Frequency swap automation moves subscribers from one billing frequency to another on its own. Use it when customers start on a short plan, such as weekly, and you want them on a longer one, such as monthly, after a set number of orders. You set it up in Journeys as a frequency rule: you choose when the rule runs, the frequency to move from, and the frequency to move to.
Frequency swaps may be locked for your store until our support team checks how you plan to use them. If they're locked, Frequency swaps doesn't appear on the Journeys page and the Change frequency after an order template shows Locked. See the FAQs at the end.
Add a frequency rule
In your Shopify admin, go to Appstle Subscription → Journeys. If Journeys isn't in the sidebar, click View more.
Click Frequency swaps at the top of the page, then click Add frequency rule. If the page shows Build your first journey instead, your store has no journeys yet. Create your first rule from the template described below the steps; after that, Frequency swaps appears.
Optional: enter a Rule name. If you leave it empty, Appstle names the rule after the two frequencies.
Under When to run, choose Every recurring order or A specific order. The form starts with A specific order and After the 2nd order selected. For a specific order, pick it from the list, for example After the 4th order. After the 1st order (at subscription creation) runs the rule as soon as a customer subscribes.
Under Current frequency, enter a number and choose Day, Week, Month or Year. Only subscriptions billing at exactly this frequency are changed.
Under New frequency, enter a number and choose the unit. The new frequency must be different from the current one. Pick a frequency your products already offer as a subscription plan, so subscribers move onto that plan and its discount.
Optional: under Only when, click Add a condition to limit the rule to some subscriptions. Choose whether all or any of the conditions must match, click Add condition, then pick a field such as Selling plan, Customer tag, Billing country or Next order date, a comparison and a value. Without a condition, the rule applies to every subscription on the current frequency.
Click Save and activate. The rule appears in the Frequency swaps list with the status Active.
The Frequency swaps list, with one active rule.
The Add frequency rule form, filled in to move subscribers from weekly to monthly after their 4th order.
You can also start from a template. Click Create journey at the top right of the Journeys page and choose Change frequency after an order. The journey builder opens with the steps in place. Click each step to fill in the same settings as in the form above, then click Save journey. The journey is active as soon as you save it.
When the rule runs
A frequency rule runs after an order is placed on a subscription. Every recurring order runs it after every order, including a new subscription's first order, so new subscribers who choose the current frequency move to the new one right after checkout. A specific order runs it only after the order you pick.
The rule changes only subscriptions that bill at exactly the Current frequency. A subscription on any other frequency is left alone, and once a subscription has moved to the new frequency, the rule no longer matches it. With Every recurring order, it matches again if the subscription later goes back to the current frequency, for example when a customer changes it in the customer portal.
Only Active rules run; a rule in Draft does nothing until you click Activate on its row. If several rules match the same subscription after the same order, only the rule with the lowest number in the Priority column runs. To change the order, type a new number in the rule's Priority box and press Enter.
What changes on the subscription
The subscription's frequency changes right after the order. By default, its next order stays on the date it was already scheduled for, and the new frequency applies to the orders after that.
To move the next order date to match the new frequency, turn on Immediately update next order date when frequency changes in Shop Settings → Next Order Date Calculation. Order Date Calculation Method then decides which date the new one counts from: Today, Last Order Date or Current Next Billing Date. This setting applies to every frequency change in your store, not only to frequency rules.
Each product in the subscription moves to its subscription plan with the new frequency, if it has one, and gets that plan's discount. A product with no such plan keeps its current plan and discount, and only its frequency changes. Customers get the Order Frequency Updated email, and the Product Price Updated email if a price changed, when those emails are turned on in your email settings.
Manage your frequency rules
To manage a rule, click Frequency swaps at the top of the Journeys page, then click ⋯ at the end of the rule's row:
Action | What it does |
Edit | Opens the rule in the Edit frequency rule form. Click Save changes when you're done. |
Open in builder | Opens the rule as a journey in the journey builder. |
Logs | Shows each time the rule ran. Enter a Subscription ID to see one subscription's runs. |
Duplicate | Opens a copy of the rule in the form. Change what differs, then click Save and activate. |
Deactivate | Stops the rule without deleting it. The rule goes back to Draft. Click Activate on its row to turn it on again. |
Delete | Removes the rule. This can't be undone. |
Changing, deactivating or deleting a rule doesn't undo frequency changes it has already made.
To activate, deactivate or delete several rules at once, tick their boxes and click Activate, Deactivate or Delete. To download the rules as a CSV file, click Export at the top of the page.
Things to know
Frequency rules have no Apply now. A rule changes a subscription only after one of its orders, so subscriptions that already exist change after their next matching order. A rule set to A specific order never changes a subscription that has already passed that order.
Order numbers count a subscription's successful orders, with the checkout order as the 1st. Skipped and failed orders don't count. For a subscription you imported from another app, orders before the import don't count, so its first renewal in Appstle is its 2nd order.
A rule looks at the subscription's frequency, not its plan. If two plans share the same current frequency, the rule changes both. To limit a rule to one plan, add an Only when condition on Selling plan.
When a product swap rule swaps a product on a subscription after an order, frequency rules don't check Only when for that order. The subscription changes if any active frequency rule matches its frequency and order number.
Frequency rules never change prepaid subscriptions where the customer pays for several deliveries at once, subscriptions on a Prepaid, separate orders plan, gift subscriptions, or subscriptions on a plan that renews on Fixed calendar dates. See Prepaid subscriptions with separate orders.
Appstle may block a frequency change that would make a subscription bill much more often than before, to protect your customers.
Frequency rules you created before Journeys existed appear in the Frequency swaps list automatically. You can edit, duplicate and delete them, but their menu has no Deactivate. To stop one from running, delete it.
Test your rule
To test without waiting for later orders, use a copy of the rule that runs at checkout for one test customer only. Skip this test if any active product swap rule is set to After the 1st order or Every recurring order. While the copy is active, it would also change new subscribers on the current frequency whose products that rule swaps.
In Shopify, add a tag such as "freq-test" to a test customer.
In the Frequency swaps list, click ⋯ on your rule's row, then click Duplicate.
In the copy, choose A specific order and After the 1st order (at subscription creation). Under Only when, add a Customer tag condition for your test tag, then click Save and activate.
As the test customer, place an order for a subscription product at the current frequency. Use a test payment method.
In Appstle, go to Subscriptions and open the new subscription. Check that Order frequency shows the new frequency, and open the Upcoming Orders tab to check the dates. If it didn't change, click ⋯ on the copy's row, then click Logs.
Delete the copy when you're done.
FAQs
Why didn't a subscription change frequency?
Check that:
the rule is Active
the subscription's frequency is exactly the Current frequency
the order matches When to run, and the subscription has already placed it
the subscription meets any Only when condition
no rule with a lower Priority number changed it first
it isn't one of the subscriptions that frequency rules never change (see Things to know)
To see whether the rule ran, click ⋯ on its row in the Frequency swaps list, click Logs, enter the subscription's ID in Subscription ID and click Apply. If the rule ran but the frequency didn't change, check the list in Things to know and the subscription's Activity Logs tab.
Why did the next order still come on the old schedule?
By default, a frequency change leaves the next order date as it was, and the new frequency applies to the orders after it. To recalculate the next order date, turn on Immediately update next order date when frequency changes in Shop Settings → Next Order Date Calculation. It applies to frequency changes made after you turn it on.
Where did frequency swap automation in More go?
Frequency swap setup moved to Journeys. In More → Product & Frequency Swap Automation, the Frequency Swap Automation tab now only shows a message that Frequency Swap has moved to Journeys, with an Open Journeys button. Your existing rules are in the Frequency swaps list.
Why can't I see Frequency swaps on the Journeys page?
Frequency swaps change how often subscribers are billed, so our support team checks the use case before unlocking them for a store. If Frequency swaps is missing from the Journeys page, or the Change frequency after an order template shows Locked, chat with us from the app and tell us how you plan to use it.
Can I undo a frequency swap?
Appstle doesn't undo frequency changes. To stop the rule from running again, deactivate it, or delete it if it was created before Journeys. To move a customer back, open their subscription and click Edit next to Order frequency.
Need help?
If you have questions about frequency swaps, email [email protected] or chat with us from the app.