Automatic order merging
Automatic order merging aligns and combines new orders occurring within a specified number of days.
This guide covers how automatic order merging works, how to enable this feature, and limitations to consider.
How it works
With automatic order merging, you can set the desired time gap for orders to be automatically merged. Upcoming orders are merged by aligning charge dates of the identified subscriptions that are within the same shipping address allowing the subscriptions to be shipped together. A charge activity is created when a merge occurs and this charge activity can be used to manually undo a merge.
Orders that were merged will appear in the Charges exports under the column merged_at
providing information on the charges and associated customers.
Order merge notifications
You can customize the Subscriptions upcoming charge notification to show a pre-defined message onif orders are merged.
The following code can be used to inform customers if their order is merged:
{% if merged_at %}
<p>
To reduce the overall environmental impact of shipping products, we have merged this
order with others that were scheduled to be shipped a few days later. This will help
reduce the amount of packaging that we use, as well as the environmental impact of
sending multiple packages instead of just one.
</p>
{% endif %}
You can use the merged_order
property when creating Klaviyo flows using the Order upcoming metric. This property indicates if the charge was merged with other charges as a result of automatic order merging.
Enable order merge
To enable automatic order merging:
- Click Settings in the Recharge merchant portal and select Order processing.
- Click the toggle to enable the feature.
- Choose the number of days within each other that orders are merged.
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Optionally, you can choose to merge orders with bundle subscriptions.
- If this option is enabled, bundle subscriptions will be merged similar to other types of subscriptions.
- If this option is disabled, bundle subscriptions are skipped and will remain on their original date though other subscriptions will be moved. The reason is that some bundles have a customization period where customers can make changes, and that would be affected if the charge date of the bundle was moved.
- Click Save to confirm changes.
Common scenarios
The following examples help to explain how automatic order merging works when enabled.
Example 1 - Subscriptions with different aligning cycles
In this scenario, the upcoming order notification is sent three days prior and automatic order merging is configured to look two or more days into the future.
This example uses the following subscription setup:
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Subscription A has charge X that is scheduled for February 28th, and has a 6 week cycle.
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Subscription B has charge Y that is is scheduled for March 1st, and has a 12 week cycle.
The following will occur:
- On February 25th, the order merge logic will run and determines that the two charges (X and Y) should be merged. Subscription B is updated to have a charge date of the 28th, which results in a new charge Z that combines X and Y.
- On February 28th, the charge Z will process.
- Subscription A will be scheduled for April 10th, with charge X2, given its 6 week cycle.
- Subscription B will be scheduled for May 22, with charge Y2, given its 12 week cycle.
- When charge X2 is processed on April 10th, it’s next charge date is calculated to be May 22, and charge Y2 will be updated to include Subscription A.
As the cycles line up, they will continue this process until something changes either of the subscriptions, or Subscription A’s standalone charge (X2) somehow comes out of sync.
Example 2 - Subscriptions with different non-aligning cycles
In this scenario the same setup as the previous example is used, but Subscription A will have a 5 week cycle.
The following will occur:
- On February 25th, the order merge logic will run and determines that the two charges (X and Y) should be merged. Subscription B is updated to have a charge date of the 28th, which results in a new charge Z that combines X and Y.
- On February 28th, the charge Z will process.
- Subscription A will be scheduled for April 3rd, with charge X2, given its 5 week cycle.
- Subscription B will be scheduled for May 22, with charge Y2, given its 12 week cycle.
- When charge X2 is processed on April 3rd, the next charge date is calculated to be May 8th and charge X3 is created.
-
On May 5th, the order merging logic runs, but charge X3 is too far away from Y2 for them to be merged.
The cycles will line up again at some point, but on fewer occasions.
Example 3 - Subscriptions with different non-aligning cycles that will be aligned
In this scenario the same setup as the previous example is used, but Subscription A will have a 4 week cycle and Subscription B will have a 30 day cycle.
The following will occur:
- On February 25th, the order merge logic will run and determines that the two charges (X and Y) should be merged. Subscription B is updated to have a charge date of the 28th, which results in a new charge Z that combines X and Y.
- On February 28th, the charge Z will process.
- Subscription A will be scheduled for March 27th, with charge X2, given its 4 week cycle.
- Subscription B will be scheduled for March 28th, with charge Y2, given its 30 week cycle.
- When charge X2 is processed, the automatic order merging logic runs and determines that charge Y2 is close enough to be merged. Subscription B is updated to have a charge date of March 27th.
This will continue as the two subscriptions will always be close enough to each other, effectively changing Subscription B to have a 4 week cycle instead of 30 days.
Considerations
The following should be considered when using this feature:
- Merging orders that are far apart risks overwhelming the customer with too much product. If a customer has recently received a product and the configuration causes the next order of the same product to be moved up, the customer may end up with too much product.
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Merging orders will change analytics data. AOV will likely increase, and monthly numbers may change as orders are moved around.
- Increased order value could cause payment issues for some customers in the form of insufficient funds errors.
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It’s possible to inadvertently change the cadence of subscriptions:
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If subscription A is monthly and subscription B is every four weeks, subscription A will likely end up being merged with subscription B every 4 weeks, effectively changing the cadence of the subscription.
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Once subscriptions have been aligned with order merge, there’s no automated way of undoing the changes. Change must be manually undone
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Prepaid renewals can be affected by order merging but not prepaid queued orders
- Automatic merging is not possible for orders containing gifts added through a Surprise and Delight Subscription Experience or Rewards strategies.
- If a future order has been changed by a Subscription Experience, it will not be automatically merged.