Getting started with the Shopify Checkout Integration

Recharge is the leading subscription payments solution to help launch and scale your subscription business on Shopify. This guide is part one of a three-part series, and provides resources to help you get started on the Shopify Checkout Integration, including the initial set-up of installing the app, configuring your store settings, and more.

Before you start

• For feature status, eligibility limitations and requirements, take a look at Shopify Checkout Integration feature status.
• Refer to the Shopify Checkout FAQ for answers to the most common questions.
• If you change your Shopify theme, it will override the Recharge code. This can result in the subscription widget disappearing from your product pages or working incorrectly. If you need to change the theme on your store, we recommend reaching out to the Recharge support team in advance to help with the Recharge code installation.

Install Recharge

To install Recharge, visit the listing in Shopify’s App Store. Click Add app and follow the installation instructions. This opens Recharge within your Shopify store. Complete your store details and click Continue to begin the set up. 

Add a subscription product

Begin by adding a product to Recharge. Your subscription products require parameters to determine the length of the subscription, how frequently the product is delivered, reduced pricing, and more. 

1. Click Add product. You’ll be able to choose which of your existing Shopify products you want to offer as subscriptions:
   
2. Click + next to the product you want to add.
3. Determine if you want to offer this product as One-time & Subscription or Subscription only. 
4. If you would like to offer a discount to subscribers, click the checkbox and enter the discount percentage in the field. 
5. Determine your subscription product's frequency options. Use the dropdown to select days, weeks, or months, and specify the amount. If you would like to add additional frequency options, click + Add frequency.
6. Click Next. 

Publish your subscription widget

Now that you have set up your first subscription product, you can activate your subscription widget by clicking Publish. We'll go through previewing your customer's experience in the next section. 

Preview your customer experience

Preview your product display

Preview your product and subscription widget by clicking Preview your subscription widget. If you would like to make changes to your subscription widget, click Storefront in your merchant portal and select Subscription widget. Refer to our guide Modifying the Subscription widget to learn more.

Run a test order

Experience the full shopping flow by running a test transaction. Review Shopify's guide for Placing a test order. 

Notifications

Notification emails are the primary means of communication between your store and customer base. These emails go to your customers when they order subscription products, modify future orders, or cancel subscriptions.

To update or review your notifications, click Settings and select Notifications.

We recommend taking some time to configure these notifications to include your preferred content and the tone and style that matches your store. Take a look at Notifications to learn more about enabling, disabling, and modifying notifications in your merchant portal.

You can also refer to Customer accounts with the Shopify Checkout Integration for a holistic overview of your customer’s journey, including the notifications they receive after purchasing a subscription.

Add additional staff accounts

Will you have multiple team members working out of Recharge? No problem, you can add additional staff accounts with individual logins. 

1. Click Settings in the merchant portal and select Accounts.
2. Click Add account to send email invitations to your team members.

Refer to Enabling Recharge user and account permissions to learn more about adding additional accounts and choosing which sections your users can access in your Recharge account. 

Offer discounts for your subscriptions

Discounts are one of the many ways to offer value to your customers and to increase customer loyalty. With Recharge, you can offer discount codes for both one-time purchases and recurring subscription orders. You must create discount codes in both Shopify and Recharge. Visit Creating discount codes to get started.

Additional discount code resources

• Want to reduce churn? Consider using discount codes as part of your cancellation and retention strategy.
• Recharge also performs bulk discount imports as a courtesy. Refer to Creating discount codes in bulk for more information.

Customize your customer portal

When it comes time for the customer to make changes to their own subscription, the customer portal is the command center. Customers can manage their orders, add on products, and make updates — virtually everything they need to do. And it’s all at their discretion without needing to seek extra help or wait for assistance.

Now that you have completed a test order, you can preview where your customers will manage their subscriptions in their customer portal. If you want to make any changes, click Storefront in your merchant portal and select Customer portal.

• For more information, see Understanding the Customer portal.
• Refer to Customer accounts with the Shopify Checkout Integration to learn more about how customers use the customer portal to manage their subscriptions. 

Review the sections below to continue enhancing your subscription business on Recharge. 

Configure your store’s settings

Legal settings

To update or review your legal settings, click Settings and select Legal.

In this section, you can update the subscription terms in the footer of your subscription activation email. Refer to Updating the legal settings to learn more.

You can add a legal disclaimer to your checkout through your Shopify Admin. Refer to Shopify's guide on Adding store policies for more information.

Shipping

Shipping rates for the Shopify Checkout Integration are created and modified through your Shopify admin. For more information, visit Setting up shipping for the Shopify Checkout Integration.

Taxes

The Shopify Checkout Integration allows you to manage your tax settings directly in Shopify. See our guide Configuring tax settings with the Shopify Checkout Integration to learn more about how taxes work with Recharge.

When viewing upcoming orders in your merchant portal, you'll notice that the queued order always shows the tax rate as 0.00. The total tax amount is not added to a queued order until after the charge has been processed, as this is when we pull the charge data from the charge details in Shopify:

Once the order is charged, the tax amount will be correctly displayed. To track how much tax your store has been charging, refer to your Shopify tax reports.

Add additional products

You can add additional products in Recharge by clicking Products in your merchant portal. This will look a little different than when you added a subscription product above. Refer to the following guides to help you get started: 

• Learn more about creating subscription rules and adding products in Recharge. 
• Customize your rules further by setting a charge date or a cut-off date.

Enable a payment processor

All subscription orders are processed through the Shopify Checkout. To process orders, you must have one of Shopify’s eligible subscription payment processors enabled. At this time, you can use the following payment processors to accept payment from subscription customers:

• Shopify Payments
• PayPal Express
• Authorize.net
• Stripe (Only available for merchants currently using Stripe on Shopify)

Enroll in Shopify Payments

If you haven't already enabled Shopify Payments on your store, visit Shopify Payments for more information.

Enable PayPal Express

PayPal Express is a payment method that allows customers to use PayPal directly from your checkout and offers multiple payment options (i.e. the ability to pay via credit card or debit card). Shopify allows you to use PayPal Express as a form of payment for your subscription customers provided that you have:

• Enabled PayPal in your store
• Set up at least one subscription product in Recharge

Once enabled, Shopify contacts PayPal on your behalf to approve your account for Reference Transactions, which allows you to charge customers automatically. Refer to Shopify's article Using PayPal for automatic billing to learn more about this process.

Check your email after you’ve enabled PayPal Express and have added a product to Recharge, or contact Shopify Support for more information.

After your account is approved, PayPal is displayed as a Payment option at the checkout for your customers. Customers can access their customer portal to update their PayPal billing information directly in PayPal.

Enable Authorize.net

Authorize.net is an alternative payment method that can be used at checkout and to process recurring orders. To use Authorize.net as a payment gateway you must:

• Enable Authorize.net in your Shopify store
• Set up at least one subscription product in Recharge

Once enabled, Shopify will process checkout and recurring orders using Authorize.net's gateway.

Enroll in Stripe

Shopify Subscriptions now support Stripe as a payment processor for certain stores under the following criteria:

• Stripe is enabled as the existing primary payment processor within your Shopify Admin
• Your store receives direct approval from Shopify

Reach out to the Shopify Support team for more information regarding eligibility, getting approved, or Stripe setup.

Your payment settings in Recharge

Access your payment settings in your merchant portal by clicking Settings and selecting Payment. By default, this displays Shopify Checkout Integration Payment Gateway when using the Shopify Checkout Integration.

This setting informs Recharge that Shopify is handling the payment processing, and is shown even if you are using Shopify Payments, PayPal, or Authorize.net as your gateway.

Next steps

Once your store has processed three subscription charges, you will be prompted to accept the billing terms. Refer to Recharge billing and pricing for the Shopify Checkout Integration to learn more.