In recent years, recurring purchase transactions have experienced significant growth. One of the contributing factors has been the increase in the number of users subscribed to online services: according to the report Compras online en España (Online Shopping in Spain) by the National Observatory of Technology and Society (ONTSI), more than half of Spanish citizens have at least one subscription. Furthermore, the proliferation of ecommerce has popularized recurring purchases of all kinds of frequently replenished items, such as cosmetics, personal hygiene products, and food, which are among the top 10 categories with the most online purchases.

In this context, where more and more customers are automating their regular orders, offering a recurring purchase option in your business can increase your revenue. In this guide, you’ll discover how to implement this model and how to manage recurring purchases in your business.

What’s in this article?

• What are recurring purchases
  
• Examples of recurring purchases in Spain
  
• What regulations govern recurring purchases in Spain
  
• Advantages and disadvantages of recurring purchases
  
• How to offer recurring purchases in your business
  
• How Stripe Billing can help you manage recurring purchases
  
• Frequently asked questions about recurring purchases in Spain
  

What are recurring purchases

Recurring purchases are transactions that customers make repeatedly and periodically—usually on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis, although in some cases the frequency can be customized.

Customers can make recurring purchases of products or services according to two pricing models:

• Fixed price, where the same amount is always charged
  
• Variable price, where the amount changes according to aspects such as use and quantity
  

These types of purchases and their payment are usually processed automatically, provided the customer has authorized automatic payments in advance.

Examples of recurring purchases in Spain

The recurring purchase model is available for a wide variety of products and services that customers buy regularly. Let’s look at some very common examples in Spain:

Subscription-based services

In this type of subscription, the customer pays a recurring fee for continued access to the service. Below are some of the subscription services with the most subscribers in Spain:

• SaaS: These are online programs and platforms provided by software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, which are primarily used in business environments. SaaS companies typically charge monthly or annual fees in exchange for use of their solutions, which can be communication tools (e.g., Zoom or Slack), design programs (e.g., Figma), or cloud computing services (e.g., Amazon Web Services [AWS]).

• Streaming platforms: These offer access to a catalog of movies, series, music, and other multimedia content, usually through a monthly subscription. According to the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), paid streaming platforms are used by 6 out of 10 households with internet access.

• Media: As a result of digital transformation, many traditional media outlets have had to reinvent themselves and adopt new digital models, such as subscriptions. Now, many newspapers and magazines require recurring payments from their readers to access content. The French newspaper Le Monde was one of the pioneers of this model and achieved great success in its transition.

• Sports centers: These usually charge a monthly or annual fee to allow continuous access to their facilities and services. According to the report La industria del deporte y el fitness (The Sports and Fitness Industry), these businesses have 5.4 million customers in Spain.

Recurring purchases at ecommerce stores

Recurring purchases are very common among ecommerce businesses that sell products that customers replenish periodically, such as household cleaning supplies, office supplies, or food. According to the Spanish edition of SEUR’s E-shopper barometer 2025, more than half of Spanish customers who shopped online in 2025 (53%) made at least one online purchase per month.

Online courses and educational platforms

Many online learning platforms offer continuous access to courses, webinars, or training materials in exchange for a monthly fee. According to the ONTSI study on online shopping in Spain, online education was one of the most popular digital products: 25.5% of Spaniards purchased services of this type in 2023.

Subscription boxes of curated items

Some brands are promoting recurring purchases in the form of subscription boxes containing curated items, such as clothing, beauty products, or gourmet food products. According to a study by market research group IMARC, this industry generated revenue of $600 million USD in Spain in 2024.

What regulations govern recurring purchases in Spain

In Spain, recurring purchases are governed by several laws. Here is a brief summary of the most important ones:

Customer Service Law

This law received preliminary approval in November 2025 and was finally published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE) on December 27, 2025. It requires companies offering recurring purchases to notify customers 15 days before a service or subscription contracted online is automatically renewed. The aim of this measure is to prevent unauthorized renewals. Furthermore, this law requires facilitating the process of voluntary termination of contracts. To that end, the user must be able to cancel recurring purchases using at least the same means used to contract them, in addition to by mail, phone, and an electronic communication method.

General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users

Article 97 of this law sets out the obligations of companies that sell remotely or outside their premises. These include clearly providing information such as the total price including taxes, the cost of transport, or any other additional expenses before the customer makes the recurring purchase.

Law on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce

Also known as LSSI, this law requires confirming to the customer the receipt of payment and, therefore, recording the contracting of the recurring purchase service.

Advantages and disadvantages of recurring purchases

Recurring purchases are becoming increasingly popular due to the numerous benefits they bring to customers; however, the experience can be affected by certain negative aspects that should be taken into account. The situation is similar for businesses: implementing a recurring billing system in companies that have a recurring revenue model offers benefits, but the disadvantages should not be overlooked. Let’s look at the pros and cons for companies and customers:

Advantages for companies

Compatibility with numerous payment methods

To offer recurring purchases, businesses need to be able to accept recurring payments. Most payment methods support both recurring and one-time payments, although there are some, such as direct debit, that support only recurring purchases. Stripe Payments, the payments platform used by millions of businesses worldwide—from new startups to large companies operating internationally—offers various recurring payment methods, including SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) direct debits, digital wallets, and major card networks. Thanks to this diversity of options, customers can pay for recurring purchases with their preferred method, which for the business means less cart abandonment and increased conversion.

More predictable revenue

Knowing in advance the amount of revenue in each cycle and the payment date helps to maintain more rigorous control over cash flow.

Lower administrative burden

By minimizing repetitive tasks, such as manual collection management, companies can increase productivity and reduce management costs.

Fewer declined payments

Predictable payments help optimize authorization rates and reduce the number of declined payments. Additionally, if you use Stripe Billing, you can increase the rate of successful payments with built-in features like Adaptive Acceptance, which uses artificial intelligence tools to minimize payments that are declined in error.

Customer loyalty

Recurring purchases reinforce consumer habits and help reduce the number of customers who switch between different solutions. Strengthening that continuity is especially important in sectors with high competition or low-cost subscriptions, especially considering that Spain is the No. 2 country in Europe where customer loyalty to brands is decreasing the most.

Disadvantages for companies

Complex management

The main difference between recurring and one-time purchases lies in the management of payments. While a one-time payment is completed in a single step, recurring payments require managing various aspects, such as active subscriptions, prorated payments if there has been a plan change or cancellation during a billing cycle, payments declined due to expired cards, and possible technical issues. In 2024, 24% of Spanish consumers reported having had technical difficulties when making online payments, according to the Bank of Spain’s Boletín Económico 2025/T2 (Economic Bulletin 2025/Q2).

Greater impact from customer churn

In companies whose business model is based on recurring purchases, customer churn has a much greater impact on profits, since each instance of churn means not receiving several payments. To reduce customer churn, it’s advisable to invest in strengthened customer service, transparency, personalized communications, and improvement in how customers perceive the value they receive.

Advantages for customers

Greater convenience

Since payments are processed automatically, customers don’t have to worry about remembering the due date, and service interruptions are avoided.

Time savings

By not having to handle payments manually, customers save time on a repetitive task that can be tedious.

Discounts

Many companies reward customer loyalty with discounts on long-term subscriptions. A clear example is annual SaaS subscriptions, which usually cost the equivalent of 10 monthly installments despite providing service for a whole year.

Disadvantages for customers

Unforeseen payments

If customers no longer need to access the service or receive the product periodically, but forget to cancel the recurring purchase, they will continue to receive automatic charges that can negatively affect their household finances. Reducing these types of cases is one of the main objectives of the Customer Service Law.

Overlooked price increases

When companies offer recurring purchases, it’s common for price updates to occur that might go unnoticed. If this happens and customers have not seen the emails informing them of the changes, they will be charged a higher amount than expected.

Fortunately, Law 10/2025 on Customer Service protects the user against price changes without notice. It is now mandatory for the company to contact its customers personally and on a durable medium—that is, one that can be saved and consulted later, like an email—at least 15 days before the cancellation period ends. The message must be clear and accessible, explicitly stating when the contract ends and what the new amount will be, ensuring transparency and preventing surprises in recurring payments.

How to offer recurring purchases in your business

Now that you know the advantages of accepting recurring payments, your business might be interested in offering recurring purchases. To implement recurring purchases, follow these basic steps:

• Choose the subscriptions you want to offer: Identify the products or services you want to sell on a recurring basis.

• Set your pricing model: Decide which pricing model you will use. For example, you can choose tiered pricing (very common in SaaS), fixed amounts, consumption-based pricing, or pricing based on the number of users for a subscription.

• Set up payment methods: Your customers will automatically pay for recurring purchases using the payment methods you choose to accept. For example, in Spain, 77.5% of recurring payments are processed through direct debits.

• Automate billing: Set up recurring invoices to be issued automatically each time a new payment is processed. With a traditional solution, invoice generation is separate from the payment process. However, by working with a solution that integrates payments and billing, such as Stripe Billing, you can synchronize the processes in each billing cycle. Additionally, the Stripe App Marketplace offers numerous applications that automate invoice management, such as Billit and Invopop.

How Stripe Billing can help you manage recurring purchases

Stripe Billing lets you bill and manage customers however you want—from simple recurring billing to usage-based billing and sales-negotiated contracts. Start accepting recurring payments globally in minutes—no code required—or build a custom integration using the API.

Stripe Billing can help you:

• Offer flexible pricing: Respond to user demand faster with flexible pricing models, including usage-based, tiered, flat-fee plus overage, and more. Support for coupons, free trials, prorations, and add-ons is built-in.

• Expand globally: Increase conversion by offering customers’ preferred payment methods. Stripe supports 125+ local payment methods and 130+ currencies.

• Increase revenue and reduce churn: Improve revenue capture and reduce involuntary churn with Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations. Stripe recovery tools helped users recover over $6.5 billion in revenue in 2024.

• Boost efficiency: Use Stripe’s modular tax, revenue reporting, and data tools to consolidate multiple revenue systems into one. Easily integrate with third-party software.

Learn more about Stripe Billing, or get started today.

Frequently asked questions about recurring purchases in Spain

What should a company do if it can’t calculate the total price of a recurring purchase in advance?

The General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users requires that the total price including VAT and the cost of shipping or any other additional expenses be clearly indicated, but it’s not always possible to calculate the total price in advance. If your company offers recurring purchases with variable amounts, you have an obligation to explicitly communicate how that final rate is calculated; for example, if you offer usage-based pricing, this involves specifying the metrics used to calculate invoice totals and providing the unit price for each.

What happens if a recurring payment fails?

The consequences of failed payments for recurring purchases—regardless of the cause, such as paying with an expired card or having insufficient funds—are negative for the company: they decrease revenue, increase operating costs, and can lead to cancellations. In fact, 25% of subscription cancellations are due exclusively to payment failures. From a customer’s point of view, a cancellation means being unable to access services or ceasing to receive recurring product deliveries. To reduce the likelihood of these situations, it’s a good idea to automate payment retries with a tool like Smart Retries, integrated into Stripe Billing.

Is it legal to offer free trials that convert to recurring purchases?

Yes, it’s legal to offer trial periods on subscriptions and other recurring purchases, as long as you clearly inform the customer of the conditions before formalizing the contract. This is established by Article 60 of the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users, which requires providing detailed information on any offer related to the recurring purchase contract, such as a free period after which periodic charges will begin or a reduced price during the first few months. Specifically, the legal and financial conditions must be defined, such as commitment periods, automatic contract renewals, and the conditions applicable to the right of withdrawal.