Cancellation Management controls what a member sees after they choose to cancel in the member portal. You can let them cancel right away, show your own instructions, or run a retention flow that asks why they are leaving and can offer a discount or a pause. Use it to keep members who only need a break or a better price, and to learn why the others leave.
Availability: Cancellation Management is included in the Business plan and above. On other plans, the flow types and the Cancellation Message are locked, and a note under them names the plan to upgrade to.
Open Cancellation Management
In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Appstle℠ Memberships.
Click More, then Cancellation Management under General Settings.
Choose a flow type and set it up, as described below.
Click Save in the bar at the top of the page. Your change applies to all members straight away.
Choose a flow type
Under Cancellation Flow Type, pick what members see when they try to cancel:
Flow type | What members see |
Cancel Immediately | A confirmation and a cancel button. One confirmation ends the membership. This is the default. |
Provide Cancellation Instructions | Your instructions, with no cancel button. You or your team finish the cancellation. |
Member Retention Flow | A list of reasons to choose from. Depending on the reason, they can accept a discount or a pause, or cancel anyway. |
The Member Retention Flow is the one to use if you want to keep members. It also tells you why members leave.
Show your own cancellation instructions
Under Cancellation Flow Type, choose Provide Cancellation Instructions.
In Cancellation Instructions, write what a member should do to cancel. For example: “To cancel, send us a message through the chat on our Contact page. Include the email you used at checkout.”
Click Save.
The field accepts plain text or basic HTML: links (use the full web address), bold, italics, headings and lists. It can’t be empty.
Set up a Member Retention Flow
Choose Member Retention Flow under Cancellation Flow Type. Three more sections appear: Cancellation Reasons, Retention Actions Configuration (only when a reason offers a discount or a pause) and Cancellation Message.
Add cancellation reasons
Each reason is one choice in the list members see. Add the reasons you hear most, such as “Too expensive” or “Taking a break”.
In Reason, type the wording members will see.
In Additional Feedback, choose Yes to show a feedback box, or No to hide it.
If you chose Yes, set Feedback Required to Optional or Required. With Required, members can’t continue until they have written something.
Choose a Cancel Action (see the table below).
In Retention Message, write what members see when they pick this reason. Offer Discount and Pause Membership fill in a message you can edit. If you change the Cancel Action later, it replaces what you wrote.
Click Add More Reason to add the next one.
Use Up and Down on a reason to change the order of the list, and Delete to remove it. You need at least one reason, and each one needs its own wording: two reasons that differ only in capitals or spaces can’t both be saved.
Choose what each reason does
The Cancel Action decides what a member can do after picking that reason:
Cancel Action | What happens |
None | Members see your retention message, if you wrote one, and can cancel. Use it for reasons where you only want to listen. |
Offer Discount | Members see your offer and can click Accept to stay with a percentage off. They can still cancel. |
Pause Membership | Members see your offer and can click Pause Membership to pause instead of cancelling. They can still cancel. |
For Offer Discount, enter the percentage in Cancel Discount. Leave Select Plan empty to offer the discount to members of every plan, or select the plans whose members can take it. Members of other plans can’t take it: depending on their member portal, they either don’t see this reason or see an error when they click Accept.
In Retention Message you can use these placeholders. Each one is replaced with the member’s details:
{{customerName}}: the member’s full name.
{{customerFirstName}}: the member’s first name.
{{customerLastName}}: the member’s last name.
{{cancelDiscount}}: the discount percentage. Available for Offer Discount only.
Set the discount and pause lengths
When at least one reason offers a discount or a pause, Retention Actions Configuration appears. It sets how long each offer lasts:
Discount length (billing cycles): shown when a reason offers a discount. Enter how many renewals get the discount (1 or more). If you leave it empty, the discount stays on every renewal, unless Recurring Cycle Limit On Cancellation Discount is set in Member Portal labels.
Pause length (billing cycles): shown when a reason offers a pause. Enter how many renewals the pause lasts before the membership resumes. Enter 0, or leave it empty, to pause until the membership is resumed.
Let members choose 1 to N billing cycles: appears when the pause length is more than 1. Tick it to let members pick a pause of 1 up to your pause length. Leave it unticked to give every member the full pause length.
Write the cancellation message
Cancellation Message is optional. Members see it above the list of reasons when they start to cancel, so use it to say something kind or to name your best reason to stay.
It accepts plain text or basic HTML: links (use the full web address), bold, italics, headings and lists. It shows only with the Member Retention Flow.
What members see
In their Shopify customer account, a member who selects the cancel button on their membership sees a Cancel Membership window. With the Member Retention Flow it shows your cancellation message, the Select Cancellation Reason list, the retention message for the reason they pick, and a feedback box if that reason has one.
Accept appears for reasons that offer a discount. The discount is added to their membership straight away.
Pause Membership appears for reasons that offer a pause. The membership pauses for the length you set. If you let members choose, they also pick how many billing cycles to pause for.
Cancel Membership is always there. After a last confirmation, the membership is cancelled.
If your store uses legacy customer accounts, members cancel in the member portal on your online store instead. It offers the same choices, but there the pause offer’s button also reads Accept.
To change the wording of these buttons and labels, or of the last confirmation message, go to More → Customizations → Member Portal labels.
See why members cancel
On the Memberships page, the Cancelled tab shows each member’s reason in the Cancellation Reason column. Open a cancelled membership to see the reason and any feedback in its Cancellation Reason card.
To see every reason members picked, including members who took a discount or paused instead, click Reports → Retention Activities on the same page.
Things to know
While a membership has the cancellation discount, the reasons that offer a discount are hidden from that member, so they can’t take it twice.
In the customer account, if you have only one reason, it is already selected when the window opens.
Members can’t cancel before the minimum number of renewals in the plan’s Cancellation Policy, except during a free trial. See Create a membership plan.
Membership Timing Restrictions in More → Customizations → Member Portal Settings can stop members from cancelling or pausing close to their next order date, or allow it only close to that date.
When you cancel a membership yourself from its page, you can choose one of these reasons and add a note.
FAQs
Why can’t a member cancel?
Check three settings: the plan’s Cancellation Policy (a minimum number of renewals), Membership Timing Restrictions in Member Portal Settings, and the Provide Cancellation Instructions flow type, which shows your instructions instead of a cancel button. With the first two, the member sees a message that explains why. Neither of them applies during a free trial.
Why can’t I choose a flow type?
Your plan doesn’t include Cancellation Management. The note under the options names the plan to upgrade to.
Why does it say “Cancellation Reason should be unique”?
Two reasons have the same wording. Change one of them, then save again.
Can a member take the discount twice?
Not while the first discount is still on their membership. Until then, the reasons that offer a discount are hidden from them.
Why don’t members see the discount offer?
Check that the reason has a percentage in Cancel Discount: without one, there’s no Accept button. Members who already have the cancellation discount don’t see discount reasons, and members of plans you didn’t select in Select Plan can’t take it.
Where do I see the feedback members write?
On the Memberships page: in the Cancellation Reason card of each cancelled membership, or in Reports → Retention Activities for every member who went through the flow.
Need help? Email [email protected] and tell us your store address.