Important Notes:

• This feature is currently available to select sellers at this time. If you are interested in enabling this feature, please reach out to your account manager.
• The product subscriptions feature is now available in our TikTok for Shopify app. For more details, read our TikTok for Shopify feature guide here.

What is Product Subscriptions?

Product Subscriptions is a new feature (available for some but coming soon for all!) that allows sellers to offer an extra 5%, 10%, 15%, or 20% discounts to customers who subscribe to repeat purchases vs. a one-time purchase of select products. Providing discounts for repeat purchases can provide sellers with increased revenue, a predictable stream of revenue through repeat sales, and increased customer retention and loyalty.The Product Subscriptions feature is currently limited to the following 8 categories:

• Beauty
• Food & Beverages
• Health
• Home Supplies
• Personal Care
• Pet Supplies
• Automotive & Motorcycle (the following sub-categories only):
  • Car Interior Accessories
  • Car Washing & Maintenance
  • Auto Replacement Parts
• Fashion (the following sub-categories only):
  • Women's Underwear
  • Men's Underwear & Socks
  • Clothes Accessories

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Setting Up Subscriptions

How to Activate Subscriptions

You can enable Product Subscriptions for your products using Seller Center on the Desktop.

1. Navigate to Manage Products
   
2. Find the product that you would like to activate subscriptions. In the action column, hover over More and select Set subscription from the options
   
3. Toggle Activate product subscription
   
4. Set the discount rate for this item and check the acknowledgement of free shipping on subscription product. Click Confirm.
   
5. Receive confirmation that subscription was activated. (Confirmation will appear as a small pop up)
   

Alternatively, you can also edit a subscription through the promotions page. Marketing -> Promotions -> Product subscription -> create -> select products -> agree and publishReminder: Please make sure you check the box under Promotion terms, agreeing that you will offer free shipping on subscription products

How to Edit Subscriptions

Once you've set up a Product Subscription discount, you are able to edit the discount in place.

Option 1: From the "Promotions" Page

Important Note: Using this method of editing existing product subscriptions allows you to either lower or raise the subscription amount you offer to shoppers.

1. Navigate to Seller Center
2. Click on Marketing and then select Promotions from the drop-down menu
3. Select the Manage promotions tab towards the top of the page
   
4. Find the product subscription you wish to edit and click on the promotion name

Note: you can filter by "Product subscription" as a promotional tool to make this easier

5. From here, you are able to edit the subscription discount you are offering to be higher or lower.
   

Important note: If you are lowering the offered Standard Subscription Discount, you will be warned that this discount may differ across subscribed sellers. The updated Standard Subscription Discount rate will only apply to new subscribers that come after the update is published. Any existing subscribers will still continue to re-purchase with the original, higher discount offered before the discount was lowered.

• Note that First Order Discounts apply to new subscribers only. When updated, all new subscribers will receive the new discount, while existing subscribers are not affected, as this discount only applies to the first order.
• With Standard Subscription Discounts (i.e. recurring discounts) however:
  • Standard discount increases apply to all existing and new subscribers.
  • Standard discount decreases apply to new subscribers only; existing subscribers keep their original discount.
    
• See the Example Scenario below for more information on how lowering a discount works with different sellers.
  

6. Finish editing and remember to click save at the top.
7. After saving and publishing, the updated discounts will take effect.

Option 2: From the "Manage Products" Page

Important Note: Currently, you can only raise (i.e. edit to a higher number) the Standard Subscription discount you offer to shoppers through this option

1. Navigate to Seller Center
2. Click on Products from the left hand navigation > stay on the Manage Products option
3. Find the product whose subscription settings you would like to edit. In the action column, hover over More and select Set subscription
   
   
4. Click Edit.

Note: You can only increase the recurring, standard discount (e.g. 10% to 15%), not decrease the discount.

5. Select your preferred discount rate and click OK.
6. Again, please note that if you need to lower the Standard Subscription Discount (i.e. the recurring discount offered to subscribers), you will need to do this using Option 1 through the Promotions page in Seller Center.

How to Pause Subscriptions

If a seller wants to maintain existing subscribers but make the product temporarily unavailable for new subscribers, they can opt to pause subscriptions.

1. Navigate to Manage Products
   
2. Find the product whose subscription settings you would like to pause. In the action column, hover over More and select Set subscription
   
3. Toggle off the "Activate product subscription" option
   
4. Click Pause when prompted
   

How to Deactivate Subscription

We strongly discourage deactivating a subscription. Deactivating a subscription will cancel all active subscriptions (both new and existing) for the selected product.

• The product will no longer be available for subscription on your TikTok Shop.
• New customers will not be able to subscribe.
• All existing subscribers will be unsubscribed immediately.

Important: Pause vs. Deactivation vs. Deletion

• Pause: Temporarily stop new customers from subscribing to a product. Existing subscribers will continue to receive their scheduled reorders.
• Deactivate: Turn off the subscription promotion or deactivate a subscription product. This will cancel all active subscriptions for that product. The product or promotion can be reactivated later, but canceled subscribers will not be restored.
• Delete: Permanently remove the subscription product or subscription promotion from your shop. This also permanently deletes all related subscription history. This action is irreversible - once deleted, the product/promotion and its subscriptions cannot be recovered.

We strongly advise against deactivating or deleting subscription promotions or subscription products. Both actions will cancel all active subscriptions, causing existing subscribers to lose their subscriptions and potentially creating a negative customer experience and impact on brand trust.

1. Navigate to Manage Products
   
2. Find the product whose subscription settings you would like to deactivate. In the action column, hover over the "..." (more) button and select Deactivate
   
3. Click Confirm when prompted
   

How to Delete Subscription

We strongly advise against deactivating or deleting subscription promotions or subscription products. Both actions will cancel all active subscriptions, causing existing subscribers to lose their subscriptions and potentially creating a negative customer experience and impact on brand trust.Important: Pause vs. Deactivation vs. Deletion

• Pause: Temporarily stop new customers from subscribing to a product. Existing subscribers will continue to receive their scheduled reorders.
• Deactivate: Turn off the subscription promotion or deactivate a subscription product. This will cancel all active subscriptions for that product. The product or promotion can be reactivated later, but canceled subscribers will not be restored.
• Delete: Permanently remove the subscription product or subscription promotion from your shop. This also permanently deletes all related subscription history. This action is irreversible - once deleted, the product/promotion and its subscriptions cannot be recovered.

1. Navigate to Manage Products
   
2. Find the product whose subscription settings you would like to deactivate. In the action column, hover over the "..." (more) button and select Delete
   
3. Click Confirm when prompted
   

How to Add a New Customer Discount

New Customer Discount is an exclusive discount for first-time subscribers. Discounts can be customized at any discount point that is greater than the existing offering. After the initial one-time discount, subsequent orders will occur at the standard discount.
Example: Product A has a regular discount of 10% and a New Customer Discount of 15%. A first-time subscriber will receive a 15% discount on the first order and receive 10% on future subscription re-orders.If you wish to edit (increase or decrease) an existing New Customer Discount, simply follow the same steps in the "How to Edit Subscription" section above and choose a New customer discount rate that is not lower than the recurring discount rate.

Subscription Price Protection Alerts

Important note: This feature is currently in the whitelist phase. If you would like access to this feature or need more information, please contact your Account Manager.

If a subscription product encounters large price fluctuations, our system may automatically pause subscription renewals to protect customer trust and avoid charging shoppers more than they expect. However, we know tracking this can get complex due to varying product prices as a result of promotions. To help you stay on top of things, we have a Subscription Price Protection Alert feature to protect your subscription revenue. If a product’s price fluctuates by >50%, you will receive a system email stating that the price change puts your subscriptions at risk. This alert will help you prevent mass "skips" or cancellations caused by unexpected price spikes.How it works:

• The Alert: You’ll receive an email if a price fluctuation puts your subscriptions at risk.
• The Grace Period: You’ll have 3 days to adjust the price (either via your list price or promotional settings).
  • If the price remains above the 50% threshold for five consecutive replenishment cycles, the order and any affected subscriptions will be automatically canceled.
• The Result: Staying below the 50% price difference range ensures your recurring orders ship on time and keeps your customer trust high.

Managing SKU Changes

To maintain a seamless experience for your subscribers, it is critical to maintain SKU data when making updates to a product listing. Whenever you add or delete sales attributes (e.g. size, color, material), the system generates a brand-new SKU ID. Because subscription orders are tied to the specific SKU ID the shopper originally purchased, these changes can cause subscription orders to fail or be automatically cancelled.
To prevent this, product subscriptions now guardrails -- a pop-up warning and a mapping tool within the SKU list during the product editing process. By selecting the original SKU from the dropdown menu, you create a digital bridge that redirects existing subscriptions to the new SKU ID. This ensures that your customers continue to receive their subscription orders on schedule and your recurring revenue remains uninterrupted, even as your product catalog evolves.

Seller Analytics Dashboard

The Subscriptions Analytics Dashboard is designed to give sellers deeper visibility into their subscription performance. This powerful tool offers key metrics at a glance, including Active subscriptions, New vs. Recurring GMV, and Customer Retention Rate. With these insights, sellers can better understand customer behavior, optimize subscription strategies, and drive long-term growth.

Subscription Frequency Analysis

The updated Subscriptions Analytics Dashboard now gives sellers a comprehensive view of all active subscription PIDs. It includes valuable insights such as the most selected order frequency, churn rate, and counts of new vs. recurring subscriptions. These metrics help sellers forecast inventory more accurately and respond more effectively to customer demand.

FAQs