Frequency Swap Automation allows you to automatically change the renewal frequency of subscription plans over time. It is best used if you offer multiple variants of a subscription plan and want to update customers’ subscriptions to a different frequency after a certain period.

You can find it in:
​More → Product & Frequency Swap Automation → Frequency Swap Automation

Scenario: You run a subscription business for skincare products:

You want new customers to start with the Quarterly Plan after their first month. This allows them to try the product for a month and, if they like it, continue with a longer-term plan.

Frequency Swap Automation can automatically move customers from the 1-month plan to the 3-month plan after the first billing cycle, saving you the manual work of adjusting each subscription.

Another example:

Example: To update customers’ subscriptions immediately upon their first purchase, select after 1st billing.

As a quick example, let’s say you run two variants of a subscription plan for a product, a 1-month plan and a 3-month plan. You wish to make it so that customers who purchased a 1-month plan will be put on the 3-month plan after it expires.

Step 1: After clicking to create swap automation in this section, give your cycle a name, preferably something intuitive with the plans you will cycle between.

Step 2: Once that is done, select your source and destination frequencies below.

Step 3: You can use the toggle to apply the automation to all orders. Toggling it on means that as long as a subscription is active, whenever our system detects a subscription order having the source frequency, the next time the subscription renews, the product will be updated to the destination frequency. Toggling it off means that this same behavior will only apply for the specific billing cycle you choose, configurable in this dropdown menu here.

For our example, since we wish to update customers’ subscriptions to another variant immediately upon purchase, we will select after 1st billing.

Step 4: Hit Save when you are done. If you have any other frequency swaps you wish to set up, repeat the steps outlined above.

Step 5: To test, go to your storefront, go to the subscription product page with the variants in question, and conduct a test purchase.

Step 6: Once the order has been processed, return to your Appstle dashboard, navigate to Subscriptions, and click the subscription ID number corresponding to your test purchase to be taken to the merchant portal.

Here, in order frequency, you can see that it reads as 3months, aka, the frequency renewal of the plan to be swapped to.

In the Upcoming Orders tab, you can see that in months from the initial order, renewals are in 3-month intervals. This means everything has been set up properly.

Note: Please be aware that the frequency swap automation functionality does not distinguish between specific frequency plans. If you have multiple subscription plans that have the same source and destination frequencies as what you entered when configuring, the automation will apply to all of them, which could potentially lead to some unintended swaps, depending on your specific situation. If you are ever in doubt, having only one subscription plan with these frequencies may be the safest way to approach things.

Appstle offers world-class customer support for installation, troubleshooting, and strategy.

📧 Email: support@appstle.com
💬 Live Chat: Available directly inside the Appstle app.

Our experts are available 24×7×365 to support your business.