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.

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.

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 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

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 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.

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.

Cancel a subscription

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

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.

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

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.

Setup

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

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.

Alert: Full access to this feature requires you to use the Log in as customer feature. If you are not logged in as the customer, you won't be able to see both options and the product will be added as a subscription by default. 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.  

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.

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

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. 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.

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 customized the default name of the customer portal page, 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.

FAQs

Can Bold Subscriptions automatically tag subscription customers?

Bold Subscriptions automatically applies a tag to your subscribers customer profile within Shopify with a tag of active_subscriber or inactive_subscriber based on the status of their subscription.

For more information, please visit Customer Tagging in Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout.

Can I bulk cancel or pause subscriptions?

Subscriptions are not able to be cancelled or paused in bulk. All subscriptions need to be cancelled or paused individually.

Can I offer a free subscription to a customer?

You can create and supply a customer with a Shopify discount code that discounts the entire order by 100%. For important information about Shopify discount codes in Bold Subscriptions, please visit Discount Codes.

Can I split up an existing subscription into two subscriptions?

No. The product needs to be removed from the existing subscription and the customer needs to re-purchase the product as a subscription on the storefront.

Can I update the price of my customer's existing subscription products?

The unit price cannot be increased or decreased for an individual subscriber at this time. The unit price for a product in an existing subscription is grandfathered during the initial purchase by the customer.

As a workaround, you can update the price for an existing subscriber to match the current price set in your store by swapping the product out and then back into the subscription. Please see the steps above for swapping a product in an existing subscription.

You can also update the price of a product for all existing subscribers using the Bulk Update tool. For more information, please visit Bulk Price Updates in Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout.

Can I use Shopify's new customer accounts?

We are working to support Shopify's new customer accounts. At this time we do not recommend switching to the new version in order to ensure your customers are still able to access their Customer Portal from the account page. Please ensure you are using Shopify's classic accounts.

For more information on how to enable Shopify's classic customer accounts, please visit Shopify's Help Center. 

Can I apply a setting so that only customers who buy a subscription are required to create an account?

Shopify does not have a setting to restrict account creation requirements to only those who purchase a subscription. If the accounts are set to required, all customers are required to create an account when checking out on your store.

If you wish to leave accounts optional, we recommend to enable the Subscription Created email within Bold Subscriptions. This email is sent to your customers once they have purchased a subscription from your store. You can customize the text within these emails to advise your customers of the benefits of creating an account and provide instructions for how to do so.

When creating an account, customers must use the same email they used when purchasing their subscription in order to see and manage their subscription.

If I change a subscription product's price in the Shopify admin, does the price change for all existing subscribers as well?

No. Customers with existing subscriptions are unaffected by price changes made within the admin. Their subscriptions remain at the same price as when they originally subscribed as per their subscription agreement. Only new subscribers are subject to the new price.

If you wish to update the product price for your existing subscribers you can do this via the Bulk Update tool. For more information, please visit Bulk Price Updates in Subscriptions for Shopify Checkout.

When are customers billed for recurring subscriptions?

Recurring orders within Bold Subscriptions occur at 12 AM, within your stores time zone.

A transaction is sent from Bold Subscriptions to Shopify Payments on the same day that your customer's subscriptions are set to renew. Once the transaction has been successfully processed within Shopify Payments, an order for all successful transactions is generated based on the Daily processing time set for your store.

You can see this information within Bold Subscriptions under Settings > General settings.

If a transaction fails due to a payment related issue (invalid credit card, expired credit card, etc.), an order will not be generated in your Shopify admin. Bold Subscriptions will attempt to renew the subscription again using the applied settings in Bold Subscriptions under Settings > Dunning management.

Read more information about dunning management, please visit Cancellation & Dunning Management.

Troubleshooting

I am receiving an error about a discount code when trying to swap a product within a subscription

If there is an existing discount code attached to your customer's existing subscription, you will receive an error when trying to swap in a new product. To resolve this you can remove the discount code from their subscription temporarily and then add it back in once the swap is complete.

To see how to remove and add a discount code to an existing subscription, please visit Subscription Management: Merchant Perspective.

I am not able to swap a product for my customer

There are a couple reasons why you may not be able to swap a product.

1. If a customer is using a currency which is different from the store's base currency, swapping is disabled.
2. Products must belong to the same subscription group in order to be swapped. If you would like to swap a product from another subscription group, you can change the subscription group it belongs to in order to perform the swap. For instructions on how to do this, please visit Subscription Management: Merchant Perspective.

I am seeing an error when trying to add a product to an existing subscription

The following message: Error adding the product to your subscription, may appear if your store does not have an eligible shipping rate for the new subscription total.

Please ensure you have an eligible shipping rate for the new total once the product is added to the existing subscription.

If you do have an eligible shipping rate and you are still seeing this error, please reach out to our Customer Success team.