Migrating Customers to Vimeo OTT

A customer migration is the transfer of paying customers from your previous payment provider into Vimeo's payment system allowing for a seamless transition from your old platform into Vimeo OTT without interrupting customers' access or billing schedule. Migrations involve two components, first migrating your existing customer's credit card into Vimeo's Stripe account, then adding your customers' billing info into your Vimeo OTT account. We will guide you through this process and ensure it is a non-disruptive experience for your customers.

Process Overview

1a. Migrating credit cards - I already use Stripe as my payment processor

Since you have an existing Stripe account with your customer’s subscription information, the process is pretty simple.

  1. Your Technical Implementation Manager will provide you step by step instructions to migration customers from your Stripe account into the Vimeo Stripe account.
  2. You will initiate the Stripe migration from your account.
  3. Vimeo will confirm Stripe migration from our account. 
  4. Stripe will copy your customers into the Vimeo Stripe account within 24-48 hours. Stripe creates a copy, but the customers will remain in your account as well. 

1b. Migrating credit cards - I use a different payment provider than Stripe

As long as your previous payment provider is able to work with Stripe we will likely be able to migrate your subscribers over. We have had successful customer migrations with the following payment providers below. If you don’t see yours listed, don’t worry! Stripe may require additional information from you to ensure a smooth migration:

  • Braintree
  • Recurly
  • Ingenico

Here’s what we will have you do:

  1. Reach out to your previous payment provider and ask about migrating the data from them to Stripe. We need you to confirm with your previous payment provider that they can provide Stripe proof of their PCI compliance and encrypt sensitive data using Stripe’s PGP key. 
  2. Vimeo will reach out to Stripe to initiate the migration. 
  3. Vimeo will provide you with detailed instructions for your previous payment provider to securely transfer your customer's credit card info into Vimeo's Stripe account. If your previous payment provider and Stripe are able to work together, Stripe will request an encrypted file with the following information about each customer you will be migrating and where to send it:
    1. First Name
    2. Last Name
    3. Email Address
    4. Credit Card Number
    5. Credit Card Expiration
    6. Credit Card CVV
    7. Credit Card Country
    8. Credit Card Post Code
    • NOTE:This file is not shared with Vimeo directly.
  5. Once this has been done, send us an email so that we can confirm receipt from Stripe.
  6. After Stripe has completed the migration on their end, they will send you and Vimeo a file that has the New Stripe Customer IDs mapped for your old customers. You will need that for the next part of the process.

2. Adding Billing information and charging customers via Vimeo Stripe account

Now we will get your subscriber's information into Vimeo OTT so that they can access your content and be charged the correct amount on the proper date. Here’s what we need you to do.

  1. You will need to create a CSV containing the billing information for all of the customers you want to give access and charge through your Vimeo OTT account. The CSV file must include the following information:
    1. Email
    2. Name (Optional)
    3. New Stripe Customer ID
    4. Frequency (Monthly or Yearly)
    5. Pricing Amount (in USD cents, i.e. $4.99 is 499)
    6. Next Billing Date (mm/dd/yy)
    7. Cancel at Period End (TRUE or FALSE)
    8. Cancel Date (mm/dd/yy only if the customer is set to be canceled)
  2. Send that file to your Technical Program Manager at accounts@vimeo.com
  3. You will off-billing in your old Stripe account or payment provider. Vimeo will not add your customers until you confirm billing has been turned off in your old account. If billing is not turned off customers would be double charged. 
  4. On the agreed-upon date, Vimeo will add your customers to your account which will grant them access and charge them the amount you specified on the date you have indicated. 
  5. You will send an email letting your customers know about your new service and that they already have accounts and you are ready to launch!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my customers keep the same billing amount and frequency?

Yes, you can specify the price that customers should pay for their subscription and the date they should be charged. At this time, the Vimeo OTT platform offers monthly and annual subscriptions. If your existing subscribers are on this cadence, then we can seamlessly continue to charge them the same amount on the same frequency. 

If you currently offer options besides monthly/annual, you will need to pick one of these two options for the customer and they will be billed on the scheduled monthly or annual interval.

Does Vimeo OTT accept PayPal as a payment method for my subscribers? How will this affect them?

Vimeo OTT does not currently support PayPal. When we perform a customer migration, there is a possibility that some of your existing PayPal subscribers will be able to be migrated into Stripe. 

PayPal is able to port over transaction information for customers who have paid with a ‘direct credit card’. If their payment was funded by a PayPal account, this information cannot be passed through to Stripe. PayPal can only deliver credit card information from direct credit card payments only. If there is a mixture of payments coming from both potential scenarios, PayPal can only pass the one subset of information.

For customers currently paying through PayPal, Vimeo can give these users access to your site through their next billing date. At that time their access will expire and they will be prompted to enter a credit card to maintain access to their subscription. 

What about content that a customer has bought or rented? Can I migrate transactional purchases, too?

We do not migrate credit card information from transactional purchases on a previous platform, however you can still give users access to the content. Once you have created a Buy or Rent Product (also known as TVOD) in your Vimeo OTT Account, you can use the Add Customer Tool to grant users access to that Product. You can choose the duration if it's a rental, or set it to "Forever" if it was a purchase. Note that the +Add Customer Tool allows you to add up to 100 emails at a time, and you will be charged $1 per customers. 

If you need to add more customers or have a large library of transactional videos, let your Implementation Manager know and they can help you grant access in bulk.