Sunsetting a live Surprise & Delight rule requires a bit of thoughtful planning. Because Surprise & Delight can impact upcoming subscription orders and what customers see in their portal, updates to a rule may also affect how Reward Milestones appear in the customer experience. Use this guide when you want to:
Sunset an existing Surprise & Delight rule
Replace one reward with another
Change A/B testing on a live rule
Update existing subscriptions to match your current rule setup
Before you start
Tip: For the cleanest transition, create the new rule first, then retire the old one when you're ready.
Before editing or deleting a live rule, confirm the following:
Does the rule have A/B testing enabled?
Go to Retain > Surprise & Delight and open the rule you plan to update. In the rule settings, check whether A/B testing is turned on and what percentage of customers is set to receive the reward.
Are customers are already seeing a reward in Reward Milestones?
First, check whether Reward Milestones is enabled in your Customer Portal by going to Storefront > Customer Portal > Branding > Layout. If Reward Milestones is turned on, eligible customers will see upcoming Surprise & Delight rewards at the top of their subscription page in the portal.
You should also confirm whether the rule is milestone-based and whether customers are eligible to see it. Reward Milestones only works with Surprise & Delight rules based on order numbers, and customers will only see milestones if they have an active subscription, have not yet passed the reward order, and meet the rule's conditions.
Customers in the A/B test control group are excluded from seeing milestones.
Do you want the replacement rule to apply only going forward or also to existing active subscriptions
Decide whether the new rule should apply only to subscriptions that qualify in the future, or whether you want it pushed out to subscriptions that are already active.
If you want to review which subscriptions have already triggered the current rule, go to Retain > Surprise & Delight, open the rule menu, and click Export Subscriptions.
If you want your updated rule setup reflected across existing active subscriptions, plan to run Sync rules after making your changes.
Whether you want customer portal updates to happen immediately or on the normal Surprise & Delight schedule
If you want Customer Portal updates to happen immediately, run Sync rules after saving your changes. This immediately updates customer portals to reflect your latest Surprise & Delight configuration.
If you don’t run Sync Rules, updates happen on the normal Surprise & Delight schedule. When Apply surprise & delight rules before next billing date is enabled in Settings > General, Skio evaluates subscriptions during the pre-billing window before the next order bills. That window is 5 days by default unless you’ve changed it
How Surprise & Delight timing works
On stores using Apply Surprise & Delight rules before next billing date, Surprise & Delight is evaluated by a scheduled job when a subscription falls within the configured pre-billing window. The default window is 5 days before billing unless a different value is set on the rule.
That means:
Surprise & Delight is not re-checked in real time every time a subscription is edited
Changes to a subscription affect eligibility the next time the scheduled job evaluates that subscription
A reward for a future order is typically applied shortly before that target order bills, not immediately when the previous order completes
For example, if a reward is set for order 4, it is generally applied when the subscription enters the billing window before order 4 bills.
If you use "Apply Surprise & Delight rules before next billing date"
Keep the following in mind:
The Surprise & Delight job only evaluates subscriptions inside the configured billing window
Subscriptions outside that window will not update until they enter it
Creating or deleting a rule does not immediately force all subscriptions to re-evaluate
What happens when you edit or delete a rule?
When you change a live Surprise & Delight rule, Skio uses the latest version of the rule to determine which customers should see that reward going forward.
Deleting a rule removes that reward from Reward Milestones
Editing a rule can change what reward customers see in Reward Milestones
Running Sync rules updates Customer Portals immediately so those changes appear right away
If you delete a rule that customers were progressing toward, that milestone disappears from the Reward Milestones display. If you modify a rule, the milestone updates after you save the change and run Sync rules.
Changing A/B testing on a live rule
Surprise & Delight rules support optional A/B testing, including setting the percentage of customers who should receive the reward. If you want to change A/B testing on a live rule, the cleanest approach is to:
Create a new rule
Configure the new A/B testing settings
Retire the old rule once you're ready
This keeps your setup clean and avoids confusion if the old rule has already been applied to active subscriptions.
How Sync rules works
Sync rules applies your current rule configuration to eligible active subscriptions and updates customer portal messaging to match your latest setup. It doesn’t apply changes to past orders or recreate how the rule worked previously.
Use Sync rules when you want to:
Apply your current rule setup to existing active subscriptions
Immediately update Reward Milestones in the Customer Portal after changing a rule
Avoid waiting for each subscription to enter the normal pre-billing window
Creating or deleting a Surprise & Delight rule does not automatically trigger a sync when pre-billing evaluation is enabled. If you want changes reflected immediately, run Sync rules manually.
Retiring an old rule and setting up a new one
Best practice: If you are replacing a live Surprise & Delight reward, create the new rule first, retire the old rule second, and run Sync rules if you want existing subscriptions and portal milestones updated immediately.
Step 1: Review the current rule
Navigate to Retain > Surprise & Delight and open the existing rule. Confirm the trigger type, reward type, conditions, and whether A/B testing is enabled. Export impacted subscriptions from the rule before making changes if needed by clicking the rule menu and selecting Export Subscriptions.
Step 2: Create the new rule separately
Set up the replacement rule as its own rule instead of overwriting the old one. This is especially useful when changing the reward product, discount amount, audience or conditions, or A/B testing settings.
See Surprise & Delight guide for step-by-step instructions on creating a Surprise & Delight rule.
Step 3: Sunset the old rule
Once the new rule is ready, delete the old rule. If customers were progressing toward that reward, the milestone will disappear from Reward Milestones.
If your rule adds a free gift product, do this before you delete it
Gift lines are written directly onto each qualifying subscription as a line item. Deleting the rule stops new subscriptions from receiving the gift, but does not remove gift lines that were already added. Subscriptions that already received the gift will keep it until those lines are manually removed or the order processes.
Before sunsetting a gift-based rule, export the impacted subscriptions from the rule card and contact Skio support. We can bulk remove the product from all affected subscriptions to keep things clean and up to date.
This does not apply to discount-based rules. When you delete a discount rule, Skio automatically deactivates the associated discount codes.
Step 4: Run Sync rules if you want immediate updates
If the new rule should only affect future qualifying subscriptions, save it and let it apply on its normal schedule. If the new rule should also affect existing active subscriptions, plan to run Sync rules after saving to reflect the updated rule setup across active subscriptions and Customer Portal milestones right away.
Step 6: Test a few subscriptions
Before considering the change complete, confirm:
The new reward is showing correctly in Reward Milestones for eligible customers
The old reward is no longer appearing in the Customer Portal
A few sample subscriptions reflect the correct rule setup in the dashboard
FAQs
Do I need to delete the old rule before creating the new one?
No. In most cases, it is cleaner to create the new rule first, then retire the old one when you are ready.
Does deleting a rule remove it from Reward Milestones?
Yes. If customers were progressing toward that rule, the milestone disappears from Reward Milestones.
Do I need to run Sync rules after changing a rule?
If you want existing active subscriptions and Customer Portal milestones to update immediately, yes.
Does editing a subscription instantly re-check Surprise & Delight eligibility?
No. On stores using pre-billing evaluation, eligibility is checked when the scheduled job evaluates that subscription inside the configured billing window.
Does Sync rules apply a rule retroactively?
No. Sync rules applies your current rule setup to eligible active subscriptions. It doesn’t apply changes to past orders or recreate how the rule worked previously..
Why are some rewards not showing in Reward Milestones?
Reward Milestones only displays Surprise & Delight rules based on order numbers and only for customers who meet the rule's conditions.