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Bulk Product Swap in Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout

Laurel
Laurel
  • Updated

There may be times when a subscription product is out of stock or you no longer want to sell it. Bold Subscriptions’ Bulk Update tool allows you to remove a product from all of your customers’ existing subscriptions and replace it with another.

Pro-Tip: To swap a product for an individual subscriber, please visit Subscription Management: Merchant Perspective.

This article outlines the functionality, important considerations, and steps for using the Bulk Update tool to swap one product for another in your customers’ existing subscriptions.

 


 

Video Walkthrough

 


 

Functionality

When the Bulk Update tool is used for a product swap, it checks all products in your customer's existing subscriptions and makes the product swap wherever it is applicable.

The update can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the number of subscriptions your customers have, the amount of products in each subscription, and the amount of products or variants which need to be updated. All subscriptions are checked for updates during the process–even if only one subscription product is being updated.

Shipping rates are also updated on subscriptions which qualify for a new rate due to a price change.

Once your updates are complete, you can download a summary of the Bulk Update Report. This outlines all of the changes in a CSV file. You can read more about this below.

 


 

Important considerations

Please read through the considerations below before performing your bulk update.

Storefront changes

The Bulk Update tool does not change the product that is available for subscription on the storefront or in the Shopify admin—only those involved in your customer's existing subscriptions. If you want to make the product unavailable for new subscriptions, you must remove it from the subscription group, or remove it from the storefront manually in the Shopify admin after you have performed the swap using the Bulk Update tool.

Subscription groups

Products that are being swapped with one another must belong to the same subscription group.

Prepaid subscriptions

If a product that belongs to an existing prepaid subscription is swapped for a new product with a different price, your customers are not charged or refunded any differences on orders that have already been paid for. The price of the prepaid subscription will update when it is set to renew. This is also true for changes related to new shipping rates.

Multiple bulk updates

Only one bulk update can be actioned at a time. The bulk update button is disabled if a fixed shipping update is in progress.

Success message

The success message that is displayed after a price update indicates that all updates were attempted, however, it is still possible that a product wasn't swapped. It’s best to download your Bulk Update Report summary once complete. This allows you to check for subscriptions which may not have had their prices updated. If updates continue to fail after additional attempts, please reach out to our Customer Success team.

Customer notification

Your customers are not notified when a bulk price update occurs. It’s best to ensure your subscribers are notified by email when one product is exchanged for another.

 


 

Setup

To create a product swap bulk update, please follow the steps below.

Step 1: Add the new product to the same subscription group of the existing subscription product.

  1. From within Bold Subscriptions, navigate to Subscription groups.
  2. Click on the ellipsis under the Actions column next to the group you would like to edit, and select Edit subscription group.

    Edit subscription group

  3. Click the Select products button, and add your new product.
  4. Click Confirm.
  5. Click Save changes.

Step 2: Use the Bulk Update tool to perform the product swap

  1. From the Bold Subscriptions admin, navigate to Subscriptions > Bulk Updates.
  2. Select Create a bulk update.
  3. Using the dropdown menu under Update type, select Swap products.

    Swap products

  4. Click Select Products.
  5. Select the product you want to swap out of your customers’ existing subscriptions, and then click Confirm.

    Note: A maximum of 25 products or variants can be selected in one update.

  6. Click Choose new Product.
  7. Select the new product, and click Confirm.
  8. Both products are displayed in the admin. Review these to ensure they are correct.

    Review products

  9. Select Confirm Changes.
  10. After ensuring your products are correct, click Start Update.

    Note: You can safely navigate away from this page while the updates are processing. The update can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

  11. Recommended: Select Download Summary.

Step 3: Remove the old product from your subscription or storefront. (Optional)

Depending on what you want to do with the old product, you can either set it to inactive in the Shopify admin, or remove it from the subscription group so it is no longer available for new subscriptions.

 


 

Bulk Update Report

Once your updates are complete, you can download a summary of the Bulk Update Report. This outlines all of the changes in a CSV file. Summaries for all your bulk updates are available in the Subscription admin once complete.

Download Summary

The Bulk Update Report for a product swap contains the following information:

  • subscription_id: The ID of the subscription. This can be found on the Subscriptions page in the Bold Subscription admin.
  • line_item_id: The ID of the line item. This is not displayed in the Bold Subscription admin but can be accessed through Bold’s APIs.
  • subscription_status: The status of the subscription (i.e., paused, active, inactive, etc.).
  • email: The email addresses of subscribers who've had their subscription product swapped.
  • old_product_name: The name of the product that was swapped out.
  • old_platform_product_id: The ID of the swapped out product in Shopify.
  • old_variant_name: The name of the swapped out variant in shopify.
  • platform_variant_id: The ID of the swapped out variant in Shopify.
  • result: The result of the update. The possible values are as follows:
    • applied: The swap was successfully applied.
    • not_applied: The line item was not selected to be updated.
    • Any other result other than the two noted above indicates that the swap was not successful and provides the reason why.