Restricting Subscriptions Explained
Restricting the number of subscriptions a customer can have is a powerful tool for merchants. This feature helps you control the number of active subscriptions per customer, providing better management over your subscription offerings. It's particularly useful for:
Exclusive Products: Preventing one customer from hoarding all available subscriptions.
Spam Prevention: Limiting the number of subscriptions to reduce the risk of unwanted or fraudulent sign-ups.
Simplifying Subscription Management: Ensuring customers are only able to subscribe to the right plans and preventing unnecessary purchases.
By using these restrictions, you can maintain a smooth and fair experience for your customers.
How to Set Up Subscription Restrictions
Follow these steps to configure Subscription Number Restrictions for your store:
Navigate to Subscription Settings
Go to the More section in your Appstle Subscriptions dashboard.
Click on Shop Settings.
Scroll to the Subscription Limits section.
Enable Subscription Restrictions
Turn on the toggle for Limit Subscription per Customer.
Choose Your Restriction Behavior
Once the setting is enabled, you can select one of the following behaviors for subscriptions:
One Subscription Total (Active or Cancelled): Customers can only have one subscription in total (regardless of its status—active, paused, or canceled).
One Active Subscription Total: Customers can have multiple subscriptions, but only one active subscription. They may also have any number of paused or canceled subscriptions.
One Subscription Per Frequency Type: Customers can have multiple subscriptions, as long as each subscription has a different frequency (e.g., monthly, bi-monthly). The status does not impact this restriction.
One Active Subscription Per Frequency Type: Customers can have multiple subscriptions, but only one active subscription for each frequency. This allows for different active subscriptions as long as each one is linked to a unique frequency.
4. Save Your Settings
After selecting the restriction behavior that works best for your store, click Save at the top of the page.
5. Activate Checkout Validation
To ensure these restrictions are applied at checkout, click on Click here to turn on the extension to add checkout validation rules to your Shopify store.
6. Set Checkout Rules
From the Checkout Settings menu, scroll to the Checkout Rules section and select Add Rule.
Choose Subscriptions Validations to apply the newly configured rules, then click Save..
7. Activate the Rule
Finally, click Turn On to activate the rule in your checkout process. This will enforce the selected subscription restrictions during the checkout flow.
Example Use Cases for Subscription Restrictions
Here are some common scenarios where subscription restrictions are particularly useful:
Only Allowing Swaps or Additions
Use Case: A merchant wants to ensure customers only buy one active subscription and prevent accidental or unauthorized purchases of multiple subscriptions.
How It Works: By using the One Subscription Total restriction behavior, the system will block checkout if a customer attempts to buy another subscription. This forces the customer to use the Customer Portal to make any adjustments to their subscriptions.
Limiting Exclusive Purchases
Use Case: A merchant wants to ensure an exclusive product is fairly distributed and doesn’t end up in the hands of a single customer.
How It Works: By enabling the One Subscription Total restriction, the merchant can prevent a customer from buying more than one subscription for the exclusive product, thus maintaining fairness and availability for all customers.
Avoiding Duplicate Subscriptions
Use Case: Merchants want to prevent customers from accidentally purchasing the same subscription more than once.
How It Works: Any of the restriction behaviors can be used to block duplicate subscriptions. For example, if a customer attempts to buy the same product on the same frequency again, the system will prompt them to manage their subscriptions instead.
If you need assistance with setting up subscription restrictions, configuring checkout rules, or any other feature, feel free to reach out to Appstle Subscriptions Support. Our team is available 24/7 to assist you with any questions or challenges you may encounter.
Contact: support@appstle.com