autoMate

autoMate controls custom logic and automates business rules for Shopify by utilizing Recharge’s API to adjust subscription dates, charge dates, product swapping, and more.

Why use autoMate?

autoMate enables you to achieve custom workflows and features without having to build out a private app or one-off custom solution which may be expensive. The functionality has already been built out, allowing decision-makers to focus their time on business requirements.

With autoMate, custom solutions can be up and running in days rather than months as there is no need for intensive technical scoping. In addition, the app is fully hosted and supported by Union Works, which ensures uptime is managed outside of your organization.

autoMate has been running for nearly two years and the team has extensive knowledge and experience in working with subscription businesses and Recharge’s API.

How does autoMate work?

Step 1 - Customer subscribes to a new subscription product on your store

Step 2 - The customer’s subscription is created in Recharge

Step 3 - Recharge notifies autoMate of the new subscriber or order via a webhook

Step 4 - autoMate acts on that subscription and sends it back to Recharge

Reasons to use autoMate

autoMate connects to the Recharge API and therefore has the ability to update, add, edit, and remove any aspect of a subscription-based on predefined rules or logic. A few examples include:

• Swapping product IDs – autoMate can automatically swap out products in subscription boxes based on a defined schedule
• Adding One-Time Products – Automatically add or remove one time purchases from subscription, including free or discounted products as incentives. autoMate can remove trial products and update subscriptions to full price on a regular schedule.
• Customizing delivery dates – Fulfill all subscription orders based on a custom delivery schedule. autoMate can update the delivery dates of subscriptions based on a pre-defined schedule or logic like the last Tuesday of the month or one box per quarter.

How are others using autoMate?

Case Study: SKU Swapping

Business Case: Merchant sells a subscription box that changes products every month. They track inventory of each box and need to swap the product ID in the subscription each month to ensure the warehouse sends the correct box.

Conditions: The merchant sells different types of boxes so they need the ability to define different schedules for each type of box without the manual labor of a bulk update each shipment.

Solution: autoMate was used to build and manage product schedules. The merchant defined the trigger product (subscription box sold on the site) and then assigned a product ID to each month of the year, so autoMate knew which product to swap next.

autoMate will detect which month the next delivery is scheduled for and ensure that the next queued order contains the product that matches the SKU schedule.

This SKU swapping can be adapted to suit different methods of delivery, multiple products per delivery, and more.

Case Study: Custom shipment schedule

Business Case: Merchant needs to control shipping fulfillment windows on their quarterly subscriptions. Store owners can define which delivery date is in each window and autoMate will ensure that customer’s order is sent out in that specified range.

Conditions: They could manage the shipping window dates as well as shipping windows if there were any changes in manufacturing.

Solution: autoMate was used to read the shipping windows and update the next queued order based on the defined delivery date. An interface was built to manage those dates.

Case Study: Reward subscribers with free gifts

Business case: The merchant wanted to improve retention by offering one time gifts to subscribers at set dates in their subscription.  

Conditions: The merchant needs to be able to create a rule to add a free one time product to an upcoming subscription order, based on how many orders the customer is in their subscription.

Solution: Union Works used autoMate to read the order count on the subscription, and add a free one time product to the next order accordingly.  This helps reduce churn by rewarding subscribers for their loyalty.

Get in touch

autoMate is a powerful engine which Union Works customizes to suit each individual business requirement. Get in touch with Sam Henning to discuss using autoMate to help with your subscription automations.