Getting started with the Shopify Checkout Integration

Before you start

This guide is designed to help merchants using the Shopify Checkout integration get started with Recharge.

You can install the Shopify Checkout integration by visiting Recharge's website or by downloading Recharge directly from Shopify's app store. For more information, visit Shopify Checkout FAQ.

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Enable a payment processor

All subscription orders are processed through the Shopify Checkout. To process orders, you must have a valid payment processor enabled. Currently, Shopify offers the following payment methods that can be used to accept payment from customers:

• Shopify Payments 
• PayPal Express
• Authorize.net

Enroll in Shopify Payments

If you haven't already enabled Shopify Payments on your Shopify store, you will need to apply for and use the payment processor to work with the Shopify Checkout integration. For more information on setting up Shopify Payments, visit Shopify Payments.

Enable PayPal Express

PayPal Express is a payment method that allows customers to use PayPal directly from your checkout and offers multiple payment options. For example, 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. This is done once you have PayPal Express activated in your Payment settings on Shopify, and at least one subscription configured in Recharge. Visit Using PayPal for automatic billing on Shopify 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. 

Recharge settings

By default, the option in your Recharge admin > Payment settings displays "Shopify payments (current)" as enabled when using the Shopify Checkout Integration. 

This setting informs Recharge that Shopify is handling the payment processing, and is used even if you are using PayPal as your gateway.

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Set up subscription rules

Subscriptions are the heart of Recharge, and subscription rules direct how your store’s unique offerings will work. Your subscription products require parameters to determine the length of the subscription, how frequently the product is delivered, reduced pricing, and more.

You can access subscription rules by clicking on Products on the top toolbar.

Create a new subscription rule

1. Go to Products on the top toolbar.
2. Click on the blue Add product button on the top right.
3. A list of Shopify products will pop-up. Click the checkbox next to the product(s) you want to offer as a subscription. Note: If you select multiple products in this step, they will be added as inactive products in Recharge. Once imported, you will need to follow the remainder of the steps below for each product individually.
4. Subscriptions can be offered as a Subscribe and Save. Check Yes, I'd like to offer a discount if you want to give your customers a discount and add the percentage you’d like to discount the product.
5. The frequency is how often your subscriptions renew and product gets shipped out to the customer - they can be set in months, weeks, or days. Set your frequency(s) in Set order schedule.
6. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

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Publish the subscription widget

The subscription widget must be published for your customers to purchase subscription products.

1. Open the Settings menu by selecting the wrench icon.
2. Select Subscription widget.
3. Select Publish the subscription widget from the Subscription widget status section.

Once published, the subscription widget will display on your subscription products, allowing customers to purchase subscription products based on the subscription rules configured. 

Modify the subscription widget

You can modify the language and appearance of the subscription widget in the Subscription widget settings to match your brand and image. 

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Familiarize yourself with the customer experience

The majority of your relationship with your customers is after they go through their initial checkout and start managing their subscriptions in the Customer Portal.

Your customers manage their subscriptions via their unique customer portal with permissions you set in the Recharge app.

Modify the customer portal

You can modify the customer portal and what actions your customers can take through the Settings > Customer portal menu:

• Forms to modify the HTML and CSS styling of the customer portal.
• Customer portal controls you can use to grant or limit permissions.
• Customer retention and cancellation reasons. You can modify the wording on cancellation reasons and offer incentives like discounts to encourage customers to stay subscribed.
• For more information, visit Customer portal controls.

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Offer discounts for your subscriptions

Discount codes 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 recurring orders to incentivize purchases on your store.

Discount codes created in Shopify will not work on the Recharge checkout. You will need to recreate those discount codes in Recharge. For more information and instructions, visit Creating discount codes for the Shopify Checkout integration.

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Customize the messages you send to subscribers with notifications

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

We highly recommend taking a moment to configure these emails to have the content you prefer with a styling and tone that matches your brand. For more information, take a look at the Notifications guide.

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Set up shipping

It's critical for the continued health of your store that you charge the correct amount to ship out your products. Shipping rates for the Shopify Checkout integration are created and modified through your Shopify admin. For more information and a breakdown of which platform handles shipping information, visit Setting up shipping for the Shopify Checkout.

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Charge taxes

Set up your taxes in Shopify, see our guide Configuring tax settings with the Shopify Checkout to read more about how Taxes work on both platforms.

When viewing upcoming orders in your Recharge admin, you'll notice that the queued order always shows the tax rate as 0.00. This is expected behavior right now, and is only a display issue.

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.

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Specify a legal disclaimer

You can add a legal disclaimer to your checkout through your Shopify Admin, see Shopify's guide on Adding store policies for more information. If you want to add a legal disclaimer to the bottom of your Subscription activation notification, you can do so through Recharge > Settings > Legal settings.

Here is an example activation email, with an additional legal disclaimer in the footer.

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Manage your orders

Understanding the Recharge order flow is important for your order management. When an order is created through Recharge, the fulfillment of the order takes place on Shopify while the management of existing and future recurring orders happens in Recharge. Learn more about navigating the orders section on Recharge.

• Understanding order, subscription, and customer status to know how to effectively manage your subscription orders.
• Control how card declines and order errors are handled to help reduce churn.
• Need to refund an order? You can refund directly in Shopify.

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Learn about customer management

When a customer creates a subscription order through Recharge, a customer account is automatically created where they can access and manage their subscriptions. Learn about how you can manage customer accounts and change customer settings to suit your business’s needs.

• Learn about the Customer Retention Strategy feature on Recharge.
• Utilize the customer history view and actions report to keep track of customer events.

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Refunding customers

At this time all refunds should be done in Shopify using their Refund function. See Issuing a refund through the Shopify Checkout for detailed instructions.

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Support

Ready for launch! If you have any questions or run into any speedbumps, please reach out to Recharge support or sign up for our weekly onboarding webinar.

Developer Support

Additionally, Recharge maintains various support resources for developers.

Access the API Reference to view the Recharge API specification. You will need to generate an API token to use as a password to access the documentation.

To view guides and tutorials for customizing the Shopify Checkout integration, see the Shopify Checkout in the Developer Docs.