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 canceled 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. 

Setup

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.

Generate the next subscription order now

If your customer runs out of product and would like to process their next order right away, you can use the Order now button to generate an order. When this button is clicked, the order processes within 60 minutes, and the original next order date is automatically marked as skipped. If your customer would like the original next order as well, you can recover the skipped shipment.

Note: While the order is processing, the next order date temporarily updates to the current date, and you will not be able to place an additional order until the order completes.

Setup

To generate a customer's subscription order now, 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. Under Active customer subscriptions, click the Order now button.

   

5. Click Confirm.
   
6. Optional: To recover the original next order, expand the Manage upcoming orders section, and click Recover shipment.

   

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.

Note: Changing the order frequency does not update the next order date. Frequency changes come into effect once the next order has passed. If you'd like to change the next order date as well, please refer to the instructions under Change upcoming order date.

Setup

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. 

Setup

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 Pause future orders.

   

6. Select Save changes.

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

Change product quantity

Alert: Only an admin can update the quantity of a product for an existing prepaid subscription. If the quantity is updated in the middle of a prepaid cycle, your customers are not charged or refunded any differences in price or shipping on any remaining orders. The shipping and price of the prepaid subscription updates when it is set to renew.

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.

Setup

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 a subscription

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

Alert: Only an admin can cancel a prepaid subscription mid-cycle, before all prepaid orders have been generated. When this is done, the remaining orders are not automatically refunded. Refunds must be completed separately from within Shopify. Prepaid subscriptions can also be canceled at the end of the prepaid cycle by changing the renewal method to expire.

Setup

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

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Click on the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. If more than one subscription exists, click Show details under the subscription you would like to cancel.
5. Click Cancel subscription and follow the instructions below based on the subscription type:
   • Standard subscription: Click Cancel subscription again, then Yes, cancel subscription.

     

   • Prepaid subscription: Choose one of the following options:

     

     • Cancel immediately - This cancels the prepaid subscription immediately and displays the number of remaining orders. You can refund the remaining orders in Shopify.
       1. Click Cancel subscription.
     • Change the renewal method - This allows you to cancel at the end of the prepaid period, only once all orders have been generated.
       1. Select Cancel after last prepaid order.
       2. Click Save changes.

Reactivate a subscription

If your customer would like to reactivate a previously canceled subscription, you can do this on their behalf.

Setup

Please follow the steps below to reactivate your customer's subscription.

1. In Bold Subscriptions, navigate to Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Click on the ellipsis (three dots), and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Click View Inactive Subscriptions.

   

5. Under the subscription that you would like to reactivate, click 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.

Setup

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

Alert: Payment information, including billing address and payment method, is stored and verified with Shopify, and not Bold Subscriptions. Bold makes it easy for your customers to update this information, however, all validation is handled by Shopify.

If a customer's payment method or billing address needs to be updated, you can request that the customer completes this themselves by triggering a Shopify email request from within Bold Subscriptions. The email contains a link that they can use to update their payment method in Shopify. Please refer to Shopify's article for the most up-to-date information on their process.

Note: To manually update your customer's payment information in Shopify, please refer to Shopify's Edit a customer's subscription payment article.

Setup

To send a Shopify email to request a subscriber change their payment information via Bold Subscriptions, please follow the steps below.

1. In Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Click on 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

Alert: When updating the shipping address on a prepaid subscription, customers are not automatically billed or refunded any differences in shipping costs for the orders that they’ve already paid for. Any costs associated with shipping updates are applied to the next prepaid order if it is set to continue.

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.

Setup

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

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 can only 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.

Setup

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.

Setup

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 adds the product as a recurring order along with the existing subscription.
• Add to next order only. This adds the product to the next subscription order 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.

A new shipping rate is calculated at the time the new product is added.

Discounts on added products

If an existing subscription product is added to a subscription, it will receive the discount associated with the group it is in. If the added product has a dynamic discount, the initial discount will be applied to all recurring orders. 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. 

Note: Discounts on added products will not be visible from within the admin or customer portal, however, they will be applied to the product’s price. For example, a product with a price of $10.00 and a 10% discount applied appears as $9.00.

Setup

Full access to this feature requires you to use the Log in as customer feature. If you are not logged in as the customer, the product will be added as a subscription only. Please note that when logged in as the customer, you are subject to the same permissions and restrictions as your customers. This means you must also give your customer permission to add products to their existing subscriptions within the customer portal.  

To add a product to your customer's existing subscription, please follow the steps below.

Video Walkthrough

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.

   

Remove a product from an existing subscription

If a customer would like to remove a product from their existing subscription order, you can remove a product from the customer's subscription on their behalf.

Note: Removing a product is only possible if the customer has more than one product in their subscription.

Setup

To remove a product from a customer's subscription, please follow the steps below.

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, select Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Click the ellipsis beside the customer and select Manage subscriptions.
4. Click Show details on the subscription you would like to edit.
5. Click Products in your subscription.
6. Click Remove product next to the product you would like to remove.
   
7. Click Remove product again in the popup menu to confirm your choice.

Change a product's subscription group

You are only able to swap between products that already exist within the same subscription group. If the product you would like to swap with is not inside of the existing subscription group, you can change the product's subscription group for that customer.

Note: Changing a product's subscription group using this method only changes it for that customer. It does not change the product's subscription group for all customers. If you would like to change a product's subscription group for all new customers going forward, you can edit the subscription group to remove the product, and then add it to another subscription group. 

Once the product's subscription group is changed and the swap is performed, the swapped-in product will keep the same frequency and minimum order requirements of the customer's original subscription product. The discount will reflect the amount set in the new subscription group. Swapped products do not receive discounts when dynamic discounts are enabled.

If the swap is not performed immediately after changing the product's subscription group, the customer will keep all the original terms of the product they originally subscribed to.

Setup

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

1. In Bold Subscriptions, navigate to Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. Next to the customer's name, click on the ellipsis (three dots), and select Manage Subscriptions.
4. Expand the Products in your subscription section, and click Edit.

   

5. Click Edit next to the name of the existing subscription group.

   

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

Add a discount code

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

Note: If a discount code is already applied to the subscription, then you must remove it before applying a new one. Please see how to do this under Remove a discount code below.

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.

Setup

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.

Setup

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 allows 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. Logging into the customer portal as the customer is best for testing or troubleshooting on behalf of your customer unless required to access a particular feature, such as when adding a product to a customer's existing subscription.

Alert: In order for this feature to work, your admin customer portal link must be correct. If you've changed the default name of the customer portal page in Shopify, you must update the admin customer portal link in the customer portal settings. For more information, please visit Setup and Manage the Customer Portal.

Setup

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

1. From within Bold Subscriptions, navigate to Customers.
2. Search for the customer by name or email.
3. 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.

Change prepaid subscription renewal method

To change the renewal method on your customer's 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. Click on the Change renewal method link.

   

5. Change the renewal method by performing one of the following actions:
   • Uncheck renew this subscription after the last prepaid order to have the subscription expire.
   • Select Renew as a prepaid.
   • Select Renew as a regular subscription.
6. Click Save changes.