Overview of the concepts related to Recurring Orders and the checkout process.
General concepts
Recurrence Policies
Recurring items
Define a schedule or interval
To set the schedule or interval:
-
Create (or add) a Line Item or Custom Line Item with the
RecurrenceInfo
field set:- For Line Items
- For Custom Line Items
-
Update a Line Item or Custom Line Item with the
RecurrenceInfo
field set:- For Line Items
- For Custom Line Items
Define pricing
For each recurring item, you define the pricing mode to use:
- Fixed price: the price set at the time the Recurring Order was created remains the same. If an SKU's price changes, the Recurring Order continues to use the original price.
- Dynamic price: each time a new order is generated, the latest price for the item is used.
monthly
recurrence, the platform will attempt to locate a price explicitly tied to that monthly
policy.Price configuration
Prices (both Embedded and Standalone) carry information about possible recurrence. Each price that is defined on a recurring item must be connected to a Recurrence Policy.
For example, to sell yogurt in 3 different intervals, a price must exist for each interval:
Recurring Carts
RecurringOrder
is known as a recurring Cart and is used as the source to create all subsequent orders generated by a specific Recurring Order. A recurring Cart contains only Line Items and Custom Line Items that use the same Recurrence Policy.Recurring Orders
Initial creation
To create a Recurring Order, you can use the following methods:
Method | Description | Use case |
---|---|---|
Create Order from Cart | Automatically checks Line Items and Custom Line Items for recurrence information, and if found, creates a Recurring Order for each recurrence schedule that is found. | Use when the Cart contains a mix of one-time and recurring purchases, or recurring items with different schedules. |
Create RecurringOrder | Requires a Cart where all Line Items and Custom Line Items are recurring and share the same recurrence schedule. | Use when all items in the Cart share the same recurrence schedule. |
Platform behavior
- An Order is created from the provided Cart.
- The platform evaluates the Line Items and Custom Line Items:
- If no recurrence information is found, no further action is taken.
- If one or more items contain recurrence information:
- Recurring items are grouped by their recurrence schedule (specified in the Recurrence Policies).
- For each group, a new Recurring Order and a new recurring Cart are created.
- Each recurring Cart inherits the base configuration of the original Order (for example, tax mode, customer group, inventory mode, store, business unit) but contains only the items that belong to that group.
- If multiple shipping methods are used, only the shipping methods and addresses associated with the items in the group are copied to the new Cart.
Subsequent Orders
nextOrderAt
field that specifies the date and time when the next order will be created.nextOrderAt
date and time. In some cases, it may take up to 48 hours.The following example shows when the next orders are created for a Recurring Order configured with a weekly interval.
Date | Status | Order created | nextOrderAt |
---|---|---|---|
1 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 8 Jul 2025 |
8 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 15 Jul 2025 |
15 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 22 Jul 2025 |
22 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 29 Jul 2025 |
29 Jul 2025 | ... | ... | ... |
Paused Orders
You can pause a Recurring Order at any time. When paused, subsequent Orders will not be created until the Recurring Order is reactivated.
The following example shows when the next orders are created for a Recurring Order configured with a weekly interval that has been paused and then reactivated.
Date | Status | Order Created | nextOrderAt |
---|---|---|---|
1 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 8 Jul 2025 |
6 Jul 2025 | Paused by the user | ✗ | empty |
19 Jul 2025 | Reactivated by the user | ✗ | 22 Jul 2025 |
22 Jul 2025 | Active | ✓ | 29 Jul 2025 |
29 Jul 2025 | Active | ... | ... |
Example
A customer wants to buy 4 different products (SKUs). Their Cart has the following items:
Item | Purchase interval | Ship to |
---|---|---|
SKU1 | One-time purchase | Home |
SKU2 | Weekly | Home |
SKU3 | Monthly | Office |
SKU4 | Monthly | Office |
The customer completes the checkout process and receives an email with the confirmation.
Internally, Composable Commerce performs the following steps:
- A new Order is created with all four items.
- The platform determines that three of the four items are recurring and groups them by their recurrence interval:
- Group A: SKU2 (weekly)
- Group B: SKU3 and SKU4 (monthly)
- For each group, a new Recurring Order and a new recurring Cart are created.
- The new recurring Carts inherit the base configuration of the original Order.
This results in the following:
- Recurring Order A: SKU2 is shipped weekly to the home address.
- Recurring Order B: SKU3 and SKU4 are shipped monthly to the office address.