The Release of Subscriptions 2.5.0

The Prospress Extensions team has been beavering away to bring us the release of Subscriptions 2.5.0 this week. Didn’t think that Subscriptions could get any better? Well holy smoke – it just did!

So what’s new?

We listened. It isn’t new that we listened – we are great listeners! What is new is that customers can now bypass entering a payment method – which was one of our most highly requested features on the ideas board.

So the biggest feature change is that customers can now check out without the need for a payment method. No more scrabbling around searching for that elusive wallet to enter your card details. In the past when customers have signed up to subscription products, they have been required to select a payment method and enter their credit card details, even if no payment is required.

Now, on the WooCommerce > Settings > Subscriptions screen, under the Miscellaneous heading, there is an option to Allow $0 initial checkout without a payment method. This new option allows store managers to set their store to allow customers to checkout without the need to enter their payment details when signing up to subscription products with a free trial, non-prorated synced products and orders where the first payment has been discounted by 100%.

Although this is the major change, there are also some other shiny new improvements with this release.

Smaller enhancements:

Improved payment method display: Everyone cares about payment! That’s why in 2.5.0 the payment method details have been moved into prime position. No longer is it lurking in the subscription total table – it is now proudly displaying itself in the subscriptions details table. So it is easy to see what payment method will be used to process upcoming renewal orders.

Customers are also given as much information as possible. Depending on the payment gateway, the customer will see more details about which card will be charged. If the payment gateway does not support this, the same information that was displayed before will be the default.

Auto-renew toggle: Toggle on and off! Previously, for stores that accept both manual and automatic payments, a customer was committed to the payment method they signed up with. That commitment is now over! The customer can now be as flighty as they wish – they can now switch between automatic and manual renewals whenever they choose. Customers will be able to toggle on and off from their View Subscription page.

Update all subscription payment methods: We always love being able to save customers time. Previously, for customers with multiple subscriptions to a store, updating an expired card or changing credit cards could be a lengthy process. In 2.5.0, when a customer adds or changes a payment method, they will be given the option to update all their subscriptions to use this new payment method in one fell swoop.

New information added to the dashboard status widget: Store managers can save time too! In 2.5.0 the quick overview has been improved. New subscriptions-related stats to the WooCommerce Status application have been added to help you see how your store is running at a glance.

Filter subscriptions by manual renewal: More filters for stores! On top of the ability to filter subscriptions in the admin subscriptions table either by specific payment gateways or no payment gateway, you can now also filter subscriptions which are manual renewal.

Payment gateway feature support tooltip: Information at store manager’s fingertips – with a tooltip! This makes it easier to see what features your payment gateways support. In WooCommerce > Settings > Payments table – hover over the tooltip – marked with a ? – you will see a list of features that work under each payment gateway.

PayPal Standard opt-in: PayPal Standard for subscriptions purchases will now be disabled by default for new stores and will require an opt-in. PayPal Standard has many tricky limitations and it can lead to complications with keeping your store in sync with PayPal. Because of this, it is not recommended as a payment method for Subscriptions unless it is the only available option for your country and you really have to use it!

Reactivate a pending cancellation: Made a mistake? No problem! Customers and Store managers will be able to reactivate a subscription in case they accidentally cancelled it. This can only happen while the subscription is pending cancellation. Once the subscription is fully cancelled, the customer will need to resubscribe.

The Future

If you are craving even more, don’t worry, there are further releases planned for later this year – and our wonderful Extensions team just keep making things better.

Also, remember what great listeners we are – keep telling us what features would make your life easier!

For more of the technical nitty gritty on Subscriptions 2.5.0, which has particularly relevant information for developers and store builders, you can check out our Subscriptions docs.