What Is a Cancellation Flow?
A Cancellation Flow is the experience a customer sees when they try to cancel a subscription from their customer portal. Instead of cancelling immediately, the customer is shown the reasons you have configured. Based on which reason they pick, the flow can show a tailored retention offer (called a treatment) to encourage them to stay.
If you haven't built your own cancellation flow, your store may already use Subi's default cancellation flow, a ready-made flow that asks why the customer is leaving and offers them a way to stay. See Subi's default cancellation flow below.
Benefits:
Retain customers with relevant, helpful offers right at the moment of cancellation
Collect data on why customers cancel
How It Works
The customer clicks Cancel Subscription in their portal.
Your cancellation message is shown (e.g. "We're sorry to see you go").
The customer selects one of the reasons you have configured.
If that reason is linked to a treatment, the matching retention offer is shown. If it is not linked to a treatment, the customer goes straight to the final confirmation step.
The customer either accepts the offer (cancellation is prevented) or continues to cancel.
Subi's default cancellation flow
Does my store have a cancellation flow if I never built one? Yes, in most cases. If your store has never built a cancellation flow and doesn't show the legacy cancellation reasons (Display cancellation reason to your customers in Canceling management), Subi shows its own default cancellation flow to customers who cancel.
What your customers see
The default flow appears when a customer cancels from the Subi customer portal and from Shopify customer accounts. The customer first picks one of six reasons:
It's too expensive
I'm taking a break and want to come back later
Too much product piling up
I want different products
Delivery or shipping problems
Other (the customer types their own reason)
After the reason, the customer sees one offer box. It only holds the offers your customer portal settings already allow:
Skip next order, when customers can skip their upcoming delivery.
Delay the next delivery, when customers can reschedule their subscription. The customer picks how long to delay.
Change frequency, when customers can change their subscription interval and their subscription can move to another delivery cycle.
The default flow never offers a discount. Confirm cancellation is always one step away, so a customer who wants to leave can still do so quickly. If your portal settings allow none of these offers, the customer picks a reason and then confirms the cancellation.
The reason the customer picks is saved with the cancellation, just like with a flow you build yourself.
How do I turn the default flow off or on?
You can turn Subi's default cancellation flow off or on from your Subi dashboard, on any plan:
Open Retention from the left side menu, then open Cancellation flow.
Next to the Cancellation flow page title, a badge shows On or Off.
At the top right of the page, select Turn off, then confirm with Turn off in the dialog. To switch it back on, select Turn on in the same place.
When the default flow is off, customers who cancel see a plain confirmation: no reason is asked and no offer is made.
To see or change the default flow in the flow builder, select Edit at the top of the page.
The offers the default flow makes follow your customer portal permissions, where you allow or block skipping, rescheduling and changing the subscription interval. See Manage Customer Portal Permissions in Subi.
How do I change or translate the default reasons?
You can edit the wording of the six default reasons, or translate them, in Portal Customization. Choose Portal subscription details, open the Cancellation flow section, and edit the fields labelled Reason: It's too expensive, Reason: Other and so on.
What happens to the default flow when I build my own?
A cancellation flow you build yourself replaces Subi's default flow, and the Cancellation flow page then shows your own flow's status and actions instead. Building your own flow depends on your Subi plan; the default flow does not. If you later delete your own flow, the default flow does not come back.
The default flow also does not appear while your store shows the legacy cancellation reasons from Canceling management. If you turn those off, your store gets the default flow, and you can turn it off from the Cancellation flow page.
If your plan doesn't include cancellation flow analytics, the default flow still records your customers' reasons, and you can see them once you upgrade. If you Migrate your Canceling Reasons list to the Cancellation flow, you can see those numbers on any plan without upgrading — only retention offers (treatments) and conditions need a plan that includes them.
Key Components
Cancellation Reasons
The list of reasons your customers can pick from. You can write any labels that match your business — for example:
Too expensive
Not using the product
Shipping delays
Taking a break
You can add, edit, or remove reasons at any time. A flow can have up to 7 reasons.
Any reason can also be configured as an Other reason — a free-text field the customer fills in themselves. Each flow supports one such free-text reason.
Treatments
A treatment is a retention offer shown after the customer picks a reason. If the customer accepts a treatment, the cancellation is prevented and the chosen action is applied to their subscription.
Available treatment types:
Skip next order — skip the customer's next 1, 2, or 3 upcoming orders.
Delay billing — push the next billing date out by 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months so the customer pauses without cancelling.
Change frequency — let the customer move to a different delivery cycle instead of cancelling.
Treatments are grouped into a treatment box that you connect to a reason. A treatment box has its own title and description — this is the copy the customer reads on the offer card. Each box can contain up to 3 treatments; if you add more than one, the customer is shown them as alternative offers ("OR" branches).
A reason can be left without a treatment box — in that case, picking it goes straight to cancellation confirmation.
Why Use a Cancellation Flow?
1. Reduce churn
Show helpful offers right when customers are considering cancelling. Many cancellations are temporary problems — too many items this month, a tight budget — that a skip or a delay can solve.
Result: more subscribers retained.
2. Gain insights
Track which reasons are picked most often to:
Improve your product or service
Adjust pricing, logistics, or shipping cadence
Tailor future offers and reasons
Result: smarter business decisions.
How to Set Up a Cancellation Flow
The cancellation flow is configured from the Retention page in your Subi dashboard, using a visual flow builder.
Step 1: Open the flow builder
Open Retention from the left side menu in your Subi dashboard.
On the Cancellation flow card, select Setup. This opens the Cancellation flow page: your current flow in a read-only window under the Active flow tab, with your cancellation analytics above it.
Select Edit — the pencil in the page header, or the one in the bottom-left corner of the flow window — to open the full-screen flow builder. In the window itself you can drag to pan around the flow and use the − / + controls beside the pencil to zoom.
The first time you open the builder on a store that has never had a cancellation flow, it asks How do you want to start? Choose Use the default flow to start from the same content as Subi's default cancellation flow: six common reasons — It's too expensive, I'm taking a break and want to come back later, Too much product piling up, I want different products, Delivery or shipping problems and Other, which customers can type into — plus one offer box with skip, delay and change frequency offers when your plan includes offers. You can change any of it before you save. Choose Start from scratch for an empty canvas with just the opening question. You only see this choice once.
The builder shows your flow as connected steps on a canvas. Reasons are numbered Reason 1, Reason 2, … and treatment boxes Treatment 1, Treatment 2, … in the order they sit on the canvas. Select Edit on any step to open its details panel on the right.
Step 2: Edit the initial cancellation message
Select Edit on the first step in the canvas. In the right-side panel, set the title and description that customers see at the top of the cancellation flow. Examples:
"We're sorry to see you go — can you tell us why?"
"Before you cancel, let us try to help."
Step 3: Add cancellation reasons
On the initial screen step, select its connector (Connect this step) and choose Reason. Repeat for each reason you want to offer.
Select Edit on the new reason. In the right-side panel, type the Reason label the customer will see (e.g. "Too expensive"), then select Save in the panel to apply it to the canvas. Discard reverts your edit; while your draft differs from the canvas, the panel shows Unsaved changes.
To make a free-text "Other" reason, choose Other reason from the connector instead, or turn on Let customer type other reasons on a reason. Only one Reason per flow can have this turned on.
A flow can have up to 7 reasons.
Step 4: Add treatments (recommended)
Select the connector on a reason and choose Add treatment to create a treatment box connected to that reason — or Connect to treatment 1, Connect to treatment 2, … to reuse a box you already have.
Select Edit on the treatment box. In the right-side panel, enter the Description customers will read on the offer card, then choose the treatment type — for example Skip next order or Delay next order — and configure its details.
To offer more than one option on the same card, add another treatment inside the same box. Each box can contain up to 3 treatments.
A reason without a connected treatment box goes straight to the cancellation confirmation.
Step 5: Turn on the flow
Review your reasons and treatments on the canvas, then select Save changes at the top right of the builder.
Select Turn on flow at the top right of the builder. You can also turn the flow on or off later from the Cancellation flow page header.
The flow will then appear automatically the next time a customer tries to cancel a subscription from their portal. Your flow replaces Subi's default cancellation flow. You can turn the flow off at any time from More actions at the top right.
Starting over
Two buttons at the top of the builder help when you want to begin again. Clear all empties the canvas, leaving only the initial screen — a flow needs at least one reason before it can be saved, so add one or discard your changes. Reset to default replaces everything on the canvas with the default template, the same six reasons and offer box described under Step 1. Both ask you to confirm first, and nothing changes for your customers until you save the flow.
Show different offers with conditions
By default, every customer who picks a reason sees the same treatment. Conditions let you go further and show a different offer depending on who the customer is or what they are subscribed to — so you can be generous with the customers worth keeping and save your best offers for the people most likely to stay.
How a condition works:
You place a condition between a cancellation reason and your treatments.
When a customer picks that reason, the condition checks their subscription against the rule you set.
Customers who match the rule see one treatment (the met branch); customers who do not match see a different treatment, or go straight to cancellation (the not-met branch).
What you can check
A single condition can check any of the following:
Billing cycles — how many times the subscription has already been billed (for example, at least 6 cycles).
Subscription value — the total value of the subscription, in your store currency (for example, $50 or more).
Products — whether the subscription contains or excludes specific products or variants.
Customer tag — whether the customer has one of the tags you list, or has none of them (for example, a VIP tag).
You can combine several checks in one condition. Rules in the same group are matched with OR — any one is enough — and separate groups are matched with AND, so every group must be true.
Examples
Reward your VIPs. Condition: Customer tag has one of "VIP". Customers who match get a bigger discount, while everyone else sees your standard offer.
Protect high-value subscriptions. Condition: Subscription value is $50 or more. These customers see a more generous "stay" offer; lower-value subscriptions see a smaller one.
Thank long-term subscribers. Condition: Billing cycles is 6 or more. Long-tenured customers are offered a loyalty discount or a free gift.
Tailor by product. Condition: Products contains "Coffee Beans" to offer a skip on that item, or Products excludes "Trial Kit" so trial subscribers don't see the same offer.
Combine rules. Condition: Customer tag has one of "VIP" AND Subscription value is $50 or more — reserve your very best offer for high-value VIPs only.
How to add a condition
In the flow builder, add a Condition from the reason you want to target.
Choose what to check — billing cycles, subscription value, products, or customer tags — and set the rule, for example Customer tag has one of "VIP".
Connect the met branch to the treatment for customers who match, and the not-met branch to the treatment for everyone else (the not-met branch is optional).
Save and turn on the flow.
Good to know: Subscription value is compared in your store's currency. If a customer's tags or products can't be read at that moment, the condition is treated as not matched, so the customer always sees a valid treatment.
Best Practices
Keep reasons short and easy to scan.
Match treatments closely to reasons:
"Taking a break" → Skip next order
"I have too much product" → Delay billing
Offer more than one treatment per reason when it makes sense, so customers can pick the option that works best for them.
Use friendly, non-pushy messaging in the treatment box description — you are trying to help, not guilt the customer into staying.
Once your flow is live, track what is working in your cancellation flow analytics and refine your reasons and offers over time.
For another retention option you can add to your flow, see Offer Frequency Change to Reduce Subscription Cancellations.
Recording a reason when you cancel a subscription yourself
The cancellation flow asks your subscribers why they leave. When you cancel a subscription yourself from its page in the Subi dashboard, the Cancel Subscription dialog can record your own reason and an optional note too. Learn how in Cancellation Flow & Management Tools.
Summary
A cancellation flow:
Asks customers why they are cancelling (Reasons)
Offers personalised alternatives such as skipping the next order or delaying billing (Treatments)
Collects churn insights so you can improve your service
If you haven't built your own, Subi's default flow asks six reasons and makes the offers your portal settings allow, until you turn it off
Set up properly, it is a powerful tool to grow and retain your subscriber base.