Glossary
Key points
This glossary defines subscription ecommerce terms as they apply in Ciklik, for box stores and for PrestaShop stores running the Ciklik module. A rebill is the automatic charge that renews a subscription on its next payment date; if it is declined, Ciklik retries the payment on your site’s schedule, 4 attempts by default (this is dunning). Churn is the share of subscribers who cancel: Ciklik calculates it per frequency in the Churn by Frequency report. MRR is monthly recurring revenue: the Revenue by Frequency report shows an estimated MRR based on plan prices.
Subscription
Section titled “Subscription”A subscription is necessarily linked to a plan (active or not). Upon successful order of a plan, this triggers a subscription and a next payment date is set based on your plan settings. When a gift card is activated, this triggers a subscription without a next payment date and with a date on which the subscription will be cancelled.
There are 3 types:
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addon: offer a special plan at a higher price for the first month
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upsell: offer a complementary product in the box, at order time or on a recurring basis
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upsell customization: to offer additional products related to customized plans.
Automatic Stop
Section titled “Automatic Stop”This plan setting is only suitable for specific cases where a subscriber will need to change plans for a given reason.
A box is a subscription parcel: a selection of products shipped to the subscriber in each cycle of their subscription. In Ciklik, box stores are subscription sites hosted by Ciklik, where each plan sets the number of boxes to ship per cycle (see Number of Shipments below). See Create a plan.
The Box section allows you to create a panel for each box to present your past boxes and their contents, illustrated with an image. See Box Presentation.
For your content strategy, you can set up a blog, with different article categories and folders to manage certain topics across multiple articles. See Blog Management.
Delivery Note
Section titled “Delivery Note”A delivery note is generated upon confirmation of an order for a shop product, an addon, or a subscription plan. It includes all the information needed to transmit to your carrier or logistics provider for your shipments. From the Sales > Shipping Slips section, you can export your notes for the desired period and format to facilitate your shipments. See Delivery notes management.
Anti-Churn Campaign
Section titled “Anti-Churn Campaign”By enabling this feature, you can automatically send a promotional offer to all active subscribers with a closed order following failed payment attempts. This allows you to recover a percentage of unpaid subscriptions. See Anti-Churn Campaign: Recover Failed Payments with Marketing Offers.
Ad Campaign
Section titled “Ad Campaign”After creating a discount coupon, create an ad campaign so that the application generates a URL, the destination link for your advertising campaigns or certain follow-up emails. By clicking on this link, the visitor will be informed that they already have a discount in their cart, which reduces friction in the sales funnel and encourages them to complete their order to benefit from it. See Advertising Campaign.
Characteristics
Section titled “Characteristics”They are similar to a tag system on individual sale products to select product options.
Gift Card
Section titled “Gift Card”A gift card is an individual product linked to a subscription plan. It has an activation code to trigger the subscription in question and a number of delivery notes equal to the number of boxes to be shipped as part of the gift card. A gift card can include shipping costs for the box shipment(s) or shipping costs (to be specified for shipment) can be added to the card price. A gift card can be sent by email with a personalized message or downloaded for printing. See Gift card.
Category
Section titled “Category”In the case of customized plans, you will need to create one or more categories, corresponding to the box composition steps. A category can be linked to multiple plans. For each plan, a score is associated with its category, corresponding to the number of credits available to the customer to compose their box.
Churn (or attrition) is the share of subscribers who cancel their subscription over a given period. A common distinction is voluntary churn, when the subscriber cancels, and involuntary churn, when the subscription stops for lack of payment. In Ciklik, the Churn by Frequency report (Sales > Subscriptions, dropdown menu above the table) shows, for each frequency, the number of subscriptions, active and canceled subscriptions, and the Churn rate: the share of canceled subscriptions among all subscriptions of that frequency. The KPI > Revenue Recovery dashboard tracks the subscriptions and revenue recovered by your retention actions. See Reports and analytics and Dashboard and KPI.
An order is generated following a transaction, regardless of its status, or in specific cases, such as placing an order in the back office without generating a transaction. An order can correspond to an individual sale product, an addon, a gift card, or a subscription plan.
Coupon
Section titled “Coupon”A coupon is a discount activated in the cart using an activation code. The discount can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the total cart amount. It can apply to a single transaction or repeat. A coupon can also be cloned for certain marketing actions that require a given number of discount codes. See Create a Discount Coupon.
Subscription Cycle
Section titled “Subscription Cycle”This corresponds to the cycle at the end of which the subscription is renewed by tacit renewal. Managing multiple subscription cycles is not recommended.
Commitment Cycle
Section titled “Commitment Cycle”This only applies to specific cases in plan settings where a customer commits to a duration without having paid for all their future boxes for the cycle in question.
Creation Date
Section titled “Creation Date”This is the date on which a transaction is attempted, whether failed or successful. The date on which an order is generated in the back office, following a transaction. The date on which a subscription is generated, or the date on which a delivery note is generated, on the date the order is confirmed following a successful transaction.
Expiration Date
Section titled “Expiration Date”This is the date on which the subscription will expire. It is updated when the payment for subscription renewal is successful.
Next Payment Date
Section titled “Next Payment Date”This is the date on which a payment attempt will be made to renew the subscription.
Scheduled Date
Section titled “Scheduled Date”This date is specific to delivery notes. It is defined according to the plan billing period. It corresponds to the billing start date for the monthly box order. It is set to the day after the order upon successful subscription renewal or when resuming a cancelled subscription.
Dunning
Section titled “Dunning”Dunning is the follow-up of failed payments: after a declined charge, the payment is retried at regular intervals and the customer is notified so they can settle it. In Ciklik, this is your site’s payment retry schedule: by default 4 attempts, 3 days apart, set in Settings > Sites, Marketing Parameters tab, Payment retry: days between two attempts field. After each failed rebill, the subscriber receives a payment declined email that contains a payment link. After the last attempt, the order is closed for non-payment; automatic cancellation can then stop subscriptions that remain unpaid for several cycles. See Payment retry: Rebill, Payment links and Automatic cancellation of unpaid subscriptions.
Commitment
Section titled “Commitment”A commitment is a minimum period during which the subscriber cannot cancel their subscription after subscribing. On a PrestaShop store, it is turned on in the Ciklik module settings (Enable commitment, Commitment cycle and Number of commitment cycles) and applies to every subscription in the store; it is a duration, not a minimum number of orders. See Configure the subscription. On a box store, the Commitment and Commitment Cycle fields of a plan are meant for specific business models (see Commitment Cycle above and Create a plan).
Mass Shipments
Section titled “Mass Shipments”In plan settings, this allows the generation of delivery notes at the correct scheduled dates, aligned with the plan billing period, to help you manage your shipment waves.
Invoices
Section titled “Invoices”An invoice is a document attached to a transaction, or a transaction refund, from an accounting perspective. See Understanding your invoices.
A plan allows you to offer your subscription at a given frequency. See Create a plan.
Customized Plan
Section titled “Customized Plan”This plan setting allows the customer to compose their own box from products linked to a category. See Create a custom box.
Plan Group
Section titled “Plan Group”If a criterion affects the price of your boxes, you can create plan groups. Example of a coffee box:
- group 1 cup per day including a monthly plan and a 3-month plan
- group 2 cups per day including a monthly plan and a 3-month plan
Sent Emails
Section titled “Sent Emails”Automatic emails are sent to subscribers in various situations: when a user account is created, for order confirmation, upon payment failure, etc. The application reports on the deliverability of these transactional emails and their status (opened or not).
SEPA Mandate
Section titled “SEPA Mandate”A SEPA mandate is the authorization a customer gives a creditor to debit their bank account within the SEPA area, for one-off or recurring payments. In Ciklik, SEPA direct debit runs through GoCardless: it is offered on request to Ciklik support, for box stores only. The PrestaShop module does not offer SEPA direct debit. The mandate created when the subscriber chooses SEPA direct debit at checkout becomes their saved payment method and is used for the automatic charges of their subscription. See Subscribers’ payment methods.
This is the section from which you can customize the entries in your navigation menu and footer. See Menu Management.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) is subscription revenue brought back to one month: what active subscriptions bring in each month. In Ciklik, the Revenue by Frequency report (Sales > Subscriptions, dropdown menu above the table) shows, for each frequency and each plan, the number of active subscribers, the average price, the Estimated MRR and the annualized revenue (estimated MRR over 12 months). This MRR is estimated from plan prices: it covers subscriptions linked to a plan, those of box stores. The KPI > Revenue dashboard tracks revenue separately (Daily Revenue, Monthly Revenue, Renewals). See Reports and analytics and Dashboard and KPI.
Number of Shipments
Section titled “Number of Shipments”In plan settings, you will define the number of shipments, which corresponds to the number of boxes to ship in a given cycle.
Product Options
Section titled “Product Options”Also called variations, these are parameters selected at the individual sale product level (example: clothing size). A product option can influence the price of a product. It also enables stock management.
This is the section from which free content pages can be created. This is also where you will customize your homepage. See Create Your Homepage and Content Pages with the Visual Editor.
Mixed Cart
Section titled “Mixed Cart”A mixed cart combines one-off products and subscription products in the same order. It concerns PrestaShop stores running the Ciklik module: the cart is paid through Ciklik and only the subscription products are charged again at the following renewals. One cart can create several subscriptions, one per frequency. See Subscribe and manage your subscription.
Unsubscribe Settings
Section titled “Unsubscribe Settings”They allow you to customize the steps of the unsubscribe funnel when a subscriber wishes to cancel their subscription. For these steps to be offered, questions must be filled in to activate the unsubscribe funnel feature. See Cancellation Flow.
Billing Period
Section titled “Billing Period”It corresponds to the day from which and until which the box for a given month is ordered. This also defines the subscription renewal day, at the beginning of the billing period for the given month (fixed periods). All your plans must be configured on the same billing period if your plans are on a fixed period.
Next Billing Date
Section titled “Next Billing Date”The next billing date is the date on which a subscription will be renewed and the subscriber charged. In Ciklik, it is the subscription’s next payment date (see Next Payment Date above). On a box store, the Postpone Payment action moves it; on a PrestaShop store, you change the subscription’s Next Billing field. See Reschedule a payment and Modify the next payment date of a subscription.
Product
Section titled “Product”This is an individual sale product or a gift card type product. When refunding a transaction, a product is also created and immediately deactivated to generate the accounting document that reflects the refund action.
Profile
Section titled “Profile”A subscriber’s profile provides information to customize box contents based on certain criteria or preferences that do not affect box prices. Profile questions are asked to the subscriber at the time of ordering. They can update their profile at any time from their account area. See Profile questions.
Rebill
Section titled “Rebill”A rebill is the automatic charge that renews a subscription when it falls due, using the payment method the subscriber saved. In Ciklik, the renewal order is created in advance (Scheduled status) and charged on the next payment date; if the payment is declined, your site’s retry schedule applies (see Dunning above). On a PrestaShop store, Ciklik checks the product and its price in PrestaShop, charges the customer’s saved payment method, then creates the order in PrestaShop if the payment succeeds. If the store does not respond, the rebill is not counted as a payment failure: it is retried automatically 24 hours later. See Payment retry: Rebill, PrestaShop renewals explained and Rebill and PrestaShop site unavailability.
Refill
Section titled “Refill”A refill is the regular replenishment of a consumable product: the customer automatically receives a refill (coffee, cosmetics, cleaning products, etc.) before running out. Ciklik has no dedicated refill feature: a refill is sold as a standard subscription, at a frequency that matches the consumption rate. On a box store, create a plan whose interval and number of shipments match that rate (see Create a plan). On a PrestaShop store, make the refill product available by subscription with its frequencies (see Configure the subscription); depending on the options enabled in the module, the subscriber can then change their frequency or reschedule their next order.
GDPR Service
Section titled “GDPR Service”In compliance with regulations, a visitor’s consent must be obtained before placing a tracking script on your site. Your GDPR services are to be configured at your site level for the various tracking services you use. See Configure GDPR services.
Status
Section titled “Status”A subscription can have 3 statuses:
- active: the subscription is ongoing. However, it may be expired if payment attempts upon renewal fail and the order is closed for non-payment.
- paused: the unsubscribe funnel feature is enabled and the subscriber has chosen to pause their subscription for 1, 2, or 3 boxes. This action postpones the next payment date accordingly to avoid charging the subscriber during this pause period (the subscription expiration date remains unchanged).
- canceled: the subscription is stopped and no longer has a next payment date. A subscription can only be deleted once canceled.
This status is shown as a badge (Active, Paused, Canceled) in the Sales > Subscriptions list.
A transaction can have 2 statuses:
- successful: the transaction is validated.
- failed: the transaction is invalid. Find the reason for the payment failure in the transaction details.
An order can have the following statuses (Status column of the Sales > Orders list):
- Paid: the transaction is successful and the order is confirmed.
- Pending: the order is generated and transaction confirmation is pending; a payment retry link is available.
- Scheduled: the renewal order is created in advance and will be charged on its date.
- Processing: the order payment is being processed.
- Failed: payment attempts have failed and the order is closed for non-payment.
- Action required: the customer must complete an authentication (3D Secure) to validate the payment.
- Withdrawal requested: the customer exercised their right of withdrawal, the order awaits your validation.
- Canceled: the order was canceled.
You can change the status of a delivery note. It defaults to “created” status. To facilitate the management of your shipments, you can assign the following statuses to a delivery note: pending, shipped, delivered, scheduled, cancelled.
This is a product filter system available at the box composition step for a customized plan.
Taxonomy
Section titled “Taxonomy”This is the name of the filter in which you will find the different tags for products available at the box composition step for a customized plan.
Transaction
Section titled “Transaction”A transaction corresponds to a payment attempt triggered during order placement, when resuming a cancelled subscription, or upon subscription renewal by tacit renewal.
Carrier
Section titled “Carrier”A carrier corresponds to a delivery method offered to subscribers when subscribing, ordering individual sale products, or ordering a gift card. The pickup point system is available by configuring Mondial Relay or Colissimo Relay at the carrier level and site settings. A carrier must be activated for a country and can be for a given list of countries. A carrier can be excluded for certain subscription plans. It is possible to change a carrier in the subscription details (in the case of a pickup point carrier, go through a customer’s profile with the “impersonate” action to access their subscriber account). This change will apply at the next payment attempt for the subscription. See Carriers.
Upsell
Section titled “Upsell”Upselling means offering a customer an extra product on top of what they already buy, to increase their basket. On a box store, an upsell is a type of addon: a complementary product offered in the box, at checkout or on a recurring basis (see Addon above). On a PrestaShop store, the Enable upsell option of the Ciklik module lets a logged-in subscriber add a product to their next subscription order from the product page; that product is delivered only once, with the next renewal. See Add a product to your next order (upsell).
Frequently asked questions
What is a rebill in Ciklik?
A rebill is the automatic charge that renews a subscription on its next payment date. If it is declined, Ciklik retries the payment on your site's schedule, 4 attempts by default, then closes the order for non-payment.
Where can I see my store's MRR and churn in Ciklik?
In Sales > Subscriptions, the dropdown menu above the table gives the Revenue by Frequency report, with an MRR estimated from plan prices (subscriptions linked to a plan, box stores), and the Churn by Frequency report, with the churn rate of each frequency.
Is SEPA direct debit available with the PrestaShop module?
No. SEPA direct debit through GoCardless is offered on request for box stores only. The PrestaShop module offers card payment through Stripe or PayPlug, and PayPal.