Can your customers combine two subscriptions into one? Yes. When a customer has two subscriptions in your store that renew on the same schedule, the customer portal can offer to put them together, so they get one delivery and one charge each cycle instead of two.
How do I let customers combine subscriptions?
Customers can only combine subscriptions if you allow it. In the Subi app, go to Settings > Customer Portal > Customer permissions and find the Combining subscriptions section. Tick Let customers put two subscriptions on the same billing interval together into one, keeping the price of every item, then save.
This option is off for stores that installed Subi before the feature was released, so if you installed before then you need to turn it on yourself. Stores that install afterwards have it on by default. It is separate from the Customer can Add products permission, so you can turn one on without the other.
What does the customer see?
When a customer has two subscriptions that can be combined, a card titled Optimize your delivery appears above their list of subscriptions in the customer portal. It names both subscriptions and says they can arrive as a single shipment every billing period with no change to what they pay, for example "with no change to your monthly cost of $82.26".
The customer chooses which of the two next order dates the combined subscription keeps. The two dates are shown side by side, and each choice says what happens to the other order, for example that it arrives 9 days early or 9 days later. If both subscriptions already have the same next order date, there is no date to choose and they keep that date. The customer then clicks Confirm combined delivery.
If the two subscriptions are paid with different cards, each date choice also says which card will pay for the combined delivery, for example "Paid with Visa card ending 4242". That is the card of the subscription that keeps its date. If both subscriptions already have the same next order date and different cards, the customer chooses the card instead, under Which card pays for the combined delivery?. The card of the subscription they have had longest is selected unless they pick the other one.
After the subscriptions are combined, the card changes to Combined delivery confirmed. It shows the new delivery date and the cost, which stays the same, and stays on the page until the customer clicks Done.
If the combine does not go through, the card shows a short error message and the button changes to Retry. The customer can retry or choose the other date. If the subscription cannot be changed right now, for example because it was changed too many times in a short period, the card shows that reason instead. If a payment problem appears on one of the subscriptions after the card was shown, the card says "One of these subscriptions has a payment that needs attention first." and nothing is combined.
Which subscriptions can be combined?
Two subscriptions can be combined when they belong to the same customer and both are active, and they renew and deliver on the same interval (for example, both monthly). They must also use the same currency, delivery method and shipping address.
The two subscriptions can be paid with different payment methods. In that case they are only offered when both payments are in good standing: neither subscription's last payment failed, and both payment methods are still saved and active for the customer. An expiring card does not stop the offer.
These subscriptions are never offered:
Prepaid subscriptions.
Build-a-box, fixed bundle, volume discount and membership subscriptions.
Subscriptions with an order-level discount, a discount applied to a single item, or an item whose price was edited by hand. An order-level discount that Shopify has marked as used up does not count, because it no longer takes anything off.
Subscriptions whose price changes after a certain number of orders.
Subscriptions that have not yet reached their minimum number of billing cycles.
Subscriptions with a failed payment that Subi is still trying to recover.
If a customer has more than two eligible subscriptions, the portal offers one pair at a time and shows the next pair after they combine the first and click Done.
What happens to prices and the other subscription?
When two subscriptions are combined, every item keeps exactly the price and discount the customer paid before. All items move onto one subscription, the one whose next order date (or card) the customer chose, and the other subscription is canceled because it no longer has any items.
The combined subscription keeps its own payment method, so from then on that card pays for both items. The payment methods themselves are not changed in Shopify.
The canceled subscription does not trigger a cancellation email or SMS to the customer. If you use Subi's outgoing webhooks, the cancellation event gives combined as the reason.