Customers are able to manage their subscriptions by using their customer account to log into their Customer Portal. Customers can either access their unique hashed links in the email notifications or login to their account on the Shopify storefront and click the Manage Subscriptions link.
ReCharge uses the customer email address to associate their Customer Portal page with their Shopify account. This guide provides an overview of how Shopify customer accounts work with ReCharge and how your customers can access and manage their subscriptions.
How customer accounts work
For every customer that completes checkout with a subscription product, a Customer Portal will be created that allows customers to access and manage their subscriptions. The Customer Portal can be accessed using a unique, hashed link that is sent to the customer by email.
Customers use their customer portal to update subscription information, add additional products, cancel subscriptions, and more.
Customer account creation after checkout
When a customer checks out with a subscription in their cart they will receive two emails.
- Order confirmation email - this comes from and can be customized in Shopify. Shopify’s guide on customizing notification templates.
- Subscription activation email - this comes from and is customized in ReCharge. The emails contain a manage subscription link that will automatically bring customers to their customer portal.
Customer account preferences
You need to make sure your customer account preferences in Shopify are set to optional or required in order for Customers to be able to create their customer account.
Even though a customer can access their customer portal right away through the manage subscription link in the activation email, their customer account is not automatically activated if you set Shopify as accounts optional.
You can tell if a customer has an activated account in Shopify > Customers. If the customer has not activated their account, there will be a Send account invite option.
Activating customer accounts
If your Shopify customer account preferences are set to optional, your customers will still need to activate their accounts before they can modify their subscription. You can send out a reminder as the store owner or request your customers activate on their own.
- Storeowner: Send out the email invite through Shopify, see Send individual account invites in Shopify's help center for instructions.
- Customer: Customers need to use the same email they checked out with in order for their previously purchased subscriptions to show up under their customer account.
- Click on the account button customers use on your store storefront to log in or create their customer account. The icon used for it is dependant on the Shopify theme. Alternatively, customers can also access the login page by adding .myshopify.com/account/login to the end of your store URL.
- Click Create account.
Once you or your customer request their account, your customer will receive the Customer account invite email from Shopify. Once the customer has verified their account, when they log in they will be able to see their order history and manage their subscriptions.
Login to Shopify to manage subscriptions
Customers can access your storefront login page and enter in their Shopify account credentials. Once logged in, they will be able to see their Shopify orders and a Manage Subscriptions link which will open their Customer Portal.
You can edit what a customer can modify within their customer portal through Settings > Customer portal. See Customer portal controls for more information.
FAQ
How does ReCharge determine if a customer has an account with Shopify?
ReCharge uses a webhook to check the customer's email address at the time of checkout against your Shopify checkout records. If a customer profile exists in Shopify with that email but does not have an existing customer account, they will receive an account invite email.
If an existing customer goes through the checkout and uses a different email address, they will also be invited to register an account in Shopify that will be listed under the new email address.
Where can I edit the account invite notification?
In the event that a customer does not have an existing customer account in Shopify, ReCharge will action Shopify to send out the account invitation notification to your customer. This notification exists within Shopify and can be edited in Settings > Notifications in Shopify.
Why can't my customer see their Manage Subscriptions link?
If a customer were to register with a different email and try to go to their manage subscriptions link on the store's page, they'll receive an error notice saying they currently don't have any subscriptions.
Confirm with the customer which email address they are using and verify the email address on file in ReCharge. If the customer is still experiencing issues, reach out to ReCharge support.
What is the easiest way I can edit a customer's subscription?
There are two ways to quickly access a customer's information.
-
Open up the customer's profile in Shopify. Under more actions, you can click manage subscriptions.
- Open up the customer's order In Shopify. Click view subscription.
Shopify has a guide on Managing customers with more information.
Can I force Customer Accounts before customers can checkout?
Yes, this is a Shopify setting found Settings > Checkout.
If you set customer accounts to required, the customer will be forced to create an account before continuing to checkout.
If I login to my customer account in my Shopify Admin and modify the addresses, will this update the address on my upcoming subscriptions?
No, managing addresses within your Shopify Admin, in the /account section, will not update your customer's subscription addresses.
Instead, the customer should open their customer portal, click Manage subscriptions, and update the address associated with their subscription there.
