Subscription renewal reminders on Shopify: on-site messages for SKIO subscribers

When a subscriber comes back to your store between orders, to browse or to check their account, your store can greet them with a message that knows where they are in their subscription: a renewal a few days away, credits waiting to be used, or a recent cancel.

This guide shows you how to set up those on-site subscription renewal reminders with Atomato and SKIO. You will see which rules to use, how to add a shopper's renewal date and credits, a worked example and the limits.

SKIO targeting is part of the Enterprise+ plan, the same plan as the other integrations. It works alongside any renewal emails and texts your email and SMS tools already send, which keep running.

What on-site renewal reminders are

An on-site renewal reminder is a NotiFeed or NotiPop message that only shows to signed-in shoppers who match your SKIO rules. Atomato reads each signed-in shopper's subscription summary from SKIO, such as their next renewal date and loyalty credits, and uses it to decide who sees the message. Atomato only reads from SKIO. It doesn't send signups or any other changes to SKIO.

That gives you three moments to speak to:

• Before a renewal: a reminder to order something extra, or a link to your subscription page if they want to change their plan.
• While credits are waiting: a note about the loyalty credits a subscriber can spend.
• After a cancel: a message for former subscribers who are still signed in to their account.

Connect SKIO first

In Atomato, click Integrations in the sidebar. Under Subscriptions, click Connect on the SKIO card. Paste a private API key from your SKIO dashboard into SKIO API key, then copy the SKIO Webhook URL and add it in SKIO under Settings > Webhooks. Click Connect SKIO.

The badge changes to Connected. Atomato doesn't check the key with SKIO when you save it, so test the connection with a real campaign before you rely on it. The full steps are in Connect SKIO and show messages to subscribers.

Choose the rules for each moment

On the SKIO Integration page, click + Create NotiFeed or + Create NotiPop. Only campaigns created there, and their duplicates, get an Integration rules section, with one set of rules per message.

The rules you can use are:

• Renewal date: days until the next renewal, with Is within next, Is within last, Is greater than or Is lower than.
• Subscription cycles count: completed cycles on the subscription that renews next.
• Days since cancel: days since the latest cancellation. Customers who never canceled don't match.
• Loyalty points: the shopper's SKIO reward credits.
• Has active subscription: True or False.

Under Conditions must match:, choose all conditions or any condition. Two details matter here. The first rule starts as Renewal date Is within next with no number, and a number rule left blank never matches, even though the editor lets you save it. And rules for low cycles or low points also match signed-in customers SKIO doesn't know, who count as zero. To reach only subscribers, add Has active subscription Is equal to True and choose all conditions.

A simple set for the three moments:

• Renewal reminder: Renewal date Is within next 5 days, and Has active subscription Is equal to True.
• Credits reminder: Loyalty points Is greater than 100, and Has active subscription Is equal to True.
• Win-back note: Days since cancel Is lower than 30, and Has active subscription Is equal to False.

Put the renewal date and credits in the message

In a message's Description field, click SKIO variables to insert Customer first name, Customer last name, Loyalty credits or Renewal date. They appear as {customer.name}, {customer.last_name}, {skio.credits} and {skio.renewal_date}. Each shopper sees their own values, with the renewal date in the language they shop in.

A variable with no value shows as blank, so write copy that still reads well without it. "Hi {customer.name}," turns into "Hi ," for a shopper with no first name on their account. If you open with the name, as in the example above, make sure your customers have a first name on their account. Otherwise put the variable mid-sentence. Also keep curly braces out of the rest of your copy: for signed-in shoppers, Atomato treats any text in braces as a variable.

Worked example: a coffee subscription

A coffee store sells a monthly bean subscription through SKIO and wants subscribers to try a seasonal blend before their next renewal.

They create a NotiFeed campaign from the SKIO Integration page with one message. Its rules are Renewal date Is within next 5 days and Has active subscription Is equal to True, with all conditions. The button links to the seasonal beans collection page.

Before, a store-wide message every shopper sees:

Try our new seasonal blend. Shop now.

After, a message only for subscribers renewing soon:

Your next order renews {skio.renewal_date}. Pick up a bag of the seasonal blend before then.

The after version speaks to the subscriber's own order and points to one collection. If they click and then add the beans to their cart within 6 hours, and check out in the same browser within 30 days, Atomato attributes those items to the campaign as assisted revenue, since the button links to a collection rather than one product. See how Atomato attributes revenue for the full rules.

For the holiday season, you can add a second message pointing to your gift collection. Each message has its own SKIO rules, so fill in its first rule too. Enterprise+ includes everything in Scale, so a campaign can hold up to six messages, and a separate holiday campaign can have its own start and end dates. For a wider holiday plan, see the Black Friday Cyber Monday page.

Test it like a subscriber

The preview always shows the message you are editing, with variables as typed, so it can't tell you who will see it.

To test for real, give a test customer a SKIO subscription first. Save the campaign as Active, sign in to your store as that customer and open two pages. While a campaign with SKIO rules is active, Atomato looks up a signed-in shopper's SKIO data in the background on their first page view, and the message shows on later pages once that lookup finishes. It keeps what it looks up for a day, then fetches it again, and SKIO's webhook can update shoppers Atomato has already looked up sooner when subscriptions, rewards or credits change.

What this does not do

• It only reaches signed-in shoppers. A subscriber browsing without signing in sees only your messages for every shopper.
• SKIO messages only show while the Atomato app embed is on in your live theme.
• It doesn't send emails or texts. Your renewal emails and texts keep running in the tools you already use.
• It doesn't change a subscription. Shoppers still manage their plan in SKIO, so link to your subscription page when you want them to make a change.
• It doesn't show on checkout, the thank-you page, POS or headless stores.
• Recharge is listed as coming soon on the Integrations page, so this works with SKIO only.
• If you disconnect SKIO, every campaign with SKIO rules moves to Draft, and stays there if you reconnect.

To mix SKIO rules with other audiences, such as Shopify customer segments for your VIP list, read how to use Shopify customer segments for on-site messages.

Next step

Pick one moment, most likely the renewal reminder, and set up a single NotiFeed message for it this week. Check the plan you need on the pricing page; Enterprise+ includes a free trial of up to 14 days, counted from the day you first install Atomato.

Install free on Shopify