Subscription Start
Also known as: subscribe, Subscription Activation, Subscribe & Save Enrollment, Replenishment Plan Start, Membership Activation, New Paid Subscription
Subscription Start captures the moment a customer activates a paid recurring commerce plan — subscribe-and-save, replenishment, curated box or paid membership — at the point the first billing authorization succeeds and a subscription contract comes into existence. It deliberately excludes email and newsletter opt-ins that reuse the same unified subscribe event in the acquisition sub-domain: a row qualifies only when it carries a subscription_id and a recurring charge, so list growth is never counted as commerce revenue.
Event Serialization
always
Business Use Case
1️⃣ The Retention Marketing Manager reviews weekly activation cohorts split by converted_from_trial_flag and plan_name; when 60-day survival for a cohort falls below the programme benchmark, they trigger the plan-specific onboarding and first-replenishment reminder journey for that cohort in the ESP.,2️⃣ The Merchandising lead tracks subscribe-and-save attach rate by item_id against product detail views; SKUs with high view volume and low activation have the subscribe module promoted above the fold and the plan discount re-tiered at the next range review.,3️⃣ Revenue Management books recurring revenue from activations net of Subscription Cancellation each period; when net activations miss forecast in two consecutive periods, they re-price the discount_rate ladder and reset the renewal forecast handed to Finance.,4️⃣ The Product Manager for checkout and account monitors the split of net-new versus trial-converted activations after each release; a fall in net-new activation while trial starts hold steady opens an A/B test on the plan selector and on the default billing_interval.
Business Criticality
High
Journey / Navigation Area
Monetization
Owning Function
Marketing
Calculation Notes
1️⃣ The grain is the subscription contract, not the person: event_serialization is 'always' because one customer can hold several concurrent plans (coffee monthly, vitamins bi-weekly, paid membership). Count distinct subscription_id and never distinct customer_id, or concurrent plans collapse into a single activation and the subscriber base is understated.,2️⃣ Exclusion — newsletter and marketing opt-ins reuse the same unified subscribe event in the acquisition sub-domain. A row qualifies only when subscription_id is populated and subscription_type is one of subscribe_and_save, replenishment, curated_box or membership; email opt-in payloads belong to acquisition list-growth reporting and must be filtered out before any commerce aggregation.,3️⃣ converted_from_trial_flag is the only field that separates trial conversion from net-new activation: true routes the row to trial-to-paid measurement against Free Trial Start as the denominator, false routes it to net-new paid acquisition. Both cases fire Subscription Start exactly once — never net the two populations against each other.,4️⃣ Timing — fire on the first successful billing authorization, not on plan selection and not on confirmation page render. Where authorization is asynchronous, emit server-side on the authorization callback and reconcile against the billing ledger on a T+2 cycle; activations voided inside the statutory cooling-off window are removed at reconciliation rather than counted and later reversed.,5️⃣ Sessionisation — the digital hit inherits the standard 30-minute inactivity session timeout, so an activation completed after an idle gap opens a new session. Attribute the activation to the session in which the authorization confirmation was served and backfill server-side confirmations to that session using the transmitted session identifier, never the ingest timestamp.,6️⃣ Plan changes are not activations: a tier or cadence change against an existing subscription_id belongs to Subscription Upgrade Completion. A reactivation after a cancellation issues a new subscription_id and therefore does count as a new Subscription Start, distinguishable through the Subscription Status dimension.,7️⃣ Activations open the subscription ledger and are closed against Subscription Cancellation on the same subscription_id; subscription_value is converted to the reporting currency at the activation-date rate before any cross-market roll-up.
Platform Events
| Platform | Event |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | subscribe |
| Adobe | subscribe |
Data Mappings
W3 Data Layer
{
"digitalData": {
"version": "1.0",
"page": {
"pageInfo": {
"pageID": "subscription-confirmation",
"pageName": "Subscription Confirmation",
"destinationURL": "https://www.example.com/account/subscriptions/confirmation"
},
"category": {
"primaryCategory": "Monetization",
"subCategory1": "Subscription",
"subCategory2": "Subscribe & Save"
}
},
"transaction": {
"transactionID": "SUB-8842137",
"total": {
"currency": "USD",
"basePrice": 29.4,
"transactionTotal": 24.99
},
"profile": {
"profileInfo": {
"profileID": "crm_9f31c0a7"
}
},
"item": [
{
"productInfo": {
"productID": "SKU-10488",
"productName": "Single Origin Coffee 1kg"
},
"quantity": 1,
"price": {
"basePrice": 29.4,
"priceWithDiscount": 24.99,
"currency": "USD"
}
}
]
},
"event": [
{
"eventInfo": {
"eventName": "subscribe",
"eventAction": "subscription_start",
"type": "commerce",
"timeStamp": "2026-09-17T14:32:08Z"
},
"attributes": {
"subscription_id": "SUB-8842137",
"subscription_type": "subscribe_and_save",
"plan_name": "Coffee Monthly",
"billing_interval": "monthly",
"subscription_value": 24.99,
"currency": "USD",
"discount_rate": 15,
"converted_from_trial_flag": false,
"commitment_term_months": 0,
"item_id": [
"SKU-10488"
],
"payment_method": "credit_card",
"coupon_code": "SUBSAVE15",
"subscription_status": "active"
}
}
]
}
}GA4 Data Layer
{
"event": "subscribe",
"subscription_id": "SUB-8842137",
"subscription_type": "subscribe_and_save",
"plan_name": "Coffee Monthly",
"billing_interval": "monthly",
"subscription_value": 24.99,
"value": 24.99,
"currency": "USD",
"discount_rate": 15,
"converted_from_trial_flag": false,
"commitment_term_months": 0,
"payment_method": "credit_card",
"coupon": "SUBSAVE15",
"items": [
{
"item_id": "SKU-10488",
"item_name": "Single Origin Coffee 1kg",
"item_category": "Grocery",
"item_variant": "1kg Whole Bean",
"price": 24.99,
"discount": 4.41,
"quantity": 1
}
]
}Adobe Client Data Layer
{
"event": "subscribe",
"eventInfo": {
"path": "commerce.subscription",
"eventType": "subscription_start",
"timestamp": "2026-09-17T14:32:08Z"
},
"commerce": {
"subscription": {
"subscriptionID": "SUB-8842137",
"subscriptionType": "subscribe_and_save",
"planName": "Coffee Monthly",
"billingInterval": "monthly",
"subscriptionValue": 24.99,
"currencyCode": "USD",
"discountRate": 15,
"convertedFromTrialFlag": false,
"commitmentTermMonths": 0,
"subscriptionStatus": "active",
"paymentMethod": "credit_card",
"couponCode": "SUBSAVE15"
},
"productListItems": [
{
"SKU": "SKU-10488",
"name": "Single Origin Coffee 1kg",
"productCategory": "Grocery",
"priceTotal": 24.99,
"quantity": 1
}
]
},
"user": {
"loyaltyTier": "gold",
"acquisitionCohort": "2026-09"
}
}XDM Mapping
{
"eventType": "subscription.start",
"timestamp": "2026-09-17T14:32:08.000Z",
"commerce": {
"order": {
"purchaseID": "SUB-8842137",
"priceTotal": 24.99,
"currencyCode": "USD",
"payments": [
{
"paymentType": "credit_card",
"paymentAmount": 24.99,
"currencyCode": "USD"
}
]
}
},
"productListItems": [
{
"SKU": "SKU-10488",
"name": "Single Origin Coffee 1kg",
"productCategory": "Grocery",
"priceTotal": 24.99,
"quantity": 1
}
],
"_openkpis": {
"subscription": {
"subscriptionID": "SUB-8842137",
"subscriptionType": "subscribe_and_save",
"planName": "Coffee Monthly",
"billingInterval": "monthly",
"subscriptionValue": 24.99,
"currencyCode": "USD",
"discountRate": 15,
"convertedFromTrialFlag": false,
"commitmentTermMonths": 0,
"subscriptionStatus": "active"
}
},
"_experience": {
"analytics": {
"customDimensions": {
"eVars": {
"eVar41": "SUB-8842137",
"eVar42": "subscribe_and_save",
"eVar43": "Coffee Monthly",
"eVar44": "monthly",
"eVar45": "net_new",
"eVar46": "no_commitment"
},
"props": {
"prop41": "subscription_start",
"prop42": "subscribe_and_save|monthly"
}
}
}
}
}Source Data
Digital + Billing/Stripe
Dependencies
Prerequisite: List the dependencies required for this Event
Report Attributes
Subscription Plan Billing Interval Subscription Type Converted from Trial Discount Band Acquisition Cohort Customer Loyalty Tier Item Category Device Category Default Channel Grouping
Segment Eligibility
true
Governance
Dimensions
Related Dimensions
Derived Dimensions
Derived Entities
Derived Metrics
Derived KPIs
Governance & Metadata
GitHub
catalog/events/subscription-start.yml