Streamline your AWS Marketplace renewals

AWS Marketplace offers customers and sellers, such as independent software vendors (ISVs) or AWS consulting partners, several renewal strategies. These include:

• Future dated agreements (FDAs)
• Upgrades through agreement-based offers
• New offers
• Automatic renewals

Sellers can use these methods to update contract terms, implement version upgrades, and set up automated renewal schedules from the AWS Marketplace console. Customers benefit from a smooth transaction experience with streamlined renewals.

This post explores these strategies and how sellers can use them to optimize pricing, streamline renewals, and provide more value to customers.

The following table provides an overview of the four renewal strategies covered in this post.

Future dated agreement

An FDA lets a seller and customer specify a future start date when creating a private offer. Unlike typical AWS Marketplace transactions through which customers get product licenses, or entitlements, immediately after accepting an offer, FDAs activate entitlements on a predetermined future date. An FDA differentiates between the agreement sign date (when an agreement is created) and the agreement start date (when an entitlement is activated). FDAs currently support software as a service (SaaS) products for contract and contract with consumption pricing.

FDAs can streamline renewals by letting sellers work with their customers to create and schedule offers that start right after an existing offer ends. This makes sure that transitions between offers have no service gaps. FDAs work best when there is a firm commitment between a seller and a customer: They may not be ideal if dimensions, terms, or dates need adjustments at a later time because the agreement start date can’t be changed in the future.

To create a private offer with a future start date, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the AWS Marketplace Management Portal and select Offers.
2. Under Contract duration, select Create private offer and choose Start at a future date.
3. In the Service dates section, enter the Service start date and Service end date. Note that the service start date is the agreement start date, not to be confused with the agreement sign date.

For more on FDAs, refer to the Creating future dated agreements for private offers in the AWS Marketplace documentation.

Agreement-based offer

An agreement-based offer lets a customer amend active private offers to upgrade to a different tier or renew their existing contract. Sellers can upgrade, renew, or amend private offers directly from the AWS Marketplace Management Portal for existing private offer agreements. Agreement-based offers currently support SaaS products with contract and contract with consumption pricing. For other products, a new offer must be created instead.

To create a private offer upgrade, renewal, or amendment:

1. Sign in to the AWS Marketplace Management Portal and select Agreements.
2. On the Agreements page, select the check box next to the desired agreement and choose View details.
3. On the View agreements page, select Create agreement-based offer.
4. Note for sellers: On the Amend agreement details page, sellers must indicate whether a private offer is a renewal with a Yes or No.
5. After all details are filled out, choose Create offer and Submit.

For more on the submission process for upgrades and renewals, refer to the Creating private offer upgrades, renewals, and amendments in the AWS Marketplace documentation.

New offer

A new offer creates a new agreement without needing to cancel the previous agreement. It’s meant to be an upgrade or preemptive renewal of an existing agreement with modified terms, pricing, or duration. Sellers can create a new private offer with new private offer terms, and customers can accept without cancellation. This renewal strategy supports all product types, is used when you want both flexibility and support for SaaS, Amazon Machine Image (AMI), and container-based products. Alternatively, agreement-based offers and FDAs are limited to SaaS solutions. Note that AMI contracts and professional services products require cancellation.

To create a new offer (for example, to upgrade or renew an existing agreement to modify terms, pricing, or duration or to renew an existing contract), a buyer works with a seller and the AWS Marketplace customer support team to terminate the current contract. This approach is ideal for all product types supported by private offers, including:

• SaaS-based products
• AMI based products
• Container-based products
• Professional services products

For more on new offers, refer to Modifying or unsubscribing from a private offer in AWS Marketplace and Creating and managing private offers.

Automatic renewal (self-service)

Unlike the other strategies, automatic renewals let customers control their own renewals without seller involvement. Customers can modify renewal settings at any time, cancel product renewals, or renew contracts for different quantities and durations. This option is limited to SaaS, AMI, and container contracts. Customers have complete control of automatic renewals through their AWS Marketplace console.

To manage a subscription, a buyer follows these steps:

1. On the AWS Marketplace console, choose View subscription and view the license for the software product.
2. On the Procurement page, select Manage license.
3. From the list, select View terms.
4. In the Contracts options section, review entitlements. Note that entitlements can’t be decreased, only increased.
5. In the Pricing details section, review the contract details and total price.

To adjust an automatic subscription renewal, a buyer follows these steps:

1. On the AWS Marketplace console, choose View subscription and view the license for the software product.
2. On the Procurement page, select Manage license.
3. On the Subscription page, locate the Renewal settings section. For those seeking to cancel an automatic renewal, there are terms and conditions to review. To cancel the automatic renewal, select the check box.

For more on automatic renewals, refer to Modifying an existing contract in the AWS Marketplace documentation.

Conclusion

In summary, AWS Marketplace provides several built-in options to help sellers and buyers easily renew their AWS Marketplace purchases. Each strategy has its own set of benefits and use cases. Understanding the different requirements and restrictions helps in selecting the best option for you and your team.

To learn more about buyer communications with renewals using emails or third-party tools such as Slack, check out the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide EventBridge Events page. This page features information on the AWS Marketplace and Amazon EventBridge integration that makes it so sellers can use events to create workflows to support renewals and communications with buyers. To learn how to automate renewals by working with API operations and labs, check out the new AWS Marketplace API Reference.

About the authors

Michael Cha is a Technical Business Developer focused in AWS Marketplace feature adoption and enablement. In his free time, he enjoys playing with his dog, working out, and eating more than he should.

Art Tuazon is a Solutions Architect focused on enabling AWS customers through technical best practices and is passionate about building on AWS. In her free time, she enjoys running and cooking.