checkout will capture the parameters sent and import the usage data into the system. Once the upload process is complete, you'll be able to access the uploaded file in the Usage area of the Merchant Control Panel.

Use the importUsageFromCsv method via SOAP APIv6 to upload usage from a CSV file.

Set the DATE parameter to GMT+2 time zone, when making the API call to the Usage Upload endpoint.

Method and URL

POST: https://api.2checkout.com/subscription/payperusage/receiver/index.php

Parameters

Request Example

<?php
//hmac
$date             = date("Y-m-d");
$fileReceived_md5 = md5_file("[Path to the CSV file used for usage upload]");
$merchantCode     = "";
/* 2Checkout Code */
$merchantKey      = "";
/* Merchant Secret Key */
$hashParams       = "MERCHANT={$merchantCode}&FILE={$fileReceived_md5}&DATE={$date}";
$hmac             = hash_hmac('md5', $hashParams, $merchantKey);
?>

<html>
<body>
<form method="post" action="https://api.2checkout.com/subscription/payperusage/receiver/index.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="text" name="MERCHANT" value="<?php
echo $merchantCode;
?>" /><br />
<input type="text" name="HASH" value="<?php
echo $hmac;
?>" /><br />
<input type="file" name="OPTIONS" /><br />
<input type="hidden" name="FILE_MD5" value="<?php
echo $fileReceived_md5;
?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="DATE" value="<?php
echo $date;
?>" />
<input type="submit" /><br />
</form>
</body>
</html>

Error handling

Overview

Use the deletePromotionSources method to define new sources for an existing promotion.

Parameters

Response

Request

<?php

function callRPC($Request, $host, $Debug = true) {
    $curl = curl_init($host);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, true);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 0);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json', 'Accept: application/json'));
    $RequestString = json_encode($Request);
    curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $RequestString);
    if ($Debug) {
        $RequestString;
    }
    $ResponseString = curl_exec($curl);
    if ($Debug) {
        $ResponseString;
    }
    if (!empty($ResponseString)) {
        var_dump($ResponseString);
        $Response = json_decode($ResponseString);
        if (isset($Response->result)) {
            return $Response->result;
        }
        if (!is_null($Response->error)) {
            var_dump($Request->method, $Response->error);
        }
    } else {
        return null;
    }
}

$host = 'https://api.avangate.com/rpc/3.1/';

$merchantCode = "YOUR_MERCHANT_CODE"; // your account's merchant code available in the 'System settings' area of the cPanel: https://secure.avangate.com/cpanel/account_settings.php
$key = "YOUR_SECRET_KEY"; // your account's secret key available in the 'System settings' area of the cPanel: https://secure.avangate.com/cpanel/account_settings.php

$string = strlen($merchantCode) . $merchantCode . strlen(gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s')) . gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$hash = hash_hmac('md5', $string, $key);

$i = 1;

$jsonRpcRequest = new stdClass();
$jsonRpcRequest->jsonrpc = '2.0';
$jsonRpcRequest->method = 'login';
$jsonRpcRequest->params = array($merchantCode, gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s'), $hash);
$jsonRpcRequest->id = $i++;

$sessionID = callRPC($jsonRpcRequest, $host);

// Promotion code corresponding to the promotion you want to remove sources from
$promotionCode = '';

// Sources array with the source values 
$sources = ['source1', 'source2'];

$jsonRpcRequest = array (
'jsonrpc' => '2.0',
'id' => $i++,
'method' => 'deletePromotionSources',
'params' => array($sessionID, $promotionCode, $sources)
);
var_dump (callRPC($jsonRpcRequest, $host));

Overview

Use this object to retrieve information about additional order/product fields. 

Parameters

Overview

Use the addPricingConfiguration method to add a new pricing configuration for your account.

Parameters

Response

bool(true)

Request

<?php

require ('PATH_TO_AUTH');

$PricingConfiguration = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Default = True;
$PricingConfiguration->Name = 'New Pricing Configuration Through API';
$PricingConfiguration->BillingCountries = array();
$PricingConfiguration->BillingCountries[0] = 'RO';
$PricingConfiguration->BillingCountries[1] = 'DE';
$PricingConfiguration->PricingSchema = 'DYNAMIC';
$PricingConfiguration->PriceType = 'NET';
$PricingConfiguration->DefaultCurrency = 'USD';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->Amount = 69.09;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->Currency = 'USD';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->MinQuantity = 1;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->MaxQuantity = 35;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Code = 'G77ICHEM1C';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[0] = 'zh5onfolw7';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[1] = '75rjldfcnz';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Code = 'BAWAQB8LZP';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[0] = 'r3oi06opvi';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[1] = '76gqbq4bhd';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->Amount = 64.66;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->Currency = 'USD';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->MinQuantity = 36;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->MaxQuantity = 83;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Code = '8RNXV3T3RE';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[0] = 'rorqkqnd9p';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[1] = 'aeu89gqdg6';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Code = 'DJYD713MKC';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[0] = 'y2z2squ7c1';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Regular[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[1] = 'g74qfskbjg';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->Amount = 7.89;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->Currency = 'USD';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->MinQuantity = 84;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->MaxQuantity = 100;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Code = '73QCSXYH0E';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[0] = '54xu7mngqm';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[1] = 'p6m8im2unl';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Code = '0QD0CF0OIE';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[0] = 'ytbac9wpmh';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[0]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[1] = 'lpkxxqsqxb';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->Amount = 76.99;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->Currency = 'USD';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->MinQuantity = 101;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->MaxQuantity = 544;
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Code = '03APF0H4QF';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[0] = '15ce5uw2j6';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[0]->Options[1] = 'e88d5hk0tb';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Code = 'PT00TYI2VY';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options = array();
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[0] = '10c24smlbl';
$PricingConfiguration->Prices->Renewal[1]->OptionCodes[1]->Options[1] = '0ondbwdk3q';
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions = array();
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[0] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[0]->Code = 'FKQ8CFLYKM';
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[0]->Required = false;
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[1] = new stdClass();
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[1]->Code = 'TH1HKFOTFR';
$PricingConfiguration->PriceOptions[1]->Required = true;

$ProductCode= 'API_Imported_123456';

$jsonRpcRequest = array (
'jsonrpc' => '2.0',
'id' => $i++,
'method' => 'addPricingConfiguration',
'params' => array($sessionID, $PricingConfiguration, $ProductCode) //Use product ID and not product code for API versions 2.3 and earlier
);

var_dump (callRPC((Object)$jsonRpcRequest, $host));

?>

Overview

Make it mandatory for your partners to attach end user information to orders.

You can also attach end user information on behalf of your partners.

Important

When you enable this feature/require end user information, 2Checkout will fulfill/deliver orders only after the mandatory details are provided. When supplied by either you or your partners, required end user details trigger the finalization of purchases and orders reach the Complete status.

Requirements

You need to configure at least one electronic delivery codes list, either static or dynamic to use this feature. You can manage code lists in the Electronic Delivery page.

How does this feature work?

When enabled, this feature makes end user information a requirement, and introduces a mandatory stage in the ordering process. End user information needs to be supplied by you, your partners or the end users for the orders to be fulfilled/delivered and reach the Complete status. Once attached, end user info is used for the details of the Customer entity created for each subscription.

1. Attach end user info AFTER placing the order
   
   • Manually for each license/subscription.
   • Via CSV (comma separated values) upload.
   • Send a registration email to customers and let them enter the end user information themselves.
2. Attach end user info BEFORE placing the order
   
   • Manually for each license/subscription.
   • Via a CSV (comma separated values) file.

Partners have to provide the necessary details to push the order to the delivery/fulfillment stage, but you can also provide the details if you have them.

Alternatively, fulfillment can be done exclusively to partners, leaving them to deal with their customers, and in this case, no additional info is required.

When the system configuration is set to distribute products/keys to end users, customers are required to first register ahead of delivery/fulfillment.

Enable this feature

To require end user information for each order:

1. Go to:
   
   • The Partners area of the Control Panel if you're enabling the feature for a single reseller.
   • The Partnership programs area of the Control Panel if your enabling the feature for a group of resellers governed by the same partner program.
2. Search for and edit:
   
   • A specific partner.
   • A partner program.
3. Select the Commercial settings tab in either area.
4. Scroll down to the Delivery settings area.
5. Check the Requires end user information option under Codes Delivery.
6. Select the After placing the order option to make end user information mandatory after orders are placed.
7. Select the Before placing the order option to make end user information a mandatory stage of the ordering process.
8. Orders are fulfilled/delivered and reach the Complete status only if end user information is attached.

Attaching end user information

Both you and your partners can add end user information after placing orders. End user information needs to be attached to the placed order for the 2Checkout system to fulfill/deliver it, otherwise, the order will not reach the Complete status.

Additionally, you can now identify end users/customers by the ‘customer external ID’ information in the listing results of the license report, without having to generate and open a CSV file. 

Manually

To attach end user information, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Partner orders.
2. Search for and Edit an order.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen in the View Order page.
4. Click Add now.
5. Fill in all required info in the End user details.
6. Click Save.

The end user details provided will also be copied to the customer information associated with the subscription.

CSV upload

As an alternative to manually attaching end user information to orders, you can upload CSV files with the desired details. Follow the steps below to do this.

1. Go to Orders & customers -> Partner orders
2. Search for an order.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen in the View Order area.
4. Click Upload end user information in a .CSV file.
5. Download the .CSV template provided.
6. Fill in the end user details. It's very important that you do not modify the headers of the document template available for download, either by altering the text or by changing their order to ensure that the information will be introduced correctly into the system. Be advised that the CSV templates are each tailored (containing the 2Checkout license/subscription references) to the specific order for which you're downloading them.
7. Upload the .CSV file.

Overview

Use this method to place an order.

Requirements

Parameters

Response

Request

<?php

require('PATH_TO_AUTH'); // Authentication example: https://knowledgecenter.avangate.com/Integration/Channel_Manager_API/SOAP/02Authentication
require('PATH_TO_setPartner'); // setPartner example: https://knowledgecenter.avangate.com/Integration/Channel_Manager_API/SOAP/06Reference/Partner/00Set_partner
require('PATH_TO_addProduct'); // addProduct example: https://knowledgecenter.avangate.com/Integration/Channel_Manager_API/SOAP/06Reference/08Place_an_order/00Add_product_to_cart

try {
    $Order= $client->placeOrder ($sessionID);
} catch (SoapFault $e) {
    echo "PlacedOrder: " . $e->getMessage();
    exit;
}
var_dump ("PlacedOrder", $Order);

Overview

Use the searchPromotions method to extract information on promotions you set up for your account.

Parameters

Response

Request

<?php

require ('PATH_TO_AUTH');

$searchOptions = new stdClass();
$searchOptions->Types = array ('REGULAR');
$searchOptions->Channel = 'ECOMMERCE';
$searchOptions->ProductCode = 'Product_Code_1';
$searchOptions->Enabled = TRUE;
$searchOptions->Limit = 99;
$searchOptions->Page = 1;
$searchOptions->Coupons = “81XS55D1,E14SSF17;

$jsonRpcRequest = array (
'jsonrpc' => '2.0',
'id' => $i++,
'method' => 'searchPromotions',
'params' => array($sessionID, $searchOptions)
);
var_dump (callRPC((Object)$jsonRpcRequest, $host));
?>

Overview

Use the Promotion object to retrieve information on discounts/promotions you set up for your account.

Parameters

Overview

Shoppers can access order confirmations when they place orders. The PDF download link is  displayed in

1. The Thank You pages
2. myAccount
3. The confirmation email that they receive after placing the order

This applies to orders paid for through the following payment methods:

1. Purchase orders
2. Wire transfers
3. Checks

Availability

All 2Checkout accounts.

Example

Shopping cart

1. Your shoppers need to select Purchase order, Wire Transfer or Check as their payment option and select any preferred billing currency and/or other required payment details. Then, they need to click Continue.
2. Once they've reached the Thank You page, they need to click the Download order confirmation in order to download their partner invoice in PDF format.

myAccount

Your shoppers can also download the PDF from myAccount by visiting the Order details section for their order and clicking the Download order confirmation link.

Email

The confirmation email that the shoppers receive after placing the order also contains the PDF download link.