Running discount promotions in Skio

Running promotions for subscription brands requires balancing three goals:

1. Acquisition impact: Drive new subscriber growth

2. Margin protection: Maintain healthy unit economics

3. Operational simplicity: Keep your team from drowning in edge cases

You have three main ways to discount subscriptions. Each has distinct trade-offs:

Understanding pricing for new subscribers vs. existing subscribers

When you change pricing or discounts in Skio, new subscribers checking out receive updated pricing immediately, but existing subscribers continue at their current pricing until you take additional action.

What this means in practice

Scenario: You're running a BFCM promotion where you increase Subscribe & Save from 15% to 25%.

What happens automatically:

• New subscribers checking out during BFCM get 25% off

• Existing subscribers continue at 15% off (their original rate)

What doesn't happen automatically:

• Existing subscribers don't get upgraded to 25%

• When BFCM ends and you revert to 15%, BFCM subscribers continue at 25% unless you take action

How do I make sure both new and existing subscribers get my promotional pricing?

For new subscribers: Configure checkout (selling plans, discount codes, automatic discounts)

For existing subscribers: Use Skio's automation tools:

• Bulk Operations: Immediate, one-time updates to a specified group

• Journeys: Automated, trigger-based updates (e.g., "revert to standard pricing after first order")

Every promotion should answer two questions:

• How do new subscribers get this pricing? (Checkout configuration)

• Do existing subscribers get it, and if so, how? (Bulk Operations or Journeys)

Best practices for promotional strategy

1. Default to Option 1 (discount codes) for acquisition

Why: It's the fastest to launch, easiest to explain to your team, and preserves your core Subscribe & Save messaging. Use this for 90% of your acquisition campaigns.

When to use Option 2 (selling plan) instead: When you want a code-free experience, or when you're running a subscriber-only promotion that should feel premium and automatic.

2. Keep your base Subscribe & Save stable

Changing your core Subscribe & Save discount frequently creates confusion:

• In your Customer Portal (subscribers see inconsistent pricing when adding products)

• In your analytics (harder to track true subscription performance)

• In your team's mental model (what's our "real" subscription offer?)

Better approach: Use discount codes or Journeys to layer promotions on top of a stable baseline.

3. Use Journeys to automate promotional cleanup

If you run a "25% off first order, then 15% off ongoing" promotion, set up a Journey that automatically reverts pricing after the first order processes.

Without a Journey: You'll need to manually run Bulk Operations after the promotion, track which subscribers were affected, and manage edge cases.

With a Journey: Pricing normalizes automatically. Set it and forget it.

4. Be explicit about recurring pricing at checkout

Shopify's default checkout language often creates confusion because the "recurring total" text doesn't reflect promotional discounts.

Fix this proactively: Update your checkout content to clarify:

• "Your first payment is the total shown. Future orders renew at your standard subscription price."

• Or if the promo applies ongoing: "Your subscription will renew at this discounted rate."

Avoiding confusion up front prevents support tickets and cancellations later. Use the recurring pricing policy option when creating selling plans.

5. Separate acquisition promotions from loyalty promotions

Acquisition promotions (for new subscribers):

• Stack discount codes on Subscribe & Save

• Focus on first-order conversion

• Accept that these are typically loss-leaders

Loyalty promotions (for existing subscribers):

• Use Bulk Operations or Quick Actions

• Target based on behavior (order count, LTV, at-risk status)

• Focus on retention economics, not acquisition

Don't try to make one promotion do both jobs. Separate campaigns = clearer messaging and better unit economics.

6. Limit promotional pricing duration

The longer promotional pricing lasts, the harder it is to manage.

Good: "25% off your first order, then 15% off ongoing"

• Clear end point

• Easy to communicate

• Simple to automate with Journeys

Risky: "25% off every order forever for BFCM subscribers"

• Erodes margin permanently

• Creates pricing disparity between cohorts

• Harder to grandfather or adjust later

Time-box promotional pricing whenever possible. Use Journeys to automatically normalize after 1-2 orders.

7. Plan for portal edge cases when adjusting selling plans

When you temporarily increase your selling plan discount, existing subscribers can remove and re-add products in the portal to access the new promotional rate.

Two strategies:

Strategy A: Accept this as a feature

• "Everyone gets the better deal during the promotional period, including existing customers"

• Simpler operationally

• More generous, but higher cost

Strategy B: Use a Journey to correct it

• Set up a Journey that normalizes pricing after each order

• Even if subscribers re-add products at the promo rate, they revert to standard pricing after their next order processes

• More complex, but protects margins

8. Test promotional flows before launch

Always test:

• Checkout flow with promotional discount applied

• Product page messaging and pricing display

• Portal behavior (can existing subscribers access promo pricing unintentionally?)

• Email/SMS messaging alignment with actual promotional mechanics

Catch issues in staging, not in your support inbox.

9. Document your promotional history

Track which promotions you've run, which subscribers were affected, and what cleanup actions you took.

Why: When you're looking at subscription data 6 months later, you'll need to know:

• Why certain cohorts have different pricing

• Which subscribers were part of which promotional period

• What automated Journeys are running in the background

Simple approach: Maintain a shared doc or spreadsheet with:

• Promotion name and dates

• Discount configuration (codes, selling plan changes, etc.)

• Target audience (new subscribers, existing, specific segment)

• Cleanup actions (Journeys created, Bulk Operations run)What are the risks of discounting promotions?