Raising prices is a normal part of running a subscription business. How you handle the rollout matters as much as the change itself. This article covers what to consider before updating pricing, why grandfathering legacy prices is generally not recommended, and how to communicate price changes to subscribers in a way that protects retention.
Before you start
Price changes apply to future billing cycles. Subscribers on active contracts will be affected when their next order processes after the change goes live.
Before making any pricing changes, consider notifying your subscribers in advance. Many regions have legal or platform requirements around price change notice periods for subscription services.
Why grandfathering prices is not recommended
Grandfathering means keeping a subset of existing subscribers on their original price while charging new subscribers a higher rate. It sounds like a goodwill gesture, but it creates compounding problems over time.
Grandfathering is not a native Skio feature. Maintaining it requires custom price logic or manual intervention, which increases the risk of billing errors, inconsistent pricing across cohorts, and support overhead.
Revenue impact
The longer grandfathered subscribers stay active, the larger the gap between what they pay and your current pricing. In high-retention businesses, this gap compounds quickly. A cohort that was large at launch can represent meaningful lost revenue years later, especially if your cost base has increased in the meantime.
Operational complexity
Managing two or more price tiers for the same product creates edge cases across your entire subscription stack: failed payment retries, product swaps, subscription pauses and resumes, upsells, and order merges can all behave unexpectedly when a subscriber is on a non-standard price. These issues are difficult to predict in advance and often surface as one-off support tickets that are time-consuming to resolve.
Fairness perception cuts both ways
Grandfathering is intended to reward loyal subscribers. But if a newer subscriber discovers they're paying more for the same product, that framing can backfire. Consistent pricing is easier to defend publicly than a two-tier system.
Ultimately, whether to grandfather prices is your decision. If you have a specific cohort you want to honor, that's a valid business call. Just go in with a clear plan for how long you'll maintain it and how you'll wind it down.
Recommended approach: a transparent, phased rollout
The most effective price increase strategy is one that's honest, gives subscribers enough notice to decide how they want to respond, and offers a clear reason for the change. Subscribers who feel respected are far less likely to cancel than subscribers who feel surprised.
Give advance notice
Announce the price change before it takes effect. The amount of lead time you give signals how much you value the subscriber relationship. 30 days is a reasonable minimum. 60 days is better for significant increases.
Be specific in your notice: name the old price, the new price, and the date the change takes effect. Vague language like "pricing adjustments" increases anxiety and support volume.
Explain the reason
You don't need to share a full P&L, but a brief, honest explanation goes a long way. Common reasons that land well: rising ingredient or material costs, expanded product quality, improved fulfillment, or new features being added to the subscription. Avoid corporate-sounding language. Write it the way you'd explain it to a customer in person.
Offer a loyalty acknowledgment instead of a locked price
Rather than grandfathering, consider a time-limited retention offer for your longest-tenured subscribers. This gives you control over the timeline and keeps your pricing architecture clean. Examples:
One-time discount: Offer a discount on their next 1-3 orders as a thank-you before the new price kicks in.
Early lock-in period: Give subscribers a defined window (e.g., 60 days) to keep the current price before it changes. This is time-bounded and easier to manage than indefinite grandfathering.
Bonus product or gift: Add a one-time gift with purchase around the time of the price change as a goodwill gesture.
Suggested email communication sequence
Below is a simple three-email sequence you can adapt. Send these through your existing email platform (Klaviyo, Postscript, etc.) to your active subscriber list.
Email 1: Advance notice (send 30-60 days before)
Subject line: A note about your [Brand] subscription
Content: Announce the price change, give the effective date, explain why it's happening, and thank them for their loyalty. Include a link to their Customer Portal in case they want to make any changes to their subscription before the new price takes effect.
Email 2: Reminder (send 7 days before)
Subject line: Reminder: your subscription price updates on [date]
Content: Short reminder with the key details. Reiterate the new price and date. If you're offering a loyalty gesture, mention it here.
Email 3: Confirmation (send on or just after the effective date)
Subject line: Your subscription price has been updated
Content: Confirm the change is live. Thank them again. Provide a Customer Portal link. Keep it brief.
If you use Skio's Cancel Flow, consider adding a price-change-specific offer (e.g., a one-time discount) that triggers for subscribers who attempt to cancel within 30 days of the price change going live. This can recover a meaningful portion of price-sensitive churners without locking in a permanent lower price.
Common mistakes to avoid
Changing prices without notice: Subscribers who see a higher charge with no prior communication are significantly more likely to dispute the charge, cancel, or leave a negative review. Always announce in advance.
Grandfathering indefinitely with no exit plan: If you do grandfather a cohort, define upfront how long it lasts and how you'll communicate the eventual transition. Open-ended grandfathering is the version most likely to cause problems.
Raising prices and reducing value at the same time: If you're increasing the price, make sure nothing else is getting worse (smaller quantity, fewer perks, slower shipping). Even a neutral change will read as negative if it coincides with a perceived downgrade.
Generic copy: "We're making some pricing adjustments" reads as evasive. Subscribers can tell when a brand is being vague to avoid accountability. Specific, direct language builds more trust, not less.
FAQ
Can I grandfather prices for just a specific segment of subscribers?
You can, but Skio doesn't have a native way to do this. It would require maintaining custom price logic or manually managing affected subscriptions, which creates support risk over time. If you want to reward a specific cohort, a time-limited discount or a one-time gift is easier to manage and achieves a similar effect.
Will subscribers be notified automatically when prices change?
Skio sends order notifications as part of the standard billing flow, but these are not proactive price change announcements. You'll need to send your own communication through your email or SMS platform before the change takes effect.
What if a subscriber complains about the price change after the fact?
If you gave advance notice and the subscriber missed it, be empathetic but clear. Offer a goodwill gesture if appropriate (a discount on their next order, for example), but avoid reverting their price individually unless you're prepared to offer the same to anyone who asks. Consistency matters.