Every subscription in your store is on the app’s Subscriptions page. From there you open one, charge it, skip, pause or cancel it, change what it sends and start subscriptions for customers. Retention shows why customers cancel, and Analytics how the business is doing.
The Subscriptions list #
Tabs sort the list by status: All, Active, Payment overdue, Paused, Cancelling, Cancelled and Ended. Search finds a customer name or email, an order number or a subscription number, and Plan narrows the list to one plan. Export gives you a CSV of what the list shows.
The status of a subscription is one of:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting to start | Bought, not started yet. |
| Free trial | In its free trial; the first charge comes when it ends. |
| Active | Charged on schedule. |
| Payment overdue | The last charge failed; the app is retrying (see Renewals and failed payments). |
| Paused | No charges until it resumes. |
| Cancels at period end | Cancelled, still running until the paid period ends. |
| Cancelled | Stopped by the customer, by staff or after failed payments. |
| Ended | Every payment of the plan was made. |
| Failed | Could not be set up or charged at all. |
One subscription #
Click a subscription to open it. Its page shows the Customer (with Open the customer and Open the first order), Billing (next charge, each charge, cycles billed, the end of a free trial), Delivery, Products, the Schedule of charges with their orders, Payment attempts with the decline reason, and the Activity: everything that happened, and who did it (the customer, staff, Shopify Flow or the API).
Actions #
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bill now | Charges the next cycle now. |
| Skip next charge | Skips the next charge; Undo skip brings it back. |
| Pause | For 1 or more billing cycles, or Until it is resumed. Resume ends a pause. |
| Cancel subscription | At the end of the paid period (no more charges) or Now, with an optional reason kept with the subscription. Keep subscription undoes a cancel at period end. |
| Send card update email | Shopify emails the customer a secure link to update the card. |
| Change plan | Another plan or frequency, from the next charge. |
| Swap product | Another product or variant of the plan. |
| Add to next order | A one-time item with the next delivery. |
| One-time discount | A percent off the next order only. |
Staff can do all of these whatever your self-service settings allow customers. A plan with a minimum number of orders shows “Minimum 6 orders (2 billed).” on the page.
New subscription #
New subscription starts a subscription for a customer, for example after a phone order. Choose the Customer, the Plan, the Product (one of the plan’s products), the Quantity and the First billing date (today up to one year ahead). Leave Shipping address empty to use the customer’s default address, then click Create subscription.
The subscription is charged to the customer’s saved payment method. A customer with none gets a request instead: “The customer has no payment method that can be charged yet. The subscription is created as soon as they add one.” The app asks Shopify to email them a link, and gives you a link to send yourself. Requests are listed under Waiting for a payment method, where you can Try again or Withdraw them; they expire after 30 days.
Rentals are booked in Rentals & Bookings, not here.
Retention #
The Retention tab on the Subscriptions page reports “Why customers cancel, and how many stayed after an offer.” Pick a date range and see, per reason, how many started the cancel flow, how many Cancelled, how many were Kept and how many Left without cancelling; per offer, how many times it was Shown and Accepted; and the customers’ comments. Export CSV downloads the rows. The cancel flow is set up in Settings › Retention (see What customers see in their account).
Analytics #
The Analytics page shows, for the last 30 days or a range you pick:
- Monthly recurring revenue, Active subscriptions and the Churn rate;
- Failed payments recovered: how many failed payments were paid on a retry;
- Store credit owed to members;
- Rental queue and Rental subscriptions, when you use them;
- Active subscriptions by plan and a By day table.
The numbers are counted once a day, in your store’s time zone, and today’s every hour. Export CSV downloads the days.
Good to know #
- The app’s blocks on Shopify’s order and customer pages show the same subscriptions and link to them. See Getting started with SI Subscriptions & Memberships.
- Each change you make is in the subscription’s Activity, marked “by staff”.
- A rental billed by the period has a Rental card with its booking and an End rental button. See Rental subscriptions with Rentals & Bookings.
