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Bulk updating subscription products and orders

Recharge Checkout on Shopify
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When you make changes to your rulesets in Recharge or update your products in your ecommerce platform, these changes will only apply to future customers. If you would like to update existing customers and subscriptions, you will need to perform a bulk update. The Recharge support team can help manually update this data using CSV files from your Exports section. This guide provides instructions on preparing your CSV file for upload.

Platform:
  • Recharge Checkout on Shopify

Before you start

Tip: Recharge performs bulk updates on a case-by-case basis as a courtesy. If your business model requires frequent bulk updates, we recommended you use the Recharge Bulk Updater Tool or the Recharge API. Getting the API setup is simple and your in-house team can accomplish most tasks in minutes without waiting in line. 
  • If you are updating pricing, product title, variant title, or SKU, you can use the Recharge Bulk Updater Tool. Reach out to Recharge support for more information on the beta.
  • The bulk update CSV file must be received at least 5 business days before the date in which the changes need to be made.
  • The minimum number of orders that can be bulk edited is 50.
  • When performing bulk updates, you should also include cancelled subscriptions to ensure that these are not reactivated. For example, if you wanted to update an existing subscription from $95.00 to $99.00, if you only updated the active subscriptions, a cancelled customer could be reactivated with the previous $95.00 pricing. Another example is if you wanted to bulk-cancel subscriptions and you only cancel the active subscriptions, an already cancelled subscriber could be accidentally reactivated. 

Step 1 - Download the CSV file

Export builder

  1. In the Recharge Dashboard, click the wrench icon and select Exports. 
  2. On the Exports page, click Create export.
  3. Select the export from the dropdown outlined in the table below. 
  4. Enter your e-mail address at the bottom of the page. If a date range option is provided, set the date range for your export.
  5. Click Create export. 
  6. On the following page you can download a copy of your CSV. An e-mail copy will also be sent. 

Old export

  1. In the Recharge Dashboard, click the wrench icon and select Exports. 
  2. On the exports page, select Email report under the report you would like to pull. 
  3. Enter in your email address. If applicable, you can also enter a date range for order exports.
  4. The report will be sent via email. The body of the email will include a link to download your report.

The table below highlights which report you should pull depending on the type of bulk update you are making as well as which exports you have access to. 

Update type Old exports Export Builder
Product title or variant title Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Frequency and interval Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Day of the month or week Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Recurring price Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Prepaid order date Upcoming prepaid orders Prepaid - Queued
Next charge date Upcoming orders Charges - Queued
Shipping rates (if set to retain) Upcoming orders Charges - Queued
Removing a discount Upcoming orders Charges - Queued
Applying a discount code Upcoming orders Charges - Queued
Bulk cancellations Purchase items Subscriptions - Active
Product swap Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Line item properties Purchase items Subscriptions - All
Expiration after X number of charges Purchase items  Subscriptions - All
Update unused discount codes Discounts Discounts

Step 2 - Add new columns to CSV

Depending on the type of bulk update, you may need to add additional columns to the end of the CSV to include your new parameters. The table highlights how many new columns to include and the title for each column.

If you are looking to swap a product to a different product in Shopify: Changing the Variant ID will not automatically update other product attributes, such as price. If you require other product updates to be made, you will need to add additional columns. 
Type of update Additional columns
Product title or variant title
  • NEW Product Title
  • NEW Variant Title
Frequency and interval
  • NEW shipping_interval_frequency
  • NEW shipping_interval_unit_type
  • NEW charge_interval_frequency
  • NEW charge_interval_unit_type

Note: shipping_interval_unit_type and charge_interval_unit_type MUST be the same. ie. Months, weeks, or days. You cannot be charged every month for weekly orders.
Day of the month or week
  •  NEW Day of Month
Recurring price
  •  NEW Price
Prepaid order date
  •  NEW order date
Next charge date
  •  NEW charge date
Shipping rates (if set to retain)
  • NEW Shipping Rate
  • NEW Shipping Title 
  • NEW Shipping Code
Removing a discount code  None
Adding a discount code
  • NEW Discount code 
Bulk cancellations  None
Product Swap
  • NEW Product Title
  • NEW Variant Title
  • NEW Variant ID

Note: Changing the Variant ID will not automatically update price. 
Line item properties
  •  NEW Line Item Properties
Expiration after x number of charges
  •  NEW Expiration
Update unused discount codes 
  • Applicable Channels
  • Any additional NEW columns to update aspects of an existing discount code, such as the value or usage limit 
Note: Make sure to include the Applicable Channels column to confirm where the discount code can be applied.

Step 3 - Insert new data

After adding the additional columns, you will need to populate the column with the new data for the bulk update.

Tip: If there are customers/subscriptions/orders that do not require an update, you can either leave the cell blank or remove the row completely.
Type of update Format
Product title or variant title
  • Fill in columns with the product title and variant title.
  • Variant title column can be left blank if you do not use variants.
Frequency and interval Frequency refers to the number and unit type refers to the unit of measurement. For example, shipping_interval_frequency would be 3 and shipping_interval_unit_type would be months.
Day of the month or week
  • If filling out the day of the month, use numerals (for example, 4 to indicate the 4th day of the month).
  • If filling out the day of the week, use the title (for example, Tuesday).
Recurring price Enter the new price based on the original recurring_price column.
Prepaid order date
  • Enter the next order date for each order in the prepaid cycle.
  • If the prepaid cycle renews, you will also need to prepare an additional CSV file for Next charge date. This will ensure that the upcoming charge order does not overlap with the last shipment order of the previous cycle.
Next charge date
  • Enter the next charge date.
  • The bulk update will change the date for all subscription items in the order. You cannot change the charge date for a single item in an order with multiple items. 
Shipping rates (if set to retain)
  • Shipping Rate refers to the numeric shipping price (for example, 10.00 if you charge $10)
  • Shipping Title is the name of your shipping rate as displayed to customers (for example, Expedited Shipping)
  • Shipping Code is the name of your shipping rate displayed internally. This is commonly the same as the shipping title.
  • Shipping Code and Shipping Title are optional columns if the title/code is remaining the same.
Removing a discount code

Delete any rows of orders from the CSV which will not require the discount code to be removed.
Applying a discount code

Enter the discount code ID. For information on how to locate the discount code ID, visit Apply a discount codes in bulk.
Bulk cancellations Delete all rows of subscriptions you want to keep and list only the subscriptions you want to be cancelled. If you're cancelling 10 subscriptions, the CSV should have 10 subscriptions listed.
Product swap
  • The Variant ID is a mandatory column. To locate IDs, visit Find a variant ID.
  • Product Title and Variant Title are optional columns. If the titles are remaining the same, you only need to fill in the Variant ID column.
  • Updating the Variant ID will not automatically update other product attributes, such as price. If you require other updates, such as price, be sure to add this additional column.
Line item properties

Line item properties must be styled in JSON format. For example:

"[{"name":"sizes","value":20},{"name":"sizeXXL","value":50}]"
Expiration after x number of charges
  • Enter the numerical value in the new column (ie. 6)
  • If a subscription is at or past the limit, it will not update the status to expired or deleted. You will need to perform a bulk cancellation.
Update unused discount codes 

You can update any of the following aspects of an existing discount code by adding additional columns to the CSV file.

  • Applicable channels. This is where the discount code can be applied to an order. By default this is set to all channels when updating a discount code, so you must specify if discounts can be added the code through the Checkout page, Customer Portal, Merchant Portal, or through the API. (ie. checkout if the discount code can only be applied through checkout orders)
  • The value, or amount, of the discount. (ie. 50 if the discount is for 50% off the order)
  • The discount type. You can confirm if the discount is a fixed amount, a percentage discount or a shipping discount. (ie. percentage if the discount is 50% off the order)
  • The Status of the discount code. (ie. enabled if you are turning on a disabled discount code)
  • A new starts or ends at date to determine how long the discount code can be used for.
  • A usage limit to set the number of times this discount code can be used by all customers before it's invalid. (ie. 100 if the discount code should only be used by the first 100 customers)
  • If you would like to restrict the discount code by email so that a customer can not use a discount code more than once. 
  • If the discount code should apply to all products in the order or only the subscription products.
  • If the discount code should apply to a specific product or collection.
  • You will also need to provide the product or collection ID to confirm which product or collection the discount code should apply to.
  • The duration of the discount code. (ie. one time, forever or a specific number of charges)
  • If the discount code should only apply to first-time customers.

Step 4 -  Send CSV file to Recharge

Once the CSV file is prepared and the file reviewed for accuracy, send a copy to the Recharge support team. Include the following information in your request:

  • The type of bulk update
  • The number of rows contained in the file
  • The .myshopify.com URL

Please accommodate at least 5 business days for this bulk update to be completed.

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