Subscription Management: Merchant Perspective

Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout comes with a full suite of management tools to help you maintain your customer's subscriptions and information.

From the Customers tab in Bold Subscriptions, you are able to:

• View your customer's subscribed products from both the past and present.
• Swap your customer's products.
• View and edit customer info and shipping details.
• View and edit your customer's next order dates.
• Cancel, pause or resume subscriptions.
• Edit upcoming orders.
• Add or remove a discount code.
• Log into the customer portal as the customer.

And much more.

This article guides you through the changes you can make for your customers.

The following changes may require a page refresh before they can be seen within the Manage upcoming orders section of the customer portal.

Change upcoming order date

Allowing customers to change their next order date decreases the churn rate of cancelled subscriptions on your store. You can change the next order date on behalf of your customers if you've disabled these permissions for the customer, or if the customer is having difficulty making the change themselves.

You have two options when changing the upcoming order date:

1. Only update next order date: This option will only update the next order date in the cycle and skip the previously scheduled next order date. For example, if a subscription generates monthly on the 15th, and the next order date is changed from September 15th to September 10th, the next order will generate on September 10th and then will be skipped on September 15th. All future orders will remain set to recur on the 15th.
2. Update all future orders based on the selected date: This option will will change the next order date as well as the future order dates. For example, if a subscription generates monthly on the 15th, and the next order date is changed to the 10th, the next order will generate on the 10th as will all future recurring orders. 

Follow the steps below to update your customer's next order date.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Under Active customer subscriptions, select Edit beside the Next Order date.

   

5. Select a desired order date for the next order.
6. Select Only update next order date or Update all future orders based on selected date.
7. Select Save Changes.

Change order frequency

Active subscribers may want you to change the order frequency for their active subscription. For example, they may want to change the frequency from once every week, to once every two weeks, or vice versa.

When changing your customers frequency option, you will only be able to choose from the frequency options that are available in that product's current subscription group.

It's important to note that changing the order frequency will not update the next order date. Frequency changes will come into affect once the next order has passed.

Follow the steps below to change your customer's order frequency.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Under Order frequency, select Edit.

   

5. Use the dropdown menu to select a new frequency.
6. Select Save.

Once the order frequency has been updated, it's best to check the upcoming order dates to ensure they are correct and match the new frequency selected.

Pause or resume a subscription

Within Bold Subscriptions, you can pause and resume a customer's recurring orders on their behalf. When paused, the customer will not be billed or receive any orders that have not already been fulfilled.

Allowing your customer to temporarily pause a subscription helps to reduce churn. 

Follow the steps below to pause your customer's subscription.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Under Active customer subscriptions, select Edit beside the Next Order date.

   

5. Select Manage upcoming orders.
6. Select Pause future orders.

   

7. Select Save changes.

Resuming the subscription can be done by selecting Resume future orders near the top of the subscription details.

Change product quantity

You can adjust the quantity of your customer's subscription products within Bold Subscriptions.

This allows you to increase or decrease the amount of products your customers are receiving without requiring the customer to cancel and make another purchase.

Follow the steps below to change your customer's product quantity.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
5. Select Edit next to Products in your subscription.

   

6. Adjust the quantity to the desired amount for each product that is in the existing subscription.
7. Select Save changes.

Cancel or reactivate a subscription

If a customer needs to cancel or reactivate their subscription, you can do this on their behalf from within Bold Subscriptions.

Follow the steps below to cancel your customer's susbcription.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to cancel.
5. Select Cancel subscription, and Yes, cancel subscription.

   

Follow the steps below to reactivate your customer's subscription.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Select View Inactive Subscriptions.

   

5. Under the subscription that you would like to reactivate, select Reactivate Subscription, then Yes, Reactivate Subscription.

Update a subscriber's account information (name, email, phone number)

You have full access to change your customer's account information within the app. This includes updating their email address, first name, last name and phone number.

Updating information from within Bold Subscriptions also changes the information within the customer's account inside Shopify.

Note: If the customer's email address changes, the customer must use the new email address to log into their customer account going forward.

Follow the steps below to update a subscriber's account information.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Near the top of right side of the page under Customer info, select Edit Customer Info and make the necessary adjustments.

   

5. Select Save Changes.

Update payment method and billing address

If a customer's payment method or billing address needs to be updated, you can request that the customer completes this themselves by sending an email request.

Note: To send an email from within Shopify or manually update your customer's payments information, please refer to Shopify's Edit a customer's subscription payment article.

To request a subscriber change their payment information from within Bold Subscriptions, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Select Payment information.
5. Select Change Payment Information. An email will be sent to the customer.

   Note: If customers are having issues receiving the email, please request that they check their spam and/or junk folders.

Update shipping address

You are able to adjust your customer's shipping address directly within Bold Subscriptions.

If the shipping information is not updated, there is a strong possibility that future recurring orders will fail due to a payment error with the payment method being used.

To update your customer's shipping information, please follow the instructions below

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
5. Select Edit next to Address and shipping information.

   

6. Select an existing address or enter a new address.
7. Select Save Changes.

Once the shipping details have been updated, all future recurring orders will automatically reflect this new information when processed.

Swap a subscription product

Alert: Swapping is unavailable when a customer is using a currency that is different from your store's base currency.

If a customer would like to subscribe to a different subscription product, Bold Subscriptions allows you to swap their current product with a new one on their behalf. This allows your customer to avoid canceling and resubscribing, which also reduces your churn rate.

You will only be able to swap between products that already exist within the same subscription group as each other. If the product is not inside of the existing subscription group, please see Change a product's subscription group below.

It is important to note that if a swap is attempted on a product that contains a product-specific discount code, it will result in an error. To resolve this error, product-specific discount codes must be removed from the subscription prior to the product swap. After this is done, the product-specific discount can be re-applied to the customer’s subscription.

To swap your customer's subscription product, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
5. Select Products in your subscription.
6. Select Swap product next to the product you want to swap out.

   

7. Click Select product next to the product you would like to swap the original product with.

   

8. Select Swap products.

All future orders will generate with the new product after the swap has been completed.

Skip or resume an order

You are able to skip an upcoming order for your customer as well as resume their order(s) at a later date.

Common reasons for skipping an upcoming order may be that there are insufficient funds within the on-file payment method, your customer(s) are moving addresses, or the customer just needed some extra time between orders.

To skip an order, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to skip.
5. Select Manage upcoming orders.
6. Select Skip shipment next to the upcoming order that you would like to skip.

   

If a skipped subscription order needs to be reversed, you can follow steps 1-6 and select Recover shipment to reverse the change.

Add a product to an existing subscription (one-time or recurring)

If a customer would like to add a product to their existing subscription order either as a one-time purchase or recurring order, you can add that product to the customer's subscription on their behalf.

When adding a product to an existing subscription order, there are two options:

• Add to this subscription. This will add the product as a recurring order along with the existing subscription.
• Add to next order only. This will add the product to the next subscription order as a one-time purchase only. It will not recur.

The options available to your customers depend on the options you’ve made available for the product on your storefront. These are as follows:

• If the product is available as a subscription only, your customer will only see the option to Add to this subscription.
• If the product is available as a one-time purchase only, your customer will see the option to Add to next order only.
• If the product is available for subscription as well as one-time purchase, your customers will see both options, Add to this subscription, and Add to next order only.

If an existing subscription product is added to a subscription, it will receive the discount associated with the group it is in. If the group does not have a discount then a discount will not be applied. If the added product is in more than one subscription group, it will inherit the discount from the group it was most recently added to.

Full access to this feature requires you to use the Log in as customer feature. This means you will also need to enable the setting within the customer portal. Please follow the steps below.

To add a product to an existing subscription, please follow the steps below.

Step 1. Enable the setting in Bold Subscriptions

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Settings.
2. Select Customer portal.
3. Enable the toggle next to Customer can add products to their existing subscriptions.

   

Step 2. Add the product

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Log in to Customer Portal.

   Note: This is the recommended route. You can also select Manage subscriptions if you want to add a recurring subscription product, however, the option to add a product to the next order only will not be available.

4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to add the product to.
5. Within the active subscription overview, select Add Products.

   

6. Select the desired product.
7. If applicable, select the size and quantity.
8. Select an available option.

   

Change a product's subscription group

You are only able to swap between products that already exist within the same subscription group that the current subscription product is in.

If the product is not inside of the existing subscription group, you can change the product's subscription group in order to swap between the products in that group.

To change a product's subscription group, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to edit.
5. Select Edit next to Products in your subscription.

   

6. Select Edit next to the name of the existing subscription group.

   

7. Select the subscription group that you would like to change the product to.
8. Select Confirm.
9. Select Save Changes.

Add a discount code

You can add a discount code to your customer's existing subscription if desired.

It is important to note that discount codes which are limited to the initial order cannot be added to an existing subscription, since the initial order has already passed. As well, Buy X Get Y discounts are not eligible for Subscriptions. To read more about this and other limitations, please visit Discount Codes in Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout.

To add a discount code to an existing subscription, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, select Show details under the subscription you would like to add the discount code to.
5. Select Discount code, then Add discount.

   

Remove a discount code

At any time, you can remove a discount code from your customer's subscription. If there is an existing discount code on your customer's subscription and you would like to add a new discount code, you will need to remove the existing discount code first.

To remove a discount code from an existing subscription, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Select Discount code, then Remove discount.

   

5. Select Yes, remove discount.

Log into the customer portal as the customer

Bold Subscriptions gives you the ability to log into and view the customer portal as one of your customers would. This enables you to provide hands-on support when troubleshooting any issues reported by your customers as well as implement changes on your customer's behalf.

When logged in as the customer, you are subject to the same permissions or restrictions as your customer. For example, if you have disabled swapping in your customer portal settings, you will not be able to swap when logged in as the customer.

In general, it's best to edit as the administrator using one of the methods above, unless otherwise recommended. Logging into the customer portal as the customer is best for testing or troubleshooting on behalf of your customer.

To log into the customer portal as the customer, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscription, navigate to Settings > Customer portal.
2. Under Login as customer link, enter the URL to your customer portal.

   Note: This address depends on if you have customized your customer portal. If you are using the standard setup, the URL will be pages/my-subscriptions.

   
3. Select Save.
4. Select Customers.
5. Search for the customer by name or email.
6. Select the ellipsis beside the customer and select Log in to customer portal.

   

A blue banner appears at the top of the customer portal page to let you know that you are logged in as the customer. Any changes made to a subscription here will be logged as completed by the store admin in the customer activity log.