Allowing Customers to Self-Manage Subscriptions
- DarkLight
Allowing Customers to Self-Manage Subscriptions
- DarkLight
Article summary
Did you find this summary helpful?
Thank you for your feedback
Subscriptions build and nurture long-term relationships between you and your customers.
Throughout this journey, your customers’ needs may change often, and they will need to make changes to their subscriptions, delivery schedule, payment information, and more.
In this article, you'll learn how the customer portal helps can increase customer lifetime value and reduce churn by offering customers ongoing and easy access to self-manage their subscriptions.
How it works
Each time a customer subscribes to a product, a corresponding widget is created in their customer portal containing all the subscription information which they can manage at any time. See all the ways customers can access their customer portal.
In the customer portal, subscriptions are organized and managed according to the delivery frequency and the subscription purchase date. For example, If a customer subscribes to multiple products on the same date, and they're all delivered "every 1 month", they'll appear under the same subscription widget, with the same subscription ID.
An example of two products in the same subscription:
Please note:
You can customize the customer portal to fit your brand's look & feel from your Yotpo Subscriptions Store View page.
Before you start
In order to publish the customer portal and give customers access to their subscriptions, you need to complete the Yotpo Subscriptions initial setup.
Once you've completed the initial setup and have launched at least one subscription plan, customers who purchase a subscription product will be able to access their customer portal in a variety of ways. See all the ways customers can access their customer portal.
Accessing the customer portal
There are four different ways your customers can access their customer portal:
- Direct link via SMS/email: Customers can access this customer portal page via direct link from the subscription notifications they receive from your store. As soon as customers subscribe to one of your products, they'll receive a subscription confirmation email notification, including a link to their customer portal.
You can send an individual customer an email with a link to their customer portal yourself anytime from the Customers page. Simply select the customer you want to send the link to, and from the Actions menu on the right-hand top, select Send link to the customer portal.Please note:To protect your customers’ security, the link to the customer portal will expire after 6 hours. However, if the link has expired, customers will be prompted to receive a new link to their email. In addition, payment related links are protected by two-factor authentication. - Shopify account page: Customers who log in to their account page will be able to view and manage their subscriptions in addition to their other activities with your store. Learn how to add the customer portal to your account page for logged-in customers.
- Shopify login page: Customers can access their customer portal via passwordless login right from your Shopify login page. Learn how to add a passwordless login option from your login page.
- Shopify order status page: Customers can access their customer portal right after making a subscription purchase on your store. Learn how to add the customer portal as a link to your Shopify order status page.
Viewing and managing subscriptions
Once customers access the customer portal, they'll have the ability to view and make changes to their subscriptions.
Please note:
You can control which actions customers can take from their customer portal from the Customer Portal Widget >Available Actions menu in your Store View page. Note that actions work differently depending on what type of plan you have set up.
Customer portal actions
Customers can make changes at the subscription level and at the product level.
Subscription-level actions
| Subscription action | Description |
|---|---|
| View subscription details | Customers can see the following details for each subscription: - The products they're subscribed to - The total price of their order (before shipping and taxes) - The delivery frequency & discount |
| Next charge date | The next date your customer will be charged for a subscription order Please note: For subscribe and save and calendar-based SKU swap subscriptions, the charge date is the same as the order date. For prepaid subscriptions, customers will be charged $0.00 on each order date until the billing date. |
| Order now | Allows customer to request their next order to be delivered immediately Please note: This option is not available for calendar-based SKU swap subscriptions |
| Update next delivery date | Allows customers to choose a separate date for their next delivery Please note: This option is not available for calendar-based SKU swap subscriptions |
| Update frequency | Allows customers to change how often they receive their order Please note: This option is only available for subscribe and save plans |
| Skip upcoming order | Allows customers to skip their upcoming order, in case they're going away, are overstocked, or for any other reason Please note: If customers skip an order for a calendar-based SKU swap subscription, they will miss out on that month's/quarter's product. |
| Update shipping address | Gives customers the flexibility to receive their upcoming orders at a new address and location |
| Update payment information | Allows customers to change the credit card they have on file for automatic billing |
| Cancel subscription | Customers have the option to cancel their subscription on their own. When a customer cancels a subscription, they will receive an email notification confirming their cancellation. |
| Apply discounts | Allows customers to add discounts to their order Please note: For prepaid orders, discounts can only be applied when the next order is the renewal order. |
| Add product | Allows customers to purchase an additional product and receive it along with their existing subscription items. i.e., along with the same shipment, and at the same delivery frequency. To allow customers to add a one-time product, go to Store View > Customer Portal Widget and enable Add one-time product. |
Product-level actions
| Product action | Description |
|---|---|
| Order now | Allows customers to request a product to be delivered immediately. This will create a new subscription for that iem and may result in additional shipping charges. Please note: This option is not available for calendar-based SKU swap subscriptions |
| Skip product | Allows customers to skip a product Please note: Make sure your customers are aware that by skipping a product from a calendar-based SKU swap subscription, they will miss out on that month's/quarter's products. |
| Swap product | Allows customers to replace an existing product with a different product from your subscription offerings Please note: If a customer swaps a product in a prepaid subscription, they will not be charged the new price until the next billing cycle. |
| Update quantity | Allows the customer to change how many of a product they are receiving Please note: This option is not available for calendar-based SKU swap subscriptions |
| Remove product | Removes a product from the subscription. This will cancel all upcoming deliveries and charges for the product. Please note: This is not available for prepaid subscriptions. |
Syncing subscriptions
When customers have more than one active subscription, syncing allows them to select the same schedule and frequency for multiple subscriptions.
For example, if your customer has two subscriptions that are sent every 2 weeks, they can set the same delivery date for both. Or, if one subscription is delivered every 3 weeks and the other every 4, they can choose to sync the frequency so that both subscriptions are now delivered every 2 weeks.
Customers can sync they subscriptions by clicking Sync subscriptions at the top of their Customer Portal and selecting which subscriptions they'd like to affect. This increases the likelihood of orders shipping together.
If customers don't want to sync multiple subscriptions, they can update the frequency of a single subscription by going to their Customer Portal and clicking Manage subscription > Update frequency.
Please note:
Prepaid and SKU Swap subscriptions cannot be synced. These will not appear as options when customers choose which subscriptions to sync.
Next steps
To learn how to manage customer subscriptions yourself, visit the Managing Customer Subscriptions article.
Was this article helpful?
