Subscriptions
Recharge agency for ecommerce brands
Recharge runs the recurring side of a store: subscription products, prepaid plans, the customer portal, retries on failed payments and the events that fire when someone skips, swaps or cancels. Most installs we review sell subscribe and save at a fixed discount and leave the portal, dunning and cancellation flow on their defaults. We shape the offer to how the product is used, then work the portal and retention settings where churn actually happens.
Recharge
Subscriptions · by Recharge. A text wordmark, not a logo: we are not affiliated with the vendor and make no claim to its trademarks.
What we do with it
The work inside Recharge
Subscription offer design
Frequency options, discount depth and prepaid terms are set from how fast the product is consumed and what margin allows. A thirty-day supply needs different intervals than a quarterly refill. We also decide where the subscription appears on the product page and how the option is explained before the shopper commits.
Customer portal configured for retention
Recharge's portal lets subscribers skip, reschedule, swap products, add one-time items and update payment details. We enable the actions that reduce cancellations, put swap and skip ahead of cancel, and add one-time add-ons so the next box carries more than the base order.
Cancellation flow and save offers
Recharge can present reasons and retention offers before a cancellation completes. We write the reasons in the customer's words, attach an offer that fits each reason, such as a pause or a lower frequency, and record the outcome so the offer that saves the most subscribers is kept.
Dunning and payment recovery
Failed charges are retried on a schedule and customers are notified by email or SMS. We set the retry cadence, connect the notifications to Klaviyo or Postscript so the message matches the brand, and report recovered revenue separately from new subscriptions.
Bundles and build-a-box
Recharge supports bundles where the subscriber picks contents each cycle. For coffee, snacks and skincare this is often the difference between a subscription that lasts and one that lapses, so we set the rules for minimum items, swaps and price per bundle.
Events into the rest of the stack
Upcoming charge, skipped order, swap, failed payment and cancellation events flow into Klaviyo, Postscript, Gorgias and the loyalty app. We map each event to the message or ticket it should create so the retention program runs on real subscription state.
When it fits
Recharge is the right tool when
Stores where the product is used up on a schedule
Supplements, coffee, pet food, razors and skincare have a natural cycle. Recharge earns its fee when the cadence matches consumption.
Merchants who need more than the platform's own subscriptions
Shopify Subscriptions covers a basic subscribe and save offer. Stores that need prepaid plans, bundles, a richer portal or deeper retention tooling are the ones that move to Recharge.
Shopify stores, with options for other stacks
Recharge works inside Shopify checkout, supports BigCommerce, and exposes an API for custom storefronts. The Shopify integration is the most complete and the one most of our subscription clients run on.
Brands with a subscriber base large enough to manage churn
Once there are a few hundred active subscribers, the cancellation reasons, skip patterns and dunning results become a dataset worth working every month.
What to watch
Where accounts drift
Facts about defaults and costs, not criticism. These are the settings we check on every account.
Fees stack per transaction
Recharge charges a platform fee and a per-transaction charge on subscription orders in addition to payment processing. Model the total cost at the store's order volume before choosing a plan.
Retention settings need configuring
Out of the box, the cancellation flow, retry schedule and portal actions run on defaults. The retention offers, reasons and swap options that reduce churn are configuration work, not something the install provides.
Discounts and subscription pricing interact
Subscription discounts, promotional codes and Shopify's automatic discounts can combine in ways the store did not intend. Test a full cycle, including the second charge, before a promotion goes live.
Analytics count differently from the store
Recharge reports active subscribers, recurring revenue and churn using its own definitions. Match those to store revenue and to the finance team's definitions before they appear in a board report.
Should a store use Shopify Subscriptions or Recharge?
Both run on Shopify checkout. Shopify's own app suits a straightforward subscribe and save offer at low cost. Recharge suits stores that need prepaid plans, bundles, a configurable portal, richer cancellation flows and integrations with retention tools. The right answer depends on the offer, not the size of the store.
Can you migrate existing subscribers into Recharge?
Yes, and the sensitive part is payment tokens. Migrations move customer, subscription and payment data from the previous platform or processor, and need a test cohort, communication to subscribers and a date when the old system stops charging. We plan the cutover so no subscriber is billed twice or missed.
What subscription metrics do you report each month?
Active subscribers, new subscriptions, churn by reason, skip rate, recovered payments, average subscriber lifetime and subscription revenue as a share of store revenue, reconciled against store orders.
How do you reduce subscription cancellations?
By answering the reasons customers give. Too much product means a skip or lower frequency offer. Price means a prepaid plan or a loyalty tie-in. Wanting variety means bundles or swaps. The cancellation flow captures the reason and the retention offer responds to it.
Does Recharge handle its own SMS and email notifications?
Recharge sends its own transactional notifications and can hand events to Klaviyo, Postscript or another tool for branded messaging. We usually route the customer-facing messages through the marketing platform so tone, timing and consent are managed in one place.
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