How to set up Shopify customer accounts with your Recharge customer portal

Shopify’s customer accounts support subscription management, allowing customers to manage their subscriptions directly from their Shopify accounts. Shopify’s customer accounts work with all of Recharge’s available customer portals.

This guide explains how to install extensions in Shopify to use Shopify’s customer accounts with the Recharge customer portal.

How it works

You must install four extensions in your Shopify theme to ensure Shopify’s customer accounts work with your Recharge customer portal:

• The Subscription page extension: A full-page extension that lists the customer's subscriptions on the account page
• The Upcoming Orders extension: An in-line extension added to the orders page that lets customers view and manage their next order
• The Payment Methods extension: An in-line extension added to the Profile page that lets customers assign a specific payment method to their subscriptions
• The Addresses extension: An in-line extension added to the Profile page that allows customers to manage their subscription addresses.

Rewards users

If you use Rewards, there is a fifth extension you must install to ensure customers can view and manage their Rewards in the customer portal:

• The Credits page extension: A full-page extension that lists any available credits, referral links, or cross-sell offers

Set-up instructions

Step 1 - Access your theme

1. Select Online Store under Sales Channel in your Shopify admin.
2. Click the Edit button next to your theme.
3. Click Home Page at the top of the screen to access the Pages drop-down menu.
4. Select Checkout and customer accounts from the drop-down menu.

Step 2 - Add the extensions to your customer account page

1. Select the square box icon on the left-hand navigation menu to access the Apps page.
2. Locate the Recharge Subscriptions section.
3. Click the plus icon next to Subscriptions and select Accounts to add the Subscriptions full page extension.
4. Click Add to menu to create a menu item customers can click to access the Subscriptions page. Save your menu changes and exit from the page.
5. Click the plus icon next to Upcoming Orders and select Orders to add the inline extension to the Orders page.
6. Click the plus icon next to Payment Methods and select Profile to add the inline extension to the Profile page.
7. Click the plus icon next to Addresses and select Profile to add the inline extension to the Profile page.
8. Click Save.

Optional - Add the Credits page extension

Add the Credits page extension to the customer account page if you use Rewards to offer Credits and referral links to your customers:

1. Select the square box icon on the left-hand navigation menu to access the Apps page.
2. Locate the Recharge Subscriptions section.
3. Click the plus icon next to Credits to add the Credits page extension.
4. Click Add to menu to create a menu item customers can click to access the Credits page. Save your menu changes and exit from the page.
5. Click Save.

Step 3 - Customize your theme

You can use Shopify's theme editor to adjust fonts, colors (ie. links, buttons, error messages), and backgrounds (ie. form fields, cards, and images) if you use the Integrated customer portal, or Affinity:

1. Select the gear icon from the left-hand navigation menu to access the Settings page.
2. Update the appearance settings. See Customizing your online store using the theme editor for more information. 
3. Save your changes.

Step 4 - Confirm your store uses customer accounts

Review your Shopify settings before enabling the portal:

1. Go to Settings in your Shopify admin.
2. Click Customer accounts in the navigation menu.
3. Enable the Customer accounts feature if you haven't already.

Optional - Update the menu item in Shopify

You can update or remove the Subscriptions menu that appears on the Customer Account page in your Shopify admin:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin.
2. Select Content and click Menus.
3. Select Customer account main menu. 
4. Click on the Subscriptions menu to update the menu label, or click the trash can to remove the menu item.

If the Subscriptions menu does not appear on the account page, you can add it here:

1. Click Add menu item.
2. Add a Label for the menu item.
3. Select Apps in the Links drop-down menu, and select Subscriptions

Step 5 - Test your configuration

Test your extensions before making them live to customers to ensure they function as expected. To test this feature you must have an active account with active subscriptions.

1. Log in to your test account on your Shopify storefront.
2. Confirm the Upcoming order, Payment methods, and (optional) Credits extensions appear as expected.
3. Access your Recharge admin in a separate tab.
4. To preview the subscription management experience:
   1. Select Customer Portal under Storefront.
   2. Click the Preview theme link under your selected customer portal theme to open the customer portal.
      • Note that previewing the Affinity theme takes you to the standalone Affinity customer portal, which is not embedded within Shopify’s customer accounts. This is the experience customers see when they click View and manage order or Subscriptions from their Shopify account.
5. Click Save.