How to create an Upcoming order email

The Upcoming order email is a customizable flow that notifies customers about upcoming subscription orders and lets them take action directly from the email, without logging in to their customer portal.

This guide walks you through creating, testing, and activating an Upcoming order email flow.

Video instructions

Review the video below for detailed instructions on configuring an Upcoming order email flow:

Step 1 - Create the flow

1. Click Email in the merchant portal and select Upcoming order email in the featured templates.
2. Click Create new to start building the flow.

Step 2 - Review the Trigger node

The trigger node determines when the flow begins. By default, customers receive the Upcoming order email three days before their upcoming order. While you cannot edit the trigger node for this flow, you can edit when you send the upcoming order notification in the Upcoming order email Settings tab.

Step 3 - Customize the notification

Customize the notification

Use the Notification node to customize the upcoming order email:

1. In the notification you want to edit, click the Notification node.
2. Use your default language, or select a language from the Language drop-down menu to translate the notification.
3. Update the Sender name, Sender email, and Subject line.
4. Click Edit email body to review the existing notification. Recharge provides a template that inherits your store’s global styles. You can update the email code to change the styling or notification text, or you can create personalized notification content and add images to customize the layout.
5. Click Apply to save changes.

When editing the notification, keep the existing variables in place (or add your own) to display dynamic details like the customer’s name, upcoming order date, and order items. See Include variables in your notifications for a list of variables you can use when designing your Upcoming order notification.

Add quick actions

1. Click Add a quick action and select either Delay or Cross-sell from the drop-down menu. This allows customers to delay an order or add products directly from the email through one-click landing pages.
   • Delay options: Display preset delay options (e.g., +7 or +14 days) and/or a calendar view so customers can delay their order to a future date.
   • Cross-sell: Offer cross-sell products that complement the customer’s existing products. You can use Recharge collections that include multiple products, with up to four displayed at a time, and rotated dynamically. Customers can add cross-sell products as one-time purchases or subscriptions, with optional discounts that stack with existing subscription discounts.

Customize the landing page

Click the Customize landing page button to open the page builder and personalize the upcoming order notification. You can customize each type of quick action included in this flow:

1. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Delay.
2. Select a page to customize. 
3. Use the Sections panel to update layout, content, and branding.
    
4. Use the Edit global styles, colors, and layout section to make visual changes to your landing page template, or add a store logo to include in the upcoming order email. Note that changes made here apply to other landing pages you may use, such as with Win Backs or Cancellation Prevention flows.
5. Click Apply to save your conditions.

Optional - Add additional nodes to the existing canvas

While Recharge provides a prebuilt flow, you can add nodes to the canvas to further customize it. You can add the following nodes to the flow:

• A/B Test node: Use the A/B test node to test upcoming order email designs to understand which designs resonate most with customers.
• Conditional branch node: Use this node to create multiple branches in the flow, with customers meeting specified conditions to receive a specific notification.

Step 4 - Manage settings

Click Manage settings to rename the flow and add a description. See Settings for additional details. These settings cannot be altered after activating the flow.

Step 5 - Test flow

Test your flow before activation to confirm that the email appears as intended:

1. Click the vertical-dot menu at the top of the page. 
2. Select Test flow. 
3. Enter your test customer’s email address and click Search customer. Your test customer must have an active upcoming order for this to work as intended.
4. Select your test customer and click Run flow. 
5. Review the test email.

Optional - Update your notification settings

Recharge sends notifications three days before the customer’s charge date by default. You can keep this setting as is, or choose how many days in advance to send the notification:

1. Select Email from the merchant portal and click Upcoming order email.
2. Click Settings. 
3. Adjust the number of days set. 
4. Click Save settings.

This is a global setting. Not only does it change when Recharge sends the upcoming order email, it also affects other notifications/events such as:

• When Recharge sends a legacy upcoming charge notification
• When Recharge sends the Order upcoming on Recharge metric to Klaviyo
• When an order triggers the charge/upcoming webhook

Step 6 - Save and activate the flow

1. Click Save in the top right.
2. Click Activate to begin sending the new email flow.

Delivery timing and link expiration

Customers will receive the Upcoming order email upon activation. Links included in the notification remain valid until the charge is processed, or may be delayed based on the customer's actions. Links expire after the charge is processed or after a specified delay, and Recharge communicates this to customers via a landing page if they attempt to interact with an expired link. 

Recharge queues upcoming order emails at 1:00 PM ET, three days before the scheduled charge date. Emails typically begin sending at 7:00 PM ET, so it’s normal for emails to appear as queued for several hours before they are processed.

Analytics

See Upcoming Order email analytics for detailed descriptions of the available analytics.

Delivery logs

Use the Upcoming Order Email - Activity tab to see whether a customer has received and opened the Upcoming Order email. From this page, you can also enter a customer’s email address to see when Recharge sent the notification.

Click the up arrow to export the Activity tab as a CSV file. See Upcoming order email activity export (CSV) for detailed descriptions of each column.

Customer-specific events timeline

To review the details for a specific customer, click the three-dot icon to the right of their row and select View events timeline. This displays a breakdown of the email activity for that instance.

If there are no logged events, the customer either did not open the message or their email client/browser has privacy protection features enabled that prevent open activity from being tracked.

Considerations

Consider the following when using an Upcoming order email flow: