ShopSite’s New Recurring Payments Feature

If you sell products or services with a recurring payment (e.g. subscriptions, recurring scheduled deliveries, product-of-the-month clubs, maintenance agreements, etc.) ShopSite’s latest release (v10SP1) makes it easy to automate your credit card billing with Authorize.Net’s Automated Recurring Billingtm (ARB) feature.

Authorize.Net’s ARB feature securely stores your customer’s billing information and automatically charges their account on your schedule. Setting up recurring payments in ShopSite is a two-step process. The first step is configuring your Authorize.Net gateway information in ShopSite. After ShopSite is configured you can setup recurring payments for applicable products.

Configuring Authorize.Net in ShopSite
You must have an Authorize.Net account with ARB before setting it up in ShopSite. (If you don’t have an Authorize.Net account you can see more information and apply here.)

In your ShopSite back-office:

• Click the Commerce Icon (in the top navigation).
• Click the Payment button.
• Select (check-on) the types of credit cards that you accept. (Note that your Authorize.Net account must be configured for the same types of credit cards.)
• Scroll down to the “Credit Card Processing” section and select Authorize.Net as the Processor.
• Click the Configure Processor button.
• Select (check-on) the option to enable ARB.
• Enter your Authorize.Net API Login ID and Transaction Key. (These are setup in your Authorize.Net account.)
• Review and change the other Authorize.Net settings and click the Save Settings button.
• Review and change the other Payment settings and click the Save Settings button.

Configuring Products for Recurring Payments
ShopSite is now configured to use Authorize.Net and will display recurring payment options on the Product screen.

In your ShopSite back-office:

• Click the Products icon (in the top navigation).
• You must use Advanced Editing. If an Advanced Editing button is displayed, click it to switch to Advanced Editing. (If a Basic Editing button is displayed, you are already using Advanced Editing.)
• Click the Add A Product button or select a product to edit. Recurring payment settings are after the On Sale Price setting.
• Select (check-on) the Enable ARB setting.
• Select a billing cycle (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Twice-Yearly or Yearly).
• Enter the recurring amount.
• Select the Ending Period. This is the number of times the charge will be repeated. You can choose 1 to 99 recurrences or “Never” if the charge should repeat until you cancel it manually.
• Select the Bill Date. You can select “Order Date” to use the day of the month on which the order was placed or choose a specific day of the month from 1 to 31.
• If you offer a free-trial or reduced trial price, enter the trial amount and the number of cycles before the trial expires.
• If you charge a setup or other one-time fee enter the amount.
• Setup your other Product settings and click the Save Changes or Edit Layout button.

Recurring Payments Good Practices
Communicating with your customer is critical:

• Obtain the customer’s permission to automatically charge their credit card and include your recurring payment terms on all customer communications.
• Remind customers on follow up communications that they gave you permission to automatically charge their credit card, what day their card will be charged and how much their card will be charged.
• Tell customers how they can terminate recurring payments (per your sale terms) and how to contact you if they have a question or problem.
• Credit cards expire and customers change credit cards. Give your customers an easy way to update their credit card information. (The Commerce->Payment->Configure Processor screen in ShopSite includes a URL that customers can use to update their credit card information.)
• Monitor and follow up credit cards that will expire before the next billing cycle. Authorize.Net will email an upcoming expirations report.
• Ensure that your shopping cart, hosting, and credit card platforms are PCI DSS (www.pcisecuritystandards.org/) compliant.

atStuff LLC is a Certified ShopSite Designer and an Authorize.Net Preferred Reseller and has a direct relationship with both companies. For more information about our services, including custom ShopSite development, please contact us. Tell us how we can help.

Tagged as: Authorize.Net, checkout, recurring_payments, ShopSite