How it works
From install to second renewal
Most subscription problems appear at the second charge, not the first. Here is the whole path.
1. Install
Install from the Shopify App Store. On an Online Store 2.0 theme there is no code to paste — the storefront widget is an app block you position in the theme editor.
2. Build a plan
A plan is a frequency, a pricing adjustment and a billing policy. You can offer several on the same product — pay-as-you-go and prepaid side by side — because each is a separate selling plan group.
The plan builder previews exactly what a customer will be charged and when, so you are not reasoning about discount stacking in your head.
3. The customer subscribes
They pick a plan on the product page and check out through Shopify's own checkout. Shopify vaults the payment method and creates a subscription contract — an object in your store, not a row in our database.
On an Indian store this is also where the e-mandate is registered. If registration fails, the subscription is not treated as successful — which prevents the most damaging silent failure in Indian subscription setups.
4. Billing
On the billing date, Shopify attempts the charge against the vaulted payment method. We ask; Shopify bills. We never see a card, so no PCI scope lands on you.
In India the pre-debit notification goes out 24 hours ahead automatically, carrying skip, swap and address links — which turns a compliance obligation into the most useful retention message you send.
5. When a payment fails
Retries vary by decline reason. An expired card is not retried four times; it triggers an update email. A revoked mandate asks for re-authorisation rather than burning attempts on a charge that cannot succeed. More on recovery.
6. The subscriber manages it themselves
The portal is a page inside the Shopify customer account, so there is no second password. Skip, pause, reschedule, swap, change address, change frequency, cancel.
Making skip easy is the highest-return feature in a subscription product — a skip costs one cycle; a cancellation costs the lifetime.
7. You watch the numbers
Retention by cycle number rather than a blended churn percentage, renewal success split by decline reason, and a forecasting view for the next ship date that includes expected skips — the input most forecasts leave out.