Use the Trial to Subscription Automate template to offer customers a trial version of the product at a discounted price. After the initial order, seamlessly transition customers’ subscriptions so that they receive the actual product at its full price.

This guide explains how to set up an automated Trial to subscription experience, which provides customers with flexibility and a frictionless subscription experience.

Before you start

• Automate is available to merchants on Recharge Pro or Custom plans. To learn more about eligibility and pricing, visit the Recharge Pricing page or contact a Recharge sales representative.

How it works

Offer customers a trial version of their product, and then automatically swap the trial product to a subscription. The Trial to subscription automated experience automatically swaps the customer’s subscription from the trial kit to a different product after a set number of days, so that customers can try the product before committing to it.

The Trial to subscription automated experience template uses the Conditional Branch node, where you select the product customers purchase to trigger the automation.

When you add a branch to the template, a subscription node is assigned to each branch. The Subscription node defines the action in the automated experience, in this case, swapping the trial product to the recurring product for all recurring orders. Customers receive the recurring subscription products on every order until they cancel their subscriptions.

Example

A company selling protein powder offers a 14-day free trial of its famous protein powder. The company uses the Trial to subscription automated experience to offer two products: a 14-day free trial of the protein powder upfront and a 30-day supply that customers are charged for immediately after their 14-day free trial and receive on a recurring basis.

Recharge designed the Trial to subscription automated experience so that you can make online shopping convenient for your customers. This allows them to try your products before they commit to receiving them on subscription.

The Trial to subscription automated experience is designed to set your customers up for success. It provides everything they need to get started while streamlining the process for ongoing orders.

Step 1 - Create your products in Shopify and add subscription plans

Create two products in Shopify: the trial product, and the recurring subscription product.

Create the products in Shopify, and add a subscription plan to both in Recharge:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin and add the new products:
   • Free trial product: Create the free trial product with discounted pricing to encourage customers to participate in the trial.
   • Subscription product: The product that the customer receives on a recurring basis after finishing the trial.
     • Tip: To prevent customer confusion, Recharge recommends keeping the products unpublished in Shopify until you’ve activated the automated experience.
2. After creating the products in Shopify, navigate to your Recharge merchant admin and select Products from the Products menu.
3. Locate the new products from the product list, and add a subscription plan.

Step 2 - Create the automated experience

Create the Trial to subscription automated experience in your Recharge merchant portal:

1. From the merchant portal, click Products and select Automate.
2. Select Create from template under Trial to subscription, and click Get started!
3. Select Manage settings to add a title and a description.

You can now access the flow canvas and build the automated experience. This experience uses a standard template designed by Recharge.

You cannot change the Trigger and Smart loop nodes by default. For more information on each node, see Flow nodes.

Step 3 - Configure the Conditional Branch node

Create multiple branches for the automated experience using the Conditional Branch node, which assigns customers to specific branches based on the product they’re subscribed to. The default Kit unpacking template has two branches, Branch 1 and Else:

• Branch 1: This branch checks if the customer’s order contains a specific product. If the customer is subscribed to the product, the automated experience is applied.

• Branch 2: This branch checks if the customer’s order contains a specific product. If the customer is subscribed to the product, the automated experience is applied.

• Else: This branch checks if the customer’s order does not contain the specified product. If the customer is not subscribed to the product, the automated experience is not applied.

You can either use the default template and configure both branches or simplify it by removing Branch 2 and keeping only Branch 1:

1. Select the Conditional Branch node on the flow canvas.
2. Optional: Click the trash can icon next to Branch 2 to remove it if necessary.
3. Click on the pencil icon next to Branch 1 to edit the branch.
4. Add a Branch name.
5. Select Line Item from the object dropdown menu.
6. Select Variant from the attribute dropdown menu.
7. Select Equals, Doesn’t equal, or Only equals from the operator dropdown menu.
8. Click + Add product to select the product that Recharge needs to look for when processing the order.
9. Search for the product, select it, and click Apply.
10. Click Apply to save your configuration.

You should now have at least two branches configured on the template, one for customers who purchase the starter kit, and one branch for customers who do not.

Step 4 - Configure the Subscription node

The Subscription node swaps the customer’s trial product to the recurring subscription product.

Update the Subscription node to set the automated action:

1. Select the Subscription node on the flow canvas.
2. Choose the Swap action to swap the trial product to the subscription product.
3. Click +Add product to select the subscription product.
4. Set the subscription properties, such as the order frequency, product price, quantity, and product and variant title. You can also add a frequency, order, or date-based delay to delay the charge date for the next recurring order, where the customer receives the new product for the first time. For example. if you offer a 14-day free trial, add an order-based delay so that the next order triggers 14 days after the first.
   Click Apply to save your changes.

After a customer purchases the initial product product and starts the automated experience, the Subscription node swaps the inital trial product with the selected subscription product for the customer's upcoming order. These updates stay active until you or the customer change the subscription.

Optional - Add additional actions to the canvas

Review the list of additional nodes under Canvas actions to see how you can further customize the experience. For example, you can use the A/B test node to compare different products and determine which is most effective in reducing customer churn.

While these actions are not required, they can be beneficial. For example, using the Segment node and segmenting customers who enter a specific branch can help you monitor customer behavior and determine the effectiveness of the automated experience.

Step 5 - Set your products to active in Shopify

Make sure your products are available for purchase:

1. Set the product status to Active for both products.
2. Set the inital trial product to available on your online store.

Step 6 - Save and test the automated experience

You can test the automated experience before activating it to ensure it works as intended:

1. Click Save in the top-right corner.
2. Click the three vertical dot menu and select Test flow.
3. Select your test customer from the Target customer menu. This customer must already be subscribed to the initial kit.
4. Click Run flow and confirm that the flow performs as expected.

Step 7 - Activate the experience

Select Activate in the top right corner to enable the experience.

Once you activate the experience, Recharge will review all orders and apply the automated experience to eligible orders.

Considerations

Resources

Getting started

• Getting started with Automate

Additional template set-up instructions

• How to set up a Kit unpacking automated experience
• How to set up a Starter pack to refill swap automated experience
• How to set up an Ongoing sequence automated experience
• How to set up a Fixed sequence automated experience
• How to set up a Welcome offer automated experience
• How to set up a Scheduled quarterly shipments experience