What You Can Change, and What Only Your Customer Can Do (Essential Subscriptions app)
Most subscription changes you can make yourself in the app. A few can only be done by the customer in the customer portal. This page lists both, so you know where a request has to go.
What You Can Do in the App
Open Subscriptions in the sidebar and click a row to open a subscription.
| You want to | Where |
|---|---|
| Pause, resume or cancel | Detail page, Pause subscription, Resume subscription or Cancel subscription at the top |
| Change, add or remove products, or change quantities | Detail page, main card, Edit |
| Change a product's price | Detail page, main card, Edit, then click the price |
| Change how often it is delivered or billed | Detail page, delivery and billing box, Edit |
| Change the charge day, expiry, or minimum payments before cancelling | Detail page, delivery and billing box, Edit |
| Change the discount | Detail page, main card, Edit, type a new price. It replaces the contract discount. |
| Skip or unskip an upcoming order | Detail page, Orders card, Upcoming tab |
| Fix a delivery address | Detail page, Customer card, edit icon |
| Help with an expired card | Detail page, Send link to update payment |
| Create a subscription from scratch | Subscriptions, Create subscription |
| See why a subscription failed | Subscriptions list, Failed last payment tab, then the Timeline |
The delivery and billing Edit is not offered on prepaid subscriptions bought through the widget, or on subscriptions that are cancelled, expired or failed. Products and prices can only be edited on active or paused subscriptions, and not when the customer has already paid for deliveries they have not had. A prepaid customer has already paid for those deliveries, so the plan is fixed. A prepaid subscription you created by hand does show Edit. Do not save that window. Saving it turns the subscription into pay as you go. See How to Manage Subscriptions.
What Only the Customer Can Do
- Update the payment method. You cannot pick or enter a card for them. Click Send link to update payment and Shopify emails them a secure link.
- Accept a retention offer when they try to cancel or pause, such as a new delivery frequency.
Everything else, including pause, resume and cancel, you can do from the subscription's detail page. Customers can also do these themselves in the portal.
Make Sure Your Customers Can Reach the Portal
Your customers can only do any of this if the portal is set up. Check Customer portal in the sidebar: both setup steps should be done, and the Customer portal link should be visible.
Add that link to your store menu or footer, and remember the app's own emails carry a Manage your subscription button, so a subscriber can always get there from an email. See How to setup Customer Portal.
What the Customer Can Do in the Portal
- See all their subscriptions
- Skip and unskip upcoming orders
- Pause and resume
- Cancel, unless you require a minimum number of payments first
- Update their delivery address
- Update their payment method
- See past orders
- Change products, if you allow it on the campaign (see below)
Changing the delivery frequency is only offered as part of the cancellation and pause flow, not as a button of its own. If you want a customer to be offered a slower frequency instead of cancelling, set that up in Cancellation and Pause Surveys with Retention Offers.
Changing products and quantities is a Make product changes button in the portal, if you turn it on. Open the campaign, go to the Purchase options tab, and tick what customers may do in the Customer product changes card. See How to setup Customer Portal.
"Why Can't My Customer Cancel?"
If a customer clicks Cancel subscription and sees Can't cancel yet, the subscription has a minimum number of payments set. The message tells them how many are required.
That comes from Customers can cancel after on the campaign's subscription option, or from Customers can cancel after in the delivery and billing Edit on an individual subscription. Clear the setting and the customer can cancel straight away. You can also cancel it for them with Cancel subscription on the detail page. The minimum does not apply to you.
Editing the Products on a Subscription
Open the subscription and click Edit in the top right of the main card. You can change a variant, change a quantity, remove a product, or click Add products.
You can add any product. Changes apply to future renewals only.
To change a price, click it in the same window. See How to Edit Products and Prices on a Subscription.