Dynamic pricing
Use Recharge’s Product Subscription Plans with Workflows by Recharge to offer dynamic pricing, providing customers with discounts to subscribe.
This guide explains how to offer customers different discounts based on their order history.
- Shopify Checkout Integration
Before you start
- You must use both Workflows by Recharge and Product Subscription Plans to offer dynamic pricing.
- Dynamic pricing is only available through products purchased on your storefront to prevent customer confusion.
How it works
Use dynamic pricing to offer customers an alternative product price at the checkout than what they pay on their recurring orders. With dynamic pricing, you can offer customers one discount at the checkout and have it apply to as many subsequent orders as you'd like and then have the price update automatically for all future recurring orders.
To use dynamic pricing you must create a Product Subscription Plan for the product in your Recharge merchant portal, using the Subscription with dynamic pricing plan type option. Configure the plan details, including the:
- Initial discount: The discount customers receive when they check out with the product.
-
Initial discount length: The number of orders the initial discount will apply to.
- ie. If your initial discount percentage is sent to 20%, and the initial discount length is set to 5, then your customers will receive the product at a 20% discount for five orders. Set this to 0 if the initial discount only applies to checkout orders.
- Recurring discount: The discount amount applied to orders after the initial discount finishes.
After setting the plan type for your product, you must create a Workflow to apply the discounted pricing to applicable orders. Enabling this workflow allows customers to receive dynamic pricing on their subscription orders.
Video walkthrough
Check out the video below where a member of the Recharge Product team walks you through configuring dynamic pricing for a subscription product:
Configuring dynamic pricing for your subscription products
How you configure dynamic pricing may differ depending on your desired outcome. Typically, merchants use dynamic pricing for the following reasons:
- Price changes: Offer customers one price at checkout, and automatically change the price on a recurring order
- Trial pricing: Offer a trial/sample product at a discounted price before customers are charged full price on their recurring orders
- Product refills: Offer customers a starter product as their checkout purchase, and provide product refills on recurring orders
Review the respective sections for detailed set-up instructions for each use case:
Price changes
Use dynamic pricing to offer a discount at the checkout on a specific product and have that discount apply to a specific number of orders. For example, you could use dynamic pricing to offer a product at a 50% discount for the first five months.
You could then set a discount for the subsequent charges, ie. offering customers a 10% discount after their first five months.
Discounted product pricing is based on the original one-time product pricing configured in Shopify. After creating the product in Shopify, you set specific discounts to change the product prices for your subscription products in Recharge. For example, you could offer customers:
- The product for $100 as a one-time purchase using the one-time product in Shopify
- The product for $90 at the checkout, and $80 for recurring orders by setting a 10% initial discount and 20% recurring discount when configuring the product subscription plan in Recharge
Follow the instructions below to set dynamic pricing for your subscription products:
- Create the product in Shopify.
- Create a subscription plan for the product in Recharge.
- Set the initial discount percentage to reflect the discount amount customers should receive at checkout.
- Set the initial discount length to the number of orders the initial discount should apply to.
- Set the recurring discount percentage to the percentage discount customers should receive when they initial discount finishes.
- Create the Recharge Workflow using the following settings:
- Trigger: Checkout order.
- Conditions: Original variant ID.
- Search: Original variant ID.
- Actions: Price (the recurring subscription amount)
- Enable your workflow.
- Perform a test transaction to confirm that the discounted price is visible to customers at the checkout.
- Review the test order in Recharge. Use the customer's history view to confirm that the workflow was triggered.
- Depending on the length of your initial discount, you can also review the customer's upcoming queued order to confirm that the new product price is listed.
Expand this dropdown for detailed instructions on offering dynamic pricing
Step 1 - Create your product in Shopify
Create your subscription product in Shopify. Products are added to Recharge immediately after they are created in Shopify.
Step 2 - Create a subscription plan for the checkout product in Recharge
Configure the subscription plan and dynamic pricing for the product customers select when they initially purchase their subscription. The checkout product requires that you set an initial discount amount to display the adjusted price when customers check out:
- Select Products in your Recharge merchant portal, and click Products from the dropdown.
- Search for the product you created in Shopify. Click on the product to open the product details and subscription plans information.
- Select Create plan from the Configure dropdown menu to create a Plan.
- Select Add another plan.
- Choose the plan type Subscription with dynamic pricing.
- Set your plan frequency under plan details, and add a plan name.
- Configure the discounts to dynamically price the product:
- Initial discount: Add the percentage discount customers should receive at the checkout to this field.
- Initial discount length: Set this to the number of orders the initial discount should apply to.
- Recurring discount: Set this to the percentage discount amount customers receive on upcoming orders after the initial discount is finished.
- Click Done and then Save plans to add the subscription option and dynamic pricing to the product.
After creating the plans for your product, you must set up a Workflow to perform the pricing adjustment.
Step 3 - Access the Workflows tool
- Click Tools & apps in the Recharge merchant portal and select Installed apps.
- If you have not created a workflow before, locate the Workflows by Recharge integration from the Marketplace tab. Select Get to enable the integration in your store.
- If you have created a workflow before, select the Workflows by Recharge integration through the Installed tab.
Step 4 - Set up your workflow
- Select Create new workflow to begin the process of building your workflow.
- Set a name and description for your workflow to make it easier to reference in the future.
Step 5 - Configure the workflow trigger
- Select the relevant trigger to start your workflow. The trigger determines which orders the workflow properties should apply to.
- Keep the Checkout as the trigger to ensure that the workflow applies to all orders immediately after they go through the checkout.
Step 6 - Set the workflow conditions
Set the workflow conditions to determine what order conditions must be met for the workflow to trigger. Only orders that meet the defined conditions have the workflow actions applied.
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list. Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
- Click Save conditions.
Save the condition to ensure that the workflow actions only apply to orders containing the specified product.
Step 7 - Configure the search function
The search function identifies what objects the workflow must update in the order. For example, if you have three items in an order, the search function ensures the workflow only applies to one specific product. Typically, the search option you set matches the condition set in Step 4.
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list.
- Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
Set the workflow actions next to update the product.
Step 8 - Set the workflow actions
Setting the workflow actions defines what will happen to the next recurring order after the workflow triggers. Add the following actions to successfully swap the product:
- Price: The action that changes the price on recurring orders to a higher amount than the checkout total
Follow the steps below to add the relevant actions:
- Select Price from the Actions dropdown menu.
- Enter the product price you wish to charge customers on recurring orders.
- Click Save searches and actions when you are finished creating your workflow.
Step 9 - Enable your workflow
Navigate back to the Workflows Integration main page in the Recharge merchant portal to turn the workflow on.
Change the status of your workflow to enabled by moving the slider into the green position underneath the Status column.
Step 10 - Test your workflow
Perform a test transaction to confirm the workflow works as expected.
After you’ve placed your test order, navigate back to the merchant portal, and open up your test customer profile. Confirm the success of the workflow by checking the History section. You should see the name of the workflow displayed, as well as the actions the workflow performed.
Trial Pricing
Use dynamic pricing to swap product SKUs, offering dynamic products and pricing to your customers between their checkout and recurring orders.
Utilize Recharge’s dynamic pricing to offer customers a different product/price for their initial checkout order, while charging them an alternative amount on recurring orders. Consider using trial pricing to offer customers a:
- Sample-sized product at a discounted price before receiving the full-sized product
- Free/discounted pricing on the first checkout order
With dynamic pricing, you can perform a SKU swap and offer customers one product at the checkout with your trial/discounted pricing set, and then immediately swap the customer’s subscription to a different product for all recurring orders.
Follow the instructions below to offer customers trial pricing at the checkout using Recharge’s dynamic pricing:
- Create two products in Shopify, the product customers check out with, and the product customers will swap to after Recharge processes the checkout order.
- Create a subscription plan for the checkout product in Recharge.
- Set the initial discount percentage to reflect the discount amount customers should receive at checkout.
- Set the initial discount length to 0 to only apply to the checkout order.
- Set the recurring discount percentage to 0.
- Create the Recharge Workflow using the following settings:
- Trigger: Checkout order.
- Conditions: Original variant ID.
- Search: Original variant ID.
- Actions: Variant ID (the variant ID of the new product) and Price (the recurring subscription amount)
- Enable your workflow.
- Perform a test transaction to confirm that the discounted price is visible to customers at the checkout.
- Review the test order in Recharge. Use the customer's history view to confirm that the workflow was triggered. Review the customer's upcoming queued order to confirm that the swapped product is listed.
Expand this dropdown for detailed instructions on offering trial pricing at the checkout
Step 1 - Create two products in Shopify
You must create two products in Shopify to perform a SKU Swap:
- The first product that customers initially check out with
- The second product that the subscription switches to for the remainder of the subscription
It is important to set the correct price in Shopify when you create the checkout product. See the Considerations section in this guide for more information.
Products are added to Recharge immediately after they are created in Shopify.
Step 2 - Create a subscription plan for the checkout product in Recharge
Configure the subscription plan and dynamic pricing for the product customers select when they initially purchase their subscription. The checkout product requires that you set an initial discount amount to display the adjusted price when customers check out:
- Select Products in your Recharge merchant portal and click Products from the dropdown.
- Search for the product you created in Shopify. Click on the product to open the product details and subscription plans information.
- Select Create plan from the Configure dropdown menu to create a Plan.
- Select Add another plan.
- Choose the plan type Subscription with dynamic pricing.
- Set your plan frequency under plan details, and add a plan name.
- Configure the discounts to dynamically price the product:
- Initial discount: Add the percentage discount customers should receive at the checkout to this field.
- Initial discount length: Set this to 0 to only apply the discount to the checkout order.
- Recurring discount: Set this to 0 so that customers see what the recurring price for the initial product is.
- Click Done and then Save plans to add the subscription option and dynamic pricing to the product.
The discounted product pricing will apply to customer orders after you save the product in Recharge. For example, if the checkout product is set to $40, and you set the initial discount amount to 50% in Recharge, the product price at checkout will be $20 when your customer initially checks out with the product).
After creating the plans for your product, you must set up a Recharge Workflow to perform the SKU swap and pricing adjustment.
Step 3 - Access the Workflows tool
- Select Tools & apps from the merchant portal and click Installed apps.
- If you have not created a workflow before, locate the Workflows by Recharge integration from the Marketplace tab. Select Get to enable the integration in your store.
- If you have created a workflow before, select the Workflows by Recharge integration through the Installed tab.
Step 4 - Set up your workflow
- Select Create new workflow to begin the process of building your workflow.
- Set a name and description for your workflow to make it easier to reference in the future.
Step 5 - Configure the workflow trigger
- Select the relevant trigger to start your workflow. The trigger determines which orders the workflow properties should apply to.
- Keep the Checkout as the trigger to ensure that the workflow applies to all orders immediately after they go through the checkout.
Step 6 - Set the workflow conditions
Set the workflow Conditions to determine what order conditions must be met for the workflow to trigger. Only orders that meet the defined conditions have the workflow actions applied.
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list. Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
- Click Save conditions.
Saving your conditions ensures that the workflow properties only apply to the product of your choosing.
Step 7 - Configure the search function
The search function identifies what objects the workflow must update in the order. For example, if you have three items on an order, the search function ensures the workflow only applies to the product you select when configuring your workflow. Typically, the search option you set matches the condition set in Step 4:
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list.
- Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
Set the workflow actions next to update the product.
Step 8 - Set the workflow actions
Setting the workflow actions defines what will happen to the next recurring order after the workflow triggers. Add the following actions to successfully swap the product:
- Variant ID: The action that performs the product swap by ensuring that customers receive the new product on the order processed immediately after the trigger order. Product swap actions only work if customers are swapping to a lesser-priced item.
- Price: The action that changes the price on recurring orders to a higher amount than the checkout total
Follow the steps below to add the relevant actions:
- Select Variant ID (variant SKU swap) from the Actions dropdown menu.
- Enter the variant ID for the product customers will receive after Recharge processes the trigger order.
- Click add action +.
- Select Price from the Actions dropdown menu.
- Enter the product price you wish to charge customers on recurring orders.
- Click Save searches and actions when you are finished creating your workflow.
Step 9 - Enable your workflow
Navigate back to the Workflows Integration main page in the Recharge merchant portal to turn the workflow on.
Change the status of your workflow to enabled by moving the slider into the green position underneath the Status column.
Step 10 - Test your workflow
Perform a test transaction to confirm the workflow works as expected.
After you’ve placed your test order, navigate back to the merchant portal, and open up your test customer profile. Confirm the success of the workflow by checking the History section. You should see the name of the workflow displayed, as well as the actions the workflow performed.
Review the customer's upcoming queued order to confirm that the swapped product is listed.
Product refills
Dynamic pricing is a popular solution for merchants looking to offer one product at checkout and refills for that product on all recurring orders (ie. the checkout product costs $40, and customers pay $10 a month to refill that product).
You can offer customers one product at the checkout with specific pricing, and then swap to a different product with a lower price point.
Follow the instructions below to offer customers refills on their products:
- Create two products in Shopify, the starter product customers check out with, and the product customers will swap to after Recharge processes the checkout order.
- Create a subscription plan for the checkout product in Recharge.
- Set the initial discount percentage to 0 if no discount should apply to the product price at checkout.
- Set the initial discount length to 0 to only apply to the checkout order.
- Set the recurring discount percentage to 0.
- Create the Recharge Workflow using the following settings:
- Trigger: Checkout order.
- Conditions: Original variant ID.
- Search: Original variant ID.
- Actions: Variant ID (the variant ID of the new product) and Price (the recurring subscription amount)
- Enable your workflow.
- Perform a test transaction to confirm that the discounted price is visible to customers at the checkout.
- Review the test order in Recharge. Use the customer's history view to confirm that the workflow was triggered. Review the customer's upcoming queued order to confirm that the swapped product is listed.
Expand this dropdown for detailed instructions to configure a refill product using dynamic pricing
Step 1 - Create two products in Shopify
You must create two products in Shopify to perform a SKU Swap:
- The first product (or starter product) that customers initially check out with
- The second product (or refill product) that the subscription switches to for the remainder of the subscription
Products are added to Recharge immediately after they are created in Shopify.
Step 2 - Create a subscription plan for the checkout product in Recharge
Configure the subscription plan and dynamic pricing for the product customers select when they initially purchase their subscription. The checkout product requires that you set an initial discount amount to display the adjusted price when customers check out:
- Select Products in your Recharge merchant portal and click Products from the dropdown.
- Search for the product you created in Shopify. Click on the product to open the product details and subscription plans information.
- Select Create plan from the Configure dropdown menu to create a Plan.
- Select Add another plan.
- Choose the plan type Subscription with dynamic pricing.
- Set your plan frequency under plan details, and add a plan name.
- Configure the discounts to dynamically price the product:
- Initial discount: Set this to 0 if no discount should apply when customers check out with the initial product.
- Initial discount length: Set this to 0 to only apply the discount to the checkout order.
- Recurring discount: Set this to the discount amount that should apply when customers receive their refill product.
- Click Done and then Save plans to add the subscription option and dynamic pricing to the product.
Step 3 - Access the Workflows tool
- Select Tools & apps from the merchant portal and click Installed apps.
- If you have not created a workflow before, locate the Workflows by Recharge integration from the Marketplace tab. Select Get to enable the integration in your store.
- If you have created a workflow before, select the Workflows by Recharge integration through the Installed tab.
Step 4 - Set up your workflow
- Select Create new workflow to begin the process of building your workflow.
- Set a name and description for your workflow to make it easier to reference in the future.
Step 5 - Configure the workflow trigger
- Select the relevant trigger to start your workflow. The trigger determines which orders the workflow properties should apply to.
- Keep the Checkout as the trigger to ensure that the workflow applies to all orders immediately after they go through the checkout.
Step 6 - Set the workflow conditions
Set the workflow Conditions to determine what order conditions must be met for the workflow to trigger. Only orders that meet the defined conditions have the workflow actions applied.
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list. Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
- Click Save conditions.
Saving your conditions ensures that the workflow properties only apply to the product of your choosing.
Step 7 - Configure the search function
The search function identifies what objects the workflow must update in the order. For example, if you have three items on an order, the search function ensures the workflow only applies to the products you specify in your workflow. Typically, the search option you set matches the condition set in Step 4.
- Select original variant id from the dropdown list.
- Use the ‘is equal to’ operator and add the variant id for the initial product.
Set the workflow actions next to update the product.
Step 8 - Set the workflow actions
Setting the workflow actions defines what will happen to the next recurring order after the workflow triggers. Add the following actions to successfully swap the product:
-
Variant ID: The action that performs the product swap by ensuring that customers receive the new product on the order processed immediately after the trigger order. Product swap actions only work if customers are swapping to a lesser-priced item.
Price: The action that changes the price on recurring orders to a lower amount than the checkout total
Follow the steps below to add the relevant actions:
- Select Variant ID (variant SKU swap) from the Actions dropdown menu.
- Enter the variant ID for the product customers will receive after Recharge processes the trigger order.
- Click add action +.
- Select Price from the Actions dropdown menu.
- Enter the product price you wish to charge customers on recurring orders.
- Click Save searches and actions when you are finished creating your workflow.
Step 9 - Enable your workflow
Navigate back to the Workflows Integration main page in the Recharge merchant portal to turn the workflow on.
Change the status of your workflow to enabled by moving the slider into the green position underneath the Status column.
Step 10 - Test your workflow
Perform a test transaction to confirm the workflow works as expected.
After you’ve placed your test order, navigate back to the merchant portal, and open up your test customer profile. Confirm the success of the workflow by checking the History section. You should see the name of the workflow displayed, as well as the actions the workflow performed.
Open the customer's upcoming queued order to confirm that the refill product is listed as their upcoming product.
Considerations
Product pricing
Due to Shopify’s order creation process, you cannot set the cost of the recurring product to an amount higher than the checkout product when creating your products in Shopify (ie. customers cannot check out with a $20 product and then swap to a $40 recurring product).
As a workaround, set the checkout product price in Shopify to a specific amount, and then apply the initial discount outlined in Step 2 to discount the product price at the checkout (ie. if the checkout product is set to $40, you would need to set the initial discount amount to 50% in Recharge if you want customers to pay $20 when they initially checkout with the product). This product cannot be available as a one-time purchase.
Subscription frequency
You may want to offer a 14-day trial, and then have customers switch to the regular subscription frequency. While this offering is possible, the details of the subscription will not display correctly at the checkout.
You can update the description of the product that customers see on the storefront to account for this discrepancy. Alternatively, you could offer a trial period that is a multiple of the subscription frequency (ie. if your customers receive products every 1 month, you could set the trial period to a 2-month free trial to align with the billing frequency).
Setting dynamic pricing for specific subscription frequencies
You will need to be considerate of your set-up if you have multiple plans attached to a product, but only want dynamic pricing to apply to specific subscription frequencies. Workflows using the variant ID as a condition target all orders that contain the variant ID. You must further define your conditions if dynamic pricing should only apply to some plans for a product but not all.
You can accomplish this by using the price condition and price search options to further target specific orders. For example, if you have two plans for one product, one for a 2-week frequency and one for a 4-week frequency, and dynamic pricing only applies to the 2-week frequency, calculate the order price for the 2-week frequency variant once the discount is applied. Use this calculated price as the price condition so that the workflow only looks for orders that contain the variant ID listed, and match the price listed.
Offering dynamic pricing for plans with different recurring discount percentages
You must create multiple workflows to accommodate different discount prices for different frequencies. For example, if a 2-week frequency has a recurring discount of 10%, and a 4-week frequency has a recurring discount of 20%, you would need to create two workflows that have different recurring discount price amounts set as the workflow action.
To ensure that the workflow applies to the correct order, use the price condition and pricesearch options to further target specific orders. Calculate the order price for each frequency once the discount is applied. Use this calculated price as the price condition and search so that the workflow only looks for orders that contain the variant ID listed, and match the price listed.
Additional considerations
- Dynamic pricing is not compatible with dynamically priced bundles
- The dynamic pricing amount resets if you or a customer swap the product variant. You must manually update the product price if the customer should still receive the dynamic pricing amount.
- You cannot swap a product that is configured with dynamic pricing to another product with dynamic pricing. You will see an error message
This combination is not available for purchase. Please select a different set of options.- Consider adding additional plans that are not utilizing dynamic pricing to allow for product swap.
- If adding additional plans that are not utilizing dynamic pricing, be sure to set the product plan settings to not available on the Storefront widget.
