What the login page does
Your customer portal has a built-in login page. Customers who are not signed in can type in their email address and receive a secure link that takes them straight to their subscriptions — no password and no account required.
Adding that page to your store menu is the simplest way to make subscriptions easy to find. Customers who are already signed in go directly to their portal; everyone else gets the login page.
Before you start
In your Appstle admin, go to Customer Portal Settings → Customer Portal Login. The card at the top of that tab shows everything you need:
Status — confirms the login page is live for your store, or tells you exactly what is missing.
Your login page link — copy it from here rather than typing it by hand.
Preview page — opens the page exactly as your customers see it.
If the status is anything other than Live, follow the action shown on the card first. The most common cause is that Allow customers to manage their subscriptions without login has not been switched on yet.
Setting up your menu item
The first step in adding a new menu item is clicking on Sales channels from within your Shopify admin. Next you'll need to select your Online Store, and then click Navigation. This will bring you to the following screen below.
Now you'll have to decide where you want this new menu item to be displayed. After doing so click on the corresponding menu title to move on to the next step. In this example we'll be using our Main menu.
At this point you'll be brought to the screen below, which is where you'll add your menu item. Start by clicking Add menu item, which will prompt the popup on the right side of your screen.
Now it's time to give your menu item a name. In this example we've decided to use Manage Subscriptions. All that's left to do is paste your login page link into the lower field. If you are typing it manually, enter /apps/subscriptions exactly as written. Make sure to click Save menu once you're done.
Using this approach you can also place the link anywhere in your shop, not just in Navigation — your footer, your order confirmation emails, or a reply to a customer asking how to change their next order.
What will my customers see?
If you've followed the steps above, you've successfully added a new menu item to your store that will allow your customers to manage their subscriptions.
If your customer is logged in they'll be brought right to their customer portal. If not they'll see the screen below, where they can enter their email and receive a secure link which will then take them to their customer portal.
The wording on this page is yours to change. You'll find every label under Customer Portal Settings → Labels, and the wording of the email itself under Customer Portal Settings → Customer Portal Login.
If the login page doesn't appear
Open Customer Portal Settings → Customer Portal Login and read the status on the card. It will tell you which of the following applies.
Off — Allow customers to manage their subscriptions without login is switched off, so signed-out visitors see a message instead of the login form. Use the Turn on button on the card.
Action needed — the page loads, but the Subscription Management Link notification is switched off, so the email never reaches your customer. Switch it back on from the card.
Not available — your store uses Shopify's new customer accounts. Signed-out visitors are sent to Shopify's own login page instead of this form, and the link still takes signed-in customers to their subscriptions.
One more thing worth knowing: the email is only sent to addresses that already have a subscription with your store. If a customer enters an address you have no subscription for, they'll be told the address wasn't found rather than receiving a link.
Still stuck? Reach out to us any time and we'll take a look with you.