---
title: "Add the cancellation link to the renewal reminder"
description: "The {*cancel_url*} link lets your customers cancel from the renewal reminder without logging in: what they see, how long it works, what happens next, the text to copy and paste, and how to add or remove it."
url: https://www.ciklik.academy/en/contenu-mails/lien-de-resiliation-dans-le-rappel-de-renouvellement/
lang: en
lastUpdated: 2026-10-22
---

# Add the cancellation link to the renewal reminder

> Box and PrestaShop
>
> This page applies to both box stores and PrestaShop stores.

Key points

The “Upcoming renewal” reminder can contain a link that lets your customer cancel the subscription **without logging in**. Its address is the variable `{*cancel_url*}`: Ciklik replaces it at each sending with the link specific to the customer’s subscription. The default template of new sites already contains the sentence. Your existing templates are never changed automatically: if you want to offer this link, add the sentence from this page yourself. It is optional: you may also choose not to offer it.

## What your customer sees

1. They receive the renewal reminder, 5 days before the payment, at 9 a.m. (Paris time). If the sentence is in your template, it contains the link “cancel my subscription”.

2. They click the link. They land on a page of your site, **with no login** and no password. The page summarizes their subscription: name, masked email address (for example `j***@example.com`), contract reference, next renewal date and the effect of the cancellation.

3. They click the button **“I want to cancel this subscription and no longer be charged”**. Only this button cancels: opening the page changes nothing.

4. The page says “Your subscription is cancelled”, and a confirmation email arrives in their inbox.

This page skips the questions and offers of the [cancellation flow](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/retention/tunnel-de-desabonnement/).

## How long the link works

- It is valid **until the day before the renewal date, at 11:59 p.m. (UTC)**. In Paris time, that is 1:59 a.m. on the renewal date in summer time (0:59 a.m. in winter). The payment goes out on the renewal date, after this limit.
- It stops working if the renewal date changes in the meantime (renewal, postponement): the page then says the link is no longer valid.
- It works from the start of the subscription, including during the **first 12 days**, when cancelling from the customer account may be blocked.
- **No link for a cycle shorter than one month** (a weekly or every-2-weeks plan, for instance; 4 weeks count as a month). In that case, Ciklik removes the sentence from the email sent. Your template itself is not changed.

The same link is used by the button of the [WhatsApp renewal reminder](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/retention/rappels-de-renouvellement-par-whatsapp/), when you have chosen that button.

## What happens after the cancellation

- **The cancellation is immediate.** The subscription becomes cancelled: it is not renewed and the scheduled payment does not go out.
- **Pending orders.** On recently created PrestaShop stores, pending orders are closed when the subscription is cancelled, so that a retry can no longer charge the customer. On other sites, an order already pending may still be charged: the confirmation page tells the customer so.
- **The confirmation email.** An acknowledgment is sent right away by email, with the date of the cancellation, its effect and the contract reference. It is sent even if your “Subscription canceled” template is disabled: Ciklik then sends a plain email in your site’s colors. If that template is active, its text is used, followed by this paragraph.

> PrestaShop sites created before this version
>
> On a PrestaShop site created before this version, the **Close pending orders** setting is not enabled by default. Enable it so that a customer who cancels through this link is no longer charged by a retry: in **Settings > Sites**, open your site’s record, **Advanced** tab, tick **Close pending orders**, then save. This setting applies to all cancellations made after it is enabled, including those made from the customer account.

## Security in brief

- **Personal link.** Each link is valid for one subscription and one renewal date only.
- **Signed.** The address carries a signature: a changed address is refused. The link contains no password and no bank details.
- **Opening the link cancels nothing.** Antivirus software and link previews open addresses: only the confirmation cancels.
- **Single use, in practice.** Once the cancellation is done, the same link only shows “This subscription is already cancelled”.
- **Keep it private.** Anyone who has the link can cancel the subscription. For this reason, the page is not indexed by search engines and does not pass its address on to third-party sites.

## If the link has expired or was already used

- **Expired link, or renewal date changed.** The customer sees “This link is no longer valid”. They can use the link from the last reminder they received, or write to you. A “Contact the shop” button appears if you have entered a contact address for your site.
- **Subscription already cancelled.** The page says “This subscription is already cancelled”. Nothing to do.
- **Altered link, or a link from another shop.** An error page is shown, and nothing is cancelled.

## The text to copy and paste

Here is the sentence from the default template, the same for all new sites. The link sits on the words “cancel my subscription”, and its address is the variable `{*cancel_url*}`.

For the simple editor, in source code (HTML) mode:

```html
<p>Vous ne souhaitez pas continuer ? Jusqu'à la veille de l'échéance, vous pouvez résilier votre abonnement en un clic, sans vous connecter : <a href="{*cancel_url*}">résilier mon abonnement</a>.</p>
```

The default template is written in French, for all sites. The same sentence as plain text, to type in the visual editor:

```text
Vous ne souhaitez pas continuer ? Jusqu'à la veille de l'échéance, vous pouvez résilier votre abonnement en un clic, sans vous connecter : résilier mon abonnement.
```

If your reminder is written in English, you can use this translation instead (in the same places, with the link on “cancel my subscription”):

```html
<p>Don't want to continue? Until the day before the renewal date, you can cancel your subscription in one click, without logging in: <a href="{*cancel_url*}">cancel my subscription</a>.</p>
```

The link address, to put on “résilier mon abonnement”:

```text
{*cancel_url*}
```

> So that the sentence disappears cleanly
>
> When a subscription has no link (cycle shorter than one month), Ciklik removes the **whole paragraph** that contains the link. Put the sentence in a paragraph of its own, with nothing else in that paragraph, otherwise the rest would disappear too.

## Does your template already contain the link?

1. Open **Content > Email Templates**.

2. Find the email whose type shows **Long Subscription Renewing** (the name of the type in the interface). It is the email called “Upcoming renewal” in [the list of emails](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/contenu-mails/gestion-des-templates-des-mails-transactionnels/#upcoming-renewal). Click it, then **Edit** (pencil icon).

3. Look for `{*cancel_url*}`. A link’s address does not show in the displayed text, so look “underneath”:

   - in the simple editor, click the **source code** button (`<>` icon), then search for `cancel_url` with Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac);
   - in the visual editor, click each link and each button of the email and look at its address.

   If you find `{*cancel_url*}`, there is nothing to add. Otherwise, add the sentence below, using the method that matches your editor.

4. Check that the **Enable** box is ticked. Ciklik never enables this reminder for you; on a PrestaShop store, it is disabled at the start.

> Which editor does my email use?
>
> Each email has two contents: **HTML Content (Simple Editor)**, which uses the TinyMCE editor, and **Visual Editor (Unlayer)**. The **Use Simple HTML Editor (TinyMCE)** box decides which one is sent:
>
> - **ticked**: the simple editor content is sent;
> - **unticked**: the visual editor is sent if it holds blocks (text, image, button); otherwise, the simple editor is sent.
>
> Add the sentence in the editor that is actually sent. If in doubt, add it in both.

## Add the sentence in the simple editor (TinyMCE)

Two methods, your choice.

**Through the source code (the safest)**

1. In **HTML Content (Simple Editor)**, click the **source code** button in the toolbar (`<>` icon).

2. Find the signature paragraph (for example `<p>Bonne journée,` in the default template). Place the cursor just **before** that `<p>`, that is after the `</p>` that precedes it, never between a `<p>` and its `</p>`. With no signature, go to the very end of the content.

3. Paste the HTML line above, then click **Save** in the source code window.

4. Save the email with the update button at the bottom of the page.

**Through the link button**

1. Place the cursor where you want the sentence, press Enter to start a new paragraph, then paste the plain text sentence.

2. Select the words **résilier mon abonnement**.

3. Click the **link** button in the toolbar (chain icon).

4. In the address (URL) field, paste exactly `{*cancel_url*}`, with no `http://` or `https://` in front. If the editor offers to add an `http://` prefix, answer no. Confirm.

5. Save the email with the update button at the bottom of the page.

## Add the sentence in the visual editor (Unlayer)

1. In **Visual Editor (Unlayer)**, open the **Content** tab of the right-hand panel and drag a new **Text** block where you want it, for example just before the signature. Keep this block for this sentence only.

2. Type or paste the plain text sentence.

3. Select the words **résilier mon abonnement** and click the **link** icon in the toolbar that appears.

4. In the address (URL) field, enter exactly `{*cancel_url*}`. Confirm, then click the link again to check that the address was not changed (no `http://` added in front).

5. Save the email with the update button at the bottom of the page.

Prefer a button? Add a **Button** block, write “Cancel my subscription” as the button text and enter `{*cancel_url*}` as the button link address. When there is no link (cycle shorter than one month), Ciklik removes the button, but not the text that introduces it: a link inside a sentence is therefore safer if you have plans shorter than a month.

## Remove the link

1. In the simple editor, open the source code and delete the `<p>...</p>` paragraph that contains `{*cancel_url*}`. In the visual editor, delete the Text or Button block that contains it.

2. Save the email, then send yourself a [test email](#check-with-a-test-email): the sentence must no longer appear.

- Reminder emails then go out without a cancellation link. Your template stays enabled.
- **The WhatsApp button is optional.** To offer no cancellation from the WhatsApp reminder, untick the cancellation button in the **Manage the WhatsApp connection** action, **Format the reminder** choice: the text must then say how to cancel, with no link. You can also choose the **Email only** channel (see [Renewal reminders by WhatsApp](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/retention/rappels-de-renouvellement-par-whatsapp/)).
- Do not disable the reminder to remove the link: you would remove the reminder itself.

## New sites

The default template of your site already contains the sentence: there is nothing to add. Just check that `{*cancel_url*}` is in the template and that the **Enable** box is ticked, then send a test email. Existing sites keep their template: the sentence only appears there if you add it.

## Check with a test email

Save, then, on the email’s page, open the actions menu (three dots) and choose **Send a test email**. This action is available for box stores hosted by Ciklik and for PrestaShop stores. The test goes to your own address with sample values: the link points to a sample address containing `/abonnement/resiliation/12345/`, which does not work. That is expected: the real link is only computed at sending time, for each subscription.

Check above all that “cancel my subscription” shows as a link, and hover over it: the address must contain `/abonnement/resiliation/`. If it starts with `http://{*cancel_url*}`, or if there is no link, redo the link step. If the test shows “Variable manquante dans le template” (missing variable), check the spelling of the tag: `{*cancel_url*}`, with the asterisks and the underscore.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does the customer need to log in to cancel with this link?

No. The link opens a page on your site that summarizes the subscription. The customer confirms with a button, with no username or password, then receives a confirmation email.

### Until when does the cancellation link work?

Until the day before the renewal date, at 11:59 p.m. UTC. After that, or if the renewal date was postponed in the meantime, the page says the link is no longer valid.

### Why don't some customers see the cancellation sentence?

Their subscription has a cycle shorter than one month (weekly, for instance). Ciklik provides no link in that case and removes the sentence from the email sent.

### Is the link also in the WhatsApp reminder?

Only if you ticked the cancellation button in the WhatsApp text. Without the button, the message says how to cancel, with no link. To offer no cancellation from the reminder, choose the Email only channel.

### Do I need to add the link if my site is recent?

The default template of new sites already contains the sentence. Still run the check on this page: the template must contain {\*cancel_url\*} and be enabled.

## See also

[Automated emails and their variables](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/contenu-mails/gestion-des-templates-des-mails-transactionnels/)

[Renewal reminders by WhatsApp](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/retention/rappels-de-renouvellement-par-whatsapp/)

[Cancellation flow](https://www.ciklik.academy/en/retention/tunnel-de-desabonnement/)