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How to Manage Subscription Price Updates

When you update a product's price in Shopify, your existing subscriptions keep their original (grandfathered) price — they don't update automatically. This help doc walks you through how Smartrr detects those price changes and how you can review and apply them to your affected subscriptions, all from the Bulk Updates page.

This only affects subscription line item pricing. Selling plans, discounts, and billing schedules are never modified.

Step 1: Get notified of a price change

Smartrr automatically detects when a product's price changes in Shopify. No setup is required — this works in the background.

  1. Once a change is detected, you'll see a notification in your Admin Portal.

  2. Go to Subscriptions > Bulk Updates.

  3. Click the Price Changes tab.

Screenshot: the Bulk Updates page with the Price Changes tab selected, showing detected price changes as cards

Only true price changes trigger this flow — updates to other product details (like inventory count) won't show up here.

Step 2: Review affected products

Each price change appears as its own card, showing:

  • The product name

  • The old price → the new price

  • The number of active and paused subscriptions affected

  • The date the change was detected

Screenshot: a close-up of a single Price Changes card, e.g. "Organic Matcha Powder — 100g, $24.99 → $27.99, 9 active subscriptions affected"

Step 3: Decide how to handle the change

For each product, choose one of two options:

Option
What happens

Update

All active and paused subscriptions for this product are updated to the new price.

Ignore

Affected subscriptions keep their current (grandfathered) price. The card is dismissed from this page.

You don't need to act right away. If you dismiss a notification without choosing, it will still be available anytime under the Price Changes tab so you can come back to it later.

Step 4: Confirm the bulk update

If you choose Update subscriptions, you'll see a confirmation step before anything changes.

  1. Review the number of subscriptions that will be affected.

  2. Confirm that only the line item base price will change — selling plans, discounts, and billing schedules are untouched.

Screenshot: the "Confirm bulk price update" dialog, including the legal best-practice notice

Legal best practice: Many jurisdictions require advance notice before raising recurring subscription prices. Consider notifying your customers in the next step.

  1. Click Confirm & continue.

Step 5: Choose whether to notify customers

After confirming, you'll be asked whether to let affected subscribers know about the price change.

Option
What happens

Yes, notify customers

Smartrr automatically emails every affected subscriber once the update finishes.

No, skip notification

No email is sent. Customers will see the new price reflected on their next billing cycle.

If you choose to notify customers, you can preview the email before sending:

Screenshot: the "Notify customers?" dialog with the email preview shown below the toggle

This notification template can't be customized yet. It automatically includes the affected product, old and new price, when the new price takes effect, and a link for the customer to manage their subscription.

  1. Click Update & send notification (or Update if you skipped notifications).

Step 6: Confirm the update completed

  • You'll initially see a message to confirm that the update has been scheduled and is processing.

  • Smartrr will then email the user who initiated the bulk update(s) a summary once the update completes, rather than making you wait on the page.

Screenshot: the "Prices updated successfully" confirmation, e.g. "14 subscriptions were updated to the new prices. Notification emails have been sent to all affected subscribers."

The merchant summary email includes:

  • How many subscriptions were updated successfully

  • Any subscriptions that failed to update

  • An attached CSV results file. This contains details on all subscriptions and line items updated. Information included:

    • Line Item ID

    • Variant ID

    • Subscription ID

    • Customer's email

    • Subscription update status

    • Customer was notification status (email sent: Y/N)

If any subscriptions or notifications fail, reach out to Smartrr Customer Support — our team can review the failed records with you and advise on next steps.


What customers see

If you choose to notify customers, affected subscribers receive an email letting them know:

  • Which product(s) in their subscription changed price

  • The old price and the new price

  • That the new price applies starting with their next scheduled charge

  • A link to manage their subscription (skip, swap, or cancel) if they'd like


FAQ

Will this affect new subscribers? No — new subscriptions are always created using your product's current Shopify price. This flow only affects your existing subscriptions that were grandfathered at an older price.

What if I update the same product's price twice in a row? Smartrr keeps a single, up-to-date record per product on the Price Changes page, reflecting the most recent unacknowledged price change.

Can I customize the customer notification email? Not yet. The current version of the notification template can't be edited.

What if I don't have any active subscriptions affected by a price change? You won't be notified — there's nothing to update in that case.

Can I undo a bulk price update? If a bulk update fails partway through, the affected job can be safely re-run. If you have concerns about an update that already completed successfully, contact Smartrr Customer Support.


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