How to setup Customer Portal on the Subscriptions app

The customer portal is where your subscribers manage their own subscriptions. They can skip an order, pause, resume, cancel, and update their address and payment method. If you allow it, they can also change their products.

You turn it on by adding the app's extension to your customer account pages in Shopify.

What the extension adds

• A Subscriptions page inside the customer account.
• A Manage subscription link on the order page in the customer account, for orders that created a subscription.

The app's own emails also carry a Manage your subscription button (the default text), so a subscriber can reach the portal from any email.

Step 1: Add the app extension

1. Open Customer portal in the app.
2. On the step Add subscriptions app extension to Customer Account, click Add app extension. This opens the Shopify checkout and accounts editor.
3. In the editor, add the Essential Subscriptions extension to your customer account pages, then click Save.
4. Add a menu item to your customer accounts that points to the new page, so customers can find it.
5. Go back to the app and click I've done this.

Step 2: Confirm it works

1. On the step Confirm customer portal is working, place a test order with a subscription.
2. Log in to your store as that customer and open the subscriptions page. Check the subscription shows with its buttons.
3. Click Everything's fine. If something is wrong, click I need help.

Step 3: Share the portal link

The Customer portal access card holds the Customer portal link. Click the copy icon and add the link to your store menu, footer, or anywhere you want customers to reach their subscriptions.

The link appears once you have clicked I've done this in Step 1. Until then the card reads "Customer portal link will be available after you complete the setup steps."

Click Manage on the same card to change where the Subscriptions page sits and who can open it, in the Shopify editor.

Step 4: Let customers change their products (optional)

This is set per campaign, and all options start off.

1. Open Campaigns in the app menu and click the campaign.
2. On the Purchase options tab, find the Customer product changes card below the plans.
3. Tick what customers may do:
   • Change variants (such as size or color): pick another variant of the same product.
   • Swap to another eligible product: swap to a different product from the same campaign.
   • Change product quantities: change how many they get. This only works together with one of the two options above.
   • Keep subscription discounts after changes: on, the subscription discount carries over to the new product. Off, the new product is charged at its full price.
4. Click Save.

Customers then see a Make product changes button on their subscription. It shows only when:

• the campaign is published,
• the subscription is active or paused,
• one payment does not cover several deliveries (prepaid plans cannot be changed).

Subscriptions you create by hand are not tied to a campaign, so customers cannot change their products. You can, from the subscription page in the app. See How to Manage Subscriptions.

What customers see

Subscriptions page. One card per subscription, with the product (or the number of items), how often it is delivered, the total, and a payment badge:

• Overdue: update payment details: the last payment failed.
• Due on fulfillment: active, with an order coming up.
• Paid: the last payment went through.

Each card has a Manage button. Paused subscriptions also get a Resume button right on the card. Cancelled, expired and failed subscriptions show View instead.

Manage subscription page. At the top:

• Skip next order or Unskip next order (active subscriptions)
• Pause subscription (active) or Resume subscription (paused)
• Cancel subscription (active or paused)

Below that:

• The products and prices, with subtotal, discount, shipping and total. If you sell volume bundles, the bundle name shows under the product.
• Make product changes, if you turned it on in Step 4.
• Address: the edit link opens Edit address, where the customer changes the shipping address.
• Payment: the edit icon opens Shopify's payment method screen, where the customer picks or adds a card.
• Upcoming orders: Skip or Unskip on each upcoming order. A retention discount shows as a badge, for example "15% off", on the orders it covers.
• Past orders, each with a View link.

Cancelled and expired subscriptions can be viewed but not changed.

Make product changes. The customer sees Make changes to your subscription product. With both options on, there are two tabs, Change variant and Swap product. Each choice shows its price. The customer clicks Change or Swap to confirm, and sees "Subscription product updated".

Minimum payments. If the subscription needs a minimum number of payments before it can be cancelled, Cancel subscription opens Can't cancel yet, with the number of payments required.

Changing the delivery frequency is not a button in the portal. You can offer it to customers who try to cancel or pause. See the next section.

Portal buttons and labels are in English. The survey header, message and reasons use your own translations. Offer texts (headline, message and buttons) cannot be translated. Dates and prices follow the customer's format.

Keep subscribers who try to leave

The Customer portal page also has a Retention card. It asks customers why they cancel or pause, and can answer with an offer: a discount, a skip, a pause, a new frequency, a product swap, or a way to contact you. Both surveys are off until you turn them on. See Cancellation and Pause Surveys with Retention Offers.

For what you can change yourself in the app, see What You Can Change, and What Only Your Customer Can Do.

Using legacy customer accounts?

If your store still uses legacy customer accounts, the standard setup may not apply. Contact support for help.