What is a Surprise & Delight rule?
A Surprise & Delight rule is a feature that helps you increase subscription retention by offering free products or discounts at strategic points in the subscriber lifecycle automatically.
This tactic helps reduce churn by:
Rewarding subscribers for staying active.
Offsetting common drop-off points (like after the third order)
Giving long-term subscribers something to look forward to.
For example, you could set up Surprise & Delight rewards on the following orders:
Order 2: Free trial pack of a different product.
Order 3: Extra 10% off.
Order 6: Extra 20% off.
Order 10: Free product that complements their subscription.
How does Surprise & Delight work?
Rules trigger after the previous order processes to ensure customers see the reward before their next shipment.
For example:
A reward on order 2 triggers right after checkout. You can only add a Surprise & Delight rule on order 2 and above (order 1 is the checkout order).
A reward on order 4 triggers after order 3 processes.
Skio checks eligibility anytime a subscription is edited. If the subscription no longer qualifies, the reward is removed automatically.
Surprise & Delight rules are order-based, meaning you can include multiple gifts or discounts within a single rule for a specific order (e.g., order 3).
If you want to apply rewards on different order numbers (e.g., order 3 and order 6), you'll need to create separate rules for each.
How to set up a Surprise & Delight rule
Step 1: Navigate to Surprise & Delight
In the lefthand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Retain > Surprise & Delight
Step 2: Create a new reward rule
Click + New rule in the upper right corner
Enter a descriptive Rule name (e.g., "Order 3 Free gift" or "Order 5 Give customer 20% off")
Optionally enable A/B testing to test reward effectiveness and select the percentage of customers who should receive the reward
Step 3: Set your trigger
The trigger determines when the reward is applied.
Under Trigger > Specific order count, enter the Order number that should trigger the reward (e.g., 3 for the customer's third order)
Step 4: Choose your reward product
Under Reward product, choose from the following options.
Click Add discount (fixed amount or percentage) to apply a percentage or fixed amount discount
Click Add free gift and select the gift product of your choice to automatically include a product at no charge
Toggle on Enable gift swapping for customers to allow subscribers to choose an alternative gift if they prefer a different option. Select which products customers can swap to from the available gift options.
You can include a combination of both a discount and free gifts in a single rule, but you can only add one discount per rule. You can add multiple free gifts to the same reward.
Step 5: Set conditions (optional)
Conditions let you refine who receives the reward based on subscription status.
Customer-based conditions
Customer tag: Filter by whether a customer has or does not have a specified tag.
Credit balance: Filter customers based on their available store or subscription credit balance.
In Tier: Target customers who are currently in specific loyalty tiers.
Distance to tier: Target customers based on how close they are to reaching their next loyalty tier (measured by order count, LTV, or product count) and their current tier level.
Tier at risk: Target customers whose current tier is at risk of being lost due to tier expiry rules.
Subscription-based conditions
Order number: Filter by the current order number (for example, a subscription with 3 orders would have order number = 3).
Total quantity: Filter by total quantity of products in the subscription (for example, 1 × Product A and 1 × Product B = quantity of 2).
Total value: Filter by total dollar value of the subscription (sum of each product's subscription price × quantity).
Subscription creation date: Filter by when the subscription was created.
Day of week: Filter subscriptions with a specific charge day of the week.
Discount code: Filter subscriptions that contain specific discount codes.
Is prepaid renewing: Filter prepaid subscriptions by whether they are set to renew (continue into another term) or end after the current prepaid cycle.
Migrated from another platform: Identify subscriptions migrated from another platform (only captures the migrated subscription, not new subscriptions created by the same customer).
Next billing date: Filter subscriptions where the next billing date falls on, before, or after a selected date.
Shipping interval: Filter by how often the subscription ships (for example, every week, every 2 weeks, monthly).
Subscription country: Filter by shipping address country (supports multiple selections).
Subscription ID: Enter specific subscription IDs to target with the operation.
Subscription note: Filter subscriptions based on keywords or text stored in the internal subscription note.
Subscription status: Filter by status (Active, cancelled, failed, under review, paused).
Product-based conditions
Contains products: Identify subscriptions that include a specific product.
Contains dynamic boxes: Filter subscriptions that include a specific dynamic build-a-box product.
Contains static boxes: Filter subscriptions that include a specific static build-a-box product.
Exclude products: Identify subscriptions that do not include a specific product (helpful when paired with “contains products”).
Other conditions
Audit log: Filter subscriptions based on specific audit log actions.
Cancel Flow: Filter subscriptions that had X rebuttal shown and was saved or not saved.
Quick action: Filter customers or subscriptions based on whether a specific Quick Action link has been actioned, or viewed but not actioned.
Surprise and Delight: Filter customers who were or were not qualified for a surprise and delight gift.
Step 6: Save and activate your rule
Click Create rule to save and activate
Your rule will now appear in the Active rules section on the main Surprise & Delight page.
Managing active rules
Once created, you can monitor and manage all active rules from the main Surprise & Delight dashboard.
View rule performance:
Total Rewards Triggered: How many times this rule has activated
Total Rewards Redeemed: How many customers have received the reward
Recipient Retention Rate: The retention rate of customers who received this reward
Edit or manage rules:
Click the three-dot menu on any rule card to access rule options:
Edit: Modify rule settings, triggers, rewards, or conditions
Duplicate: Create a copy of the rule to use as a template for similar rewards
Export Subscriptions: Download a list of subscriptions that have triggered this rule
Copy ID: Copy the unique rule identifier for reference or troubleshooting
Delete: Permanently remove the rule from your active rewards
Monitor rule details: Each rule card displays:
Trigger milestone (e.g., "Order #5")
Reward type and product
Creation date
Current status (Active)
Note
To apply the rule retroactively to existing subscriptions, click Sync rules on the Surprise & Delight page.
How do customers know when they receive a Surprise & Delight reward?
When a customer meets the conditions set in your Surprise & Delight rule, a banner appears in the customer portal on the eligible subscription.
If gift product swapping is enabled, customers will see a Customize your gift button in the portal, which lets them choose an alternative variant.
To enable or disable the banner, in Customer Portal V2, enable the Show “surprise & delight” banner toggle. In Customer Portal V3, this toggle can be enabled in the Branding tab under Subscription banners.
How can I tell which customers received a Surprise & Delight reward from my Skio Dashboard?
When viewing subscriptions from the Subscribers > Subscriptions tab in your Skio Dashboard, a Surprise & Delight gift badge will display beside the free product on any eligible subscriptions to indicate when a customer is receiving a gift. For discounts, it will be indicated in the discount chip underneath the Subtotal.
Surprise & Delight FAQs
FAQ
Is the discount recurring?
No, it applies to the specific order only.
Can multiple rules apply at once?
Yes, if eligibility is met for multiple rules, all rewards will be applied.
Can I target specific products or variants?
Yes. You can apply rules to all products, specific products, or individual variants.
What if the free gifts is out of stock?
The rule will still apply. Skio does not check stock levels for Surprise & Delight rules.
What happens if a customer has multiple subscription?
Rules will apply to each eligible subscription in the customer’s account.