Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
This optional subscription plan setting allows brands to define a required maximum or minimum number of billing cycles for any subscription plan.
Last updated: March 26, 2024
The two most common use cases for this setting include 1) finite gifted subscriptions or 2) minimum orders required at initial purchase.
1) Finite use case example: Customer purchases a monthly gift subscription for a 6 month term. Subscription automatically ends after 6 months.
2) Minimum orders required example: Customers are required to sign up for a minimum of 3 cycles (orders) with a new subscription. Only after this 3rd consecutive order will the customer be presented with the option to cancel their entire subscription in the customer account portal.
As of July 1, 2022, merchants selling to customers in California, United States may not be able to offer minimum required billing cycles. Please read here for more information.
To define a maximum or minimum number of billing cycles for a selling plan go to Subscription Programs in the left hand navigation.
In the relevant subscription program, click on the tab Max/Min tab for the specific subscription plan you want:
Define minimum and/or maximum number of billing cycles using the input fields.
This optional setting can be enabled for each subscription plan within each subscription program.
With Smartrr, you have the option to engage your subscription customers via SMS with a Twilio account. SMS notifications can be used to let your customers know about their upcoming orders.
Last updated: April 4, 2024
Tip: If you do not already have a Twilio account, you use this link to get started.
Navigate to Customer Notifications under CONFIGURATION in the left-hand menu. Once on the Customer Notifications page, click the SMS Notifications tab. From this page, you can click on Authorize Twilio to authorize your Twilio integration.
Heads up: There's also the option to connect with other SMS partners besides Twilio. Read about our integrations with Klaviyo and Postscript.
You can view the Integrations section of our help docs to read about other options available from our Tech Partners.
Anchor dates are an optional add-on to Subscription Programs that set a day on which billing interval calculations should be made + schedule specific product ship dates.
Last updated: March 26, 2024
The most common use-case for anchor dates is when a shop wants to release subscription boxes on a specific day. For example, say a shop releases seasonal subscription drop: ‘Autumn’ product on October 1st, etc. These dates are always fixed regardless of when the previous subscription product was delivered.
When managing a Subscription Program, you will see an option to add an Anchor. Note—this option will not populate if your billing interval is set to "Days".
If you select a Week Day or Month Day from the dropdown, you'll also be presented with the option to add an optional Cutoff Day and determine subscription behavior Pre-Anchor:
A cutoff day is how many days in advance of the delivery anchor the order would need to be placed in order to qualify for the next delivery cycle.
Pre-Anchor Behavior is the possible fulfillment of the first order when placed within the cutoff. ASAP means orders placed inside a cutoff can be fulfilled or delivered by the next anchor. NEXT means orders placed inside a cutoff can be fulfilled or delivered at the following anchor.
Keep your customers in the know about their upcoming subscription orders with customizable email notifications.
Last updated: April 4, 2024
Tip: If you prefer to send subscription order notifications via your existing ESP, read more about our . You can also visit our page to stay up-to-date integrations with email platforms.
You are able to send email notifications through Smartrr based on specific billing events. The available email notifications are:
New subscription
Subscription created – Existing customer: Sent when a new subscription order is created for a customer who already has a customer account.
Subscription created – New customer: Sent when a new subscription order is created for a customer who does not have a customer account.
Subscription management
Upcoming subscription: Email sent in advance of a recurring subscription order being placed.
Subscription auto-resume reminder: Sent 7 days before a paused subscription is set to auto-resume.
Payment expiration notice: This is a CONDITIONAL email because it will only send in place of the "Upcoming subscription" email is the credit card used for an upcoming subscription is set to expire.
Item out of stock: Sent when a customer’s subscription has an item has gone out of stock.
Subscription canceled: Sent when a subscription order has been canceled.
Subscription paused: Sent when a subscription order has been paused.
Subscription reactivated: Sent when a subscription order has been reactivated.
Loyalty and referrals
Successful referral: Sent to a customer when someone has successfully used their referral code.
Gifted subscriptions
Gifted subscription: Sent to gifter as confirmation that a subscription gift has been scheduled.
Gifter subscription shipped: Sent to gifter when a gifted subscription order has been shipped.
Giftee subscription shipped: Sent to the giftee when a gifted subscription order has been shipped along with gift message.
Passwordless Login (The below emails will only send if passwordless login is enabled in Theming.)
One-time code login: Provides a one-time code for a customer to log into their account.
Magic link login
📧 Tip: For Upcoming Subscription emails, you are able to designate "Email send time" by the number of days before a subscription order is placed.
Note: If you've enabled Smartrr's default templates, you won't be able to edit the content of individual emails. To edit the individual emails with HTML instead of with Smartrr's custom default templates, toggle Enable default templates to OFF.
Navigate to Customer Notifications under CONFIGURATION in the left-hand menu.
Click on Customize defaults to globally add a logo and change color schemes for default email templates.
Enable email header / footer: Injects a standard header and footer across all emails
Reset default styles. Enable to add a JPEG or PNG logo across all emails. Footer information is pulled directly from your store's Shopify contact information.
Reset default styles: When pressed, resets all header / footer, and color settings for all default email templates.
Colors: Changes background colors, primary text color, button color, and button text color for all email templates. Note: Secondary text color will only be visible in the footer when "Enable email header / footer" is toggled ON.
Want to code your own email templates? Disable the toggle next to each email. To edit the template, click the hyperlink.
Settings applied in Customize defaults will NOT appear if you are using custom-coded HTML.
Within the content of these emails, we provide a variety of event variables that can be used across all email templates in the Email Triggers tab. The syntax is available at the bottom of each page. You can click to copy the syntax and apply it to your emails.
Syntax: <%- subscription.VARIABLE %>
Syntax: <%- subscription.lines[0].VARIABLE %>
Syntax: <%- customer.VARIABLE %>
Syntax: <%- note %>
Syntax: <%- to.VARIABLE %>
Syntax: <%- from.VARIABLE %>
The ‘Gift Created Email’ template also has access to a shippedOn
variable.
Syntax: <%- outOfStockItem.VARIABLE %>
Enable default template: Enables Smartrr's default email templates to send for all emails that are turned ON. if you prefer to use custom HTML for all email templates.
id
Shopify subscription ID
nextBillingDate
Next billing date, formatted as ISO 8601 string
currency
Subscription currency
totalEstimatedNet
Total estimated price of subscription, formatted per currency
totalDiscount
Total amount of discounts applied to the subscription, formatted per currency
totalFromLineItems
Total from subscription line items, formatted per currency
totalLineItemsDiscount
Total discount applied to line items, formatted per currency
totalShipping
Total shipping price of subscription, formatted per currency
totalShippingDiscount
Total discount applied to shipping price, formatted per currency
id
Shopify subscription line ID
basePrice
Line base price, formatted per line currency
isAddOn
Whether line item is an add-on (Yes / No)
priceAfterDiscounts
Subscription price after discounts are applied, formatted per line currency
quantity
Line quantity
product.id
Shopify product ID
product.name
Product name
variant.id
Shopify variant ID
variant.name
Variant name
id
Shopify customer ID
firstName
Customer first name
lastName
Customer last name
email
Customer email
phone
Customer phone number
note
(No variable needed) Attached gift note
address1
Street address line 1
address2
Street address line 2
city
Address city
company
Company name
country
Country name
countryCode
Country code
firstName
Giftee's first name
lastName
Giftee's last name
phone
Phone
province
State
provineCode
State code
zip
Zip code
firstName
Sender's first name
lastName
Sender's last name
id
Shopify product ID
name
Shopify product name
variantName
Shopify product variant name
All information on getting a successful subscription program setup on your store.
Discount codes created in Shopify work with Smartrr subscriptions, so there’s no duplicative work on your end.
Last updated: April 4, 2024
Smartrr uses native Shopify discounts, meaning you can create discount codes as you normally would within your Shopify admin. This also means you won’t find anyplace to create discount codes within the Smartrr app. You can however set automatic discounts (no code required) on recurring subscriptions orders in Subscription Programs.
To create a discount code in Shopify, navigate to Discounts in Shopify’s left-hand menu and follow their instructions for creating discount codes.
Within Shopify, you can specify if you want the discount code to be applied to one-time purchases, subscription purchases, or both. You can also specify if you would like the code to apply to all subscription products, subscription products in a specific collection, or only to specific subscription products.
You are also able to restrict usage of discount codes on subscriptions to be for the first payment only, for X number of payments, or to all recurring subscription payments.
Sometimes, products in your Shopify store are deleted, archived, or simply have gone out of stock.
Last updated: April 7, 2024
In the case when a product or variant is deleted or archived, any customer subscriptions containing these items will be automatically paused to prevent missing items from subscription deliveries or unexpected transaction errors during billing.
From the customer's account, a banner will appear in these instances, guiding customers on necessary actions to resume their subscription. Whether it's swapping or removing the affected item, these changes aim to ensure a seamless experience for customers when needing to make adjustments to their subscriptions.
Customers will also receive an email notification informing them that their subscription has been paused. You can edit the contents of this email in your admin portal under Customer Notifications > Subscription Paused.
Customers will receive an email notification informing them of the update to their subscription. They'll also receive a corresponding “Item out of stock” email notification under Customer Notifications > Item out of stock or deleted.
Brands have the option to custom rules around subscription behaviors based on your Shopify inventory settings. By default, if your Shopify product’s inventory settings under Subscription Programs > Global Settings are set to “Always create order and reduce inventory”. This means that Smartrr will always create the subscription order and decrement Shopify’s inventory.
However, you have the option to automatically PAUSE your customers’ subscriptions if an item in their order is out of stock by changing the setting to "Create order only if inventory is available / PAUSE".
In this case, when a product or variant is marked as out of stock in a shop's inventory, any customer subscriptions containing these items will be automatically paused to prevent missing items from subscription deliveries or unexpected transaction errors during billing.
From the customer's account, a banner will appear in these instances, guiding customers on necessary actions to resume their subscription.
Customers will also receive an email notification informing them that their subscription has been paused. You can edit the contents of this email in your admin portal under Customer Notifications > Subscription Paused.
Customers will receive an email notification informing them of the update to their subscription. They'll also receive a corresponding “Item out of stock” email notification under Customer Notifications > Item out of stock or deleted.
Prepaid subscriptions allow your customers to pay for their recurring subscription deliveries upfront.
Last updated: April 8, 2024
Prepaid subscriptions are used when you'd like customers to pay upfront for a set number of subscription deliveries. One common use-case is to offer a percentage discount to a customer for prepaying annually on monthly subscription deliveries. Another is when a gifter would like to give a giftee a recurring subscription with all expenses paid upfront for a certain period of time.
To offer a prepaid subscription, you’ll need to amend the billing schedule for a Subscription Program.
Navigate to Subscription Programs under CONFIGURATION in the left-hand menu and click on Create program.
You can create a prepaid offering by changing the settings in the Prepaid tab. The interval type will automatically be matched to the interval type in Basic details.
A Subscription Program is the heart of the Smartrr app. Subscription Programs control which products are available for subscription purchase.
Last updated: March 26, 2024
Subscription Plans, products, and variants are objects within a Subscription Program. You may set up one or multiple Subscription Plans per shop.
Two examples for the same store are provided below:
Example 1: You would like to offer a discount for customers who elect to subscribe to your product vs. make a one-time purchase.
Example 2: You would like to offer a variety-pack product with only a monthly subscription cadence, but the individual products within the product are available on both a bi-weekly and monthly cadence.
Both above examples are possible to execute within the same storefront by creating multiple Subscription Plans within a Subscription Program.
Under Configuration in the left-hand menu, click on Subscription Programs. Click on the button Create program.
First, add all required information to your Subscription Program:
Storefront label: Title of the Subscription Program on your product page, ex. “Subscribe & Save 10%”
Admin label: Optional—if you would like your Subscription Program to have a different name in your Smartrr app
Next, add all required information for each Subscription Plan within your Subscription Program:
Cart & Checkout label: Label displayed alongside the product once it’s been added to cart and on the checkout page, ex. “Delivered Every 2 Weeks”. Replace with a "{{H}} " to hide this label from customers.
Category: Shopify requires a category to be assigned to each Subscription Program (selling plan). We recommend always leaving this set to "Subscription".
Billing Schedule: Indicate the number of intervals between billings as a numerical value (ex. “2”) and the interval type (Days, Weeks, Months, or Years)
Discount Incentive: Percentage or fixed amount discount that a customer receives with this Subscription Plan. You can also opt to change the discount percentage after a certain number of subscription orders.
For advanced subscriptions, the following options are available for merchants on Grow and Excel plans:
Prepaid: If applicable, indicate the number of intervals between billings as a numerical value (ex. “2”) and the interval type will set automatically based on the interval type in the plan's Basic details tab.
Max/Min: Used when you'd like a subscription to end after a certain number of billing cycles.
Anchor: Used to set a day on which billing interval calculations should be made. Learn more about anchor dates and why you might use them here
Once all required information has been completed, click Save.
Warning: To ensure the best experience for your customers, we don’t recommend adding or deleting products or variants from a Subscription Program once it’s set up and active in your store. Only delete a product from a Subscription Program if there are no active subscriptions associated with the Subscription Program.
If you change a discount in a Subscription Plan, the discount will only go into effect for new subscriptions created. The discount will not be retroactively updated for existing discounts.
Portal add-ons are accessible by the customer via the Account Portal. Customers can add products to their subscription orders as one-time add ons at a discounted price.
To configure add-ons, navigate to Subscription Programs and then click on the Portal Add-ons tab.
Click on Browse to select one or multiple products/variants to be available to customers as add-ons.
Products that are selected here will be visible to your customers in their account here:
Note: At this time, it's not possible to add different add-ons per subscription program, or to offer different discounts per product in the add-ons section. To stay up-to-date with new features we release, you can follow our changelog.
Customers can click on an dd on image from within their account to view all images and read the product's description, which pulls from Shopify.
If you are a shop with a large add-on offering, it might be helpful to add filters so your customers can easily find what they're looking for.
To setup a filter, go to product's page from within the Shopify Admin and create a new product tag including the Smartrr filter prefix, SmartrrFilter
: (ex. SmartrrFilter:Cookie
). Smartrr will pick up on these tags for applicable add-on products and will automatically create filters to include within the Add-ons section.
In your Shopify theme customizer, you can add the Smartrr Subscription Beneftis app block to your product pages. This widget will allow you to elaborate to customers the benefits of subscribing and can be fully customized.
The Sequential Flow Builder is a powerful tool designed to enable merchants to create subscription lifecycles by enabling a sequence of products after a certain number of deliveries.
Last updated: April 7, 2024
If you're a merchant who uses subscriptions to power refills, or who wants to use your subscriptions to create a custom order journey experience, then the Sequential Flow Builder is for you. You can use this tool to swap the product that is delivered to the customer after certain order numbers.
To access the Sequential Flow Builder, follow these steps:
Log in to your merchant account. Navigate to Subscription Programs > Manage on the program you wish to add the flow to. Scroll down and Look for the card labeled "Sequential Flow Builder."
Click on the "Add flow" button.
Define the starting product by clicking "Browse" next to the text: "When the following item(s) are purchased:".
Next, indicate how many orders should eclipse before the swap action happens. By default, this is after order number one.
Tip: Order #1 is considered the initial order the customer places in Shopify. Order #2 is considered the first recurring subscription order. For example, if you're swapping to a refill product, you would want the swap to happen after order #1.
Then, select the product variant that should be delivered after the defined order number.
Finally, confirm a flow end behavior. By default, this is is Send last item in perpetuity—which means that the customer will continue to receive the last item that the subscription swapped to. You can also opt to End sequence flow—which will terminate the subscription after all swaps have occurred.
Press "Confirm" to save your flow.
To edit an existing sequential flow, click the "Manage flow" button to reopen the modal:
To delete a sequential flow, press the red "Delete this flow" button. Confirm the deletion when prompted.
Warning: Before you can delete flows that already have subscriptions associated with them, you will be prompted to either Cancel all active subscriptions with this sequence or Send the current item in the customers' active subscriptions in perpetuity before you can continue with flow deletion.
Don't neglect your flows after creation; reguarly review and update your sequential flows based on changing product offerings or customer feedback.
Congratulations! You are now ready to leverage the Sequential Flow Builder to enhance your subscription management and offer a personalized order journey experience for your customers. If you encounter any issues or have further questions, reach out at help@smartrr.com.
Per Shopify limitations, "Customers can't use accelerated checkouts or local payment methods such as Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, mollie iDEAL, and Sofort, to purchase subscriptions."
We're currently up to date with all Shopify Subscription API approved gateways listed in Shopify's subscription requirements. These include:
Shopify limitations, "Customers can't use accelerated checkouts or local payment methods such as Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, mollie iDEAL, and Sofort, to purchase subscriptions . However, customers can use Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal Express at some stores."
If Shopify enables support for BNPL payment options in the future, Smartrr will also be able to support these payment methods for subscriptions.
Setting dedicated shipping methods in Smartrr is useful in the case you would like to fulfill your subscription orders differently than one-time purchase orders.
Last updated: April 7, 2024
Important: General delivery profiles or profiles for non-subscription products will still need to be configured in Shopify.
Within Smartrr, you can create custom shipping profiles for your subscription offerings. Configuration of shipping profiles and zones within Smartrr is almost identical to the flow in Shopify's shipping settings. Refer to Shopify’s documentation if you are not already familiar with configuring zones and rates.
Within the Smartrr, navigate to Shipping under CONFIGURATION in the left-hand menu and click on Create subscription delivery profile.
Enter a name for your new Shipping profile and select which of your Subscription Programs you would like this profile to be associated with:
Configure your profile’s Location Settings with the following steps:
Click Add rates and select the location for which you'd like to add rates.
Once the location has populated, click Add zone and specify your zone name and the countries and regions this zone will apply to.
Finally, click on the Add rate button that will prompt you to define the order parameters to qualify this rate for a customer.
Checkout Extensions offer extra functionality in the Shopify checkout flow.
Last updated: April 9, 2024
Note: Checkout Extensions are only available to merchants on .
Smartrr offers four Checkout Extensions that offer extra functionality in the Shopify checkout flow. These extensions are available to merchants who are on a Shopify Plus plan.
The Subscription Overview Checkout Extension appears above the product overview and gives a quick-glance summary of a new subscription that's being started. This quick-take helps reinforce the customer's subscription commitments in a more visual way than the default "Recurring total" one-liner that appears during the checkout process.
You might find this extension helpful if:
Your customers sometimes don't realize they are purchasing a subscription.
You want to reinforce the cadence the customer selected for their subscription.
You want to reinforce the discount the customer is receiving by purchasing a subscription.
You want to remind the customer that they will be able to manage their subscription at any time via their account.
To enable the Subscription Overview Checkout Extension, go to your Settings in Shopify > Checkout > Customize checkout.
Under the Information section, click Add App Block at the bottom:
Click on the app that says Subscription Overview:
Be sure to save your checkout settings.
The Reminder to Create Account Checkout Extension is a text-only extension that appears at the Information checkout step below express checkout options and reminds customers that they can create an account to manage their subscription anytime. When expanded, it reads that you can easily change your frequency, gift, skip, or pause your subscription from the account portal.
You might find this extension helpful if:
Your customers often reach out after purchase to ask how they can manage their subscription.
To enable the Reminder to Create Account Checkout Extension, go to your Settings in Shopify > Checkout > Customize checkout.
Under the Information section, click Add App Block at the bottom:
Click on the app that says Account Banner.
Be sure to save your checkout settings.
The OTP Checkbox Upsell Checkout Extension appears at the Information checkout step above express checkout options. It identifies eligible subscription products that are in the customer's cart and gives them and easy way to change it from a one-time-purchase (OTP) to a subscription with the click of a checkbox. This way, you can upsell an item to a customer without them even having to leave the Shopify checkout flow.
You might find this extension helpful if:
You offer a large incentive to subscribe to products in your shop
You want to offer an additional "Subscribe" touchpoint that lives outside the PDP page
To enable the OTP Checkbox Upsell Checkout Extension, go to your Settings in Shopify > Checkout > Customize checkout.
Under the Information section, click Add App Block at the bottom:
Click on the app that says OTP Checkbox Upsell:
Once the extension is selected, you'll have the option to enter your own custom title and subtitles. For each title and subtitle, you'll select the product variant you'd like to apply this extension to:
Be sure to save your checkout settings.
The Subscription Plan Editor Checkout Extension appears in the product overview and gives the customer the ability the edit the subscription plan of a product with a subscription, or convert the subscription product to a one-time purchase (OTP).
You might find this extension helpful if:
You have multiple subscription plans set up in your subscription program with different frequencies / incentives
You want to the ability for customers to convert OTPs to subscriptions without leaving the Shopify checkout flow, and vice versa
To enable the Subscription Overview Checkout Extension, go to your Settings in Shopify > Checkout > Customize checkout.
Under the Information section, click Add App Block at the bottom:
Click on the app that says Subscription Plan Editor:
In order to use this extension, it will have to be placed as a child element under "Items in cart" on the left hand side. This will allow the extension to appear for each line item in the customer's order.
Be sure to save your checkout settings.
Storefront option label: Cadence text to display next to plan selector on your product page, ex. “Subscribe & Save 10%'', “Deliver every”, or “Frequency”. Onsite example:
Display: Label of the plan frequency selection on the product page, ex. “Every 2 Weeks”. You are able to add multiple selection options. Onsite example:
Tip: Want to have more than one swap action? Hover over the indented action steps to reveal icons to quickly add or duplicate another action step.
Did you know you can create multiple flows from within a Subscription Program? To prevent conflicting swaps, each flow is required to have a unique start product.