Pause, cancel, or delete a subscription

While customers can cancel subscriptions from the customer portal, merchants can also cancel or delete subscriptions on behalf of the customer from the merchant portal. Merchants can also pause subscriptions directly from the customer portal.

This guide provides instructions on pausing, cancelling, or deleting an existing subscription for a customer and steps for requesting a bulk cancellation. 

Before you start

• The pause subscription feature is a storewide setting and applies to all products and collections. This setting cannot be configured for specific products or collections. 
• This feature is currently not available for custom customer portal themes, but works with all other customer portal themes. For more information on customer portal themes, see Comparing the customer portal options.
• Customers can cancel their subscriptions in their customer portal. Only store admins can delete subscriptions from a customer account.
• If you need to remove a subscription product from your storefront, you must remove it from the Products section in the merchant portal. Deleting a product from Recharge will not affect your existing subscribers. This only ensures that new customers cannot buy a subscription for the product from your storefront.
• If you want to restrict your customers from canceling a subscription for a set number of charges, visit Allow customers to cancel after a set number of charges.
• If you want to know how to manage customer support for subscribers as a Recharge merchant, watch this video on managing customers and answering subscriber questions. 

Pause a subscription

The pause subscription feature allows customers to pause their subscriptions in the customer portal and gives merchants control over pause interval options. 

This feature lives within the cancellation flow. When enabled, if a customer chooses Cancel Subscription in the customer portal, a prompt appears offering the option to Pause Subscription instead. The customer can choose to either pause or cancel the subscription. 

Enable the feature

To offer the pause subscription option to your customers, enable the feature from the merchant portal: 

1. From the merchant portal, click Storefront and select Customer Portal.
2. Navigate to the Subscription cancellation and customer retention settings and toggle on Enable pause as a retention step before cancel.
3. Select your pause interval options. Options include Day, Week, or Month.
   
4. Click Save. 

For instructions on using the feature to pause subscriptions from the customer portal, see Instructions for your customers.

Cancel a subscription

Customer details page

1. Select Customers in the merchant portal. Use the search option to locate a specific customer and click on their name to open their subscription details.
2. On the customer's Subscription details page, click the Actions dropdown next to the subscription you would like to cancel and select Cancel subscription.
   
3. Select the cancellation reason and click Cancel my subscription.

Subscriptions tab 

1. Select the Subscriptions tab in your merchant portal. 
2. Search for the subscription to cancel. 
3. Click the Actions drop-down and select Cancel.
   
4. Provide a cancellation reason, choose if you want to send a cancellation email, and select Next.
   
5. Any active subscriptions associated with the address will display as an option to be canceled. Check the box for all subscriptions you’d like to cancel and click Cancel subscription to confirm. 

Delete a subscription

Subscription details page

1. Select Customers in your merchant portal. Use the search option to locate a specific customer and click on their name to open their subscription details.
2. On the customer's Subscription details page, click the Actions dropdown next to the subscription and select Delete.
   

Subscriptions tab

1. Select the Subscriptions tab in your merchant portal. 
2. Search for the subscription to delete.
3. Click the Actions drop-down and select Delete.
   
4. Any active subscriptions associated with the address will display as an option to be deleted. Check the box for all subscriptions you’d like to delete and click Delete subscription to confirm.
   

Cancel or delete a prepaid subscription

Canceling a prepaid or gift subscription will not automatically cancel the queued shipment orders. You must complete an additional step to cancel the queued orders in the current billing cycle.

Refer to the following steps to cancel upcoming shipment orders:

1. Select Customers in your merchant portal. Use the search option to locate a specific customer and click on their name to open their subscription details.
2. Select the prepaid subscription from the Subscription details page.
3. In the Upcoming orders section, expand each queued $0.00 order and click Cancel.
   
4. Once the scheduled shipment orders have been canceled, click Actions and select Cancel or Delete subscription.
   

Cancel multiple subscriptions for a single customer

You can also cancel multiple subscriptions for a single customer in bulk.

1. Select Customers in your merchant portal. Use the search option to locate a specific customer and click on their name to open their subscription details.
2. On the customer's Subscription details page, select the subscriptions you want to cancel. You can select all of the products in a subscription by clicking the Product checkbox, or you can select products individually to update in bulk.
3. Click Actions and select Cancel.
4. Select a reason for canceling and click Proceed.
   

Bulk cancel subscriptions

There are two methods for canceling your subscriptions in bulk. Review the methods below and select the method based on your needs and preference. 

Method 1 - Multi-select tool

You can use the Multi-select tool to cancel individual subscriptions on the Subscriptions page. Refer to the following steps to process the bulk update: 

1. From the merchant portal, click Subscriptions and use the checkboxes to select the subscriptions you want to update. 
2. Click Actions and select Edit properties to open the edit properties pop-up modal. 
3. Select Status as your update type and choose Cancelled from the drop-down list. 
4. Optional - Use the Add another update button to add Cancellation reason or Cancelation reason comments.
5. Click Next to confirm your update and select Prepare your update to continue. 

Review the Multi-select tool guide for detailed instructions and next steps. 

Method 2 - Import tool 

You can use the Import tool to cancel subscriptions. To process this type of update you must prepare a CSV template with the following required columns:

• subscription_id
• status
  • Values are ACTIVE or CANCELLED
• cancellation_reason and/or cancellation_reason_comments (optional)
• send_email (optional)
  • Set to False if you do not want the cancelation email to send to your customer. 
  • Set to True to send the cancelation email to the customer.

Refer to the following steps to make an update using the Import tool: 

1. Use the Export Builder to generate either a Subscriptions - All or Subscriptions - Active export. 
2. Delete any unnecessary columns and ensure you have all of the columns listed above in your file. Add and fill in the cancellation_reason and send_email columns as needed.
3. Once your CSV file is prepared, follow steps 2 and 3 in the Bulk managing subscriptions guide to complete the update. 

RechargeSMS or Quick Actions

RechargeSMS or Recharge Quick Actions with Klaviyo both receive the cancellation webhook responsible for sending out cancellation notifications. Unless these notifications are disabled within each integration, customers will receive cancelation notifications from these apps. Follow Klaviyo's instructions to pause your cancellation flow or use the following instructions to pause notifications from RechargeSMS: 

1. Select Apps from your Recharge merchant portal. 
2. Locate the RechargeSMS integration and select Manage.
3. Select Settings from the left-bar navigation and ensure you are on the Features tab.
4. Locate Concierge Features under the Messaging tab.
5. Toggle the option to Send Cancellation Confirmation Messages to off.

Bulk delete subscriptions

You can use the Import tool to delete subscriptions. To process this type of update you must prepare a CSV template with the following required column:

• subscription_id

To make an update using the Import tool: 

1. Use the Export Builder to generate either the Subscriptions - All or Subscriptions - Active export. 
2. Delete any unnecessary columns and ensure you have all of the columns listed above in your file.
3. Once your CSV file is ready to import, follow steps 2 and 3 in the Bulk managing subscriptions guide.
4. Select Delete Subscriptions as your update type.