Welcome to Skio! This guide walks you through everything you need to go from installation to a live subscription program, what Skio is, how it works, and the key steps to get set up.
What is Skio, and how does it work?
Skio is an analytics-driven subscription platform built for Shopify merchants. It lets you sell products on a recurring basis, charging and shipping customers automatically on a schedule you define, while giving you the data and tools to grow revenue, reduce churn, and manage your program at scale.
Here's how the core flow works:
You configure your products and selling plans: Selling plans define the subscription terms your customers can choose from: how often they're billed, how often they receive orders, and any discounts applied.
Customers subscribe at checkout: They pick a subscription option directly on your product page, then completes checkout as usual through Shopify.
Orders process automatically: Skio handles recurring billing, order generation, and payment retries on the schedule you've set.
Customers manage their own subscriptions: Through the Customer Portal, a self-service hub Skio adds to your store, subscribers can skip, pause, swap products, update payment methods, and more.
You monitor and act from the Skio Dashboard: Your Dashboard gives you real-time analytics on subscriber growth, churn, revenue recovery, and more, with direct access to every tool you need.
Step 1: Add your subscription products
Your first task is to make sure the products you want to sell on subscription are added to Skio and configured with selling plans. Skio automatically syncs product data from Shopify. When you add a new product in Shopify, it will appear on the Products page in Skio where you can configure its subscription settings.
In the left-hand menu of your Skio Dashboard, go to Products > Products. The products you’ve configured in Shopify will display here.
Then go to Products > Selling Plans to create your subscription terms (billing frequency, delivery cadence, and any Subscribe & Save discount.)
Once your selling plans are live, Skio's subscription widget will automatically display your subscription options on the product pages for those items. See Getting started with Selling Plans for more details.
Step 2: Configure your essential settings
A handful of settings have a direct impact on how subscriptions are billed and how customers experience your program. Get these right before your first orders process.
Billing and order settings
Configure how and when subscription orders are processed, including billing cycles, order generation timing, payment retry logic, and dunning management.
Go to Settings > Billing & Orders to configure:
Billing cycles: When and how often subscription orders are generated
Order generation timing: How far in advance orders are created before the billing date
Payment retry logic: How many times Skio attempts to charge a failed payment before marking the subscription as failed
See Billing and Order Settings for more details.
Shipping settings
Go to Settings > Shipping to configure how shipping costs are calculated for recurring orders, including whether to charge shipping on every order, only the first, or not at all.
See Shipping Settings for more details.
Account settings
To manage users and account-level settings, open the account menu by clicking the arrows next to your store name in the bottom left corner of your Skio Dashboard. From here you can:
Users: Add team members and control their permission levels
Activity Log: Review all changes made in your account
Invoicing: View your Skio billing and plan details
See Navigating the Skio Dashboard for more details.
Step 3: Set up your customer experience
This is what your subscribers will actually see and interact with. Getting it right reduces support tickets and increases retention.
Customer Portal
The Customer Portal is the self-service hub where subscribers manage their subscriptions. Configure its layout, available actions, and branding in Storefront > Customer Portal.
See Customer Portal for more details.
Email notifications
Skio sends automated emails for key subscription events, upcoming orders, failed payments, cancellations, and more. Review and customize these in Retain > Email Notifications.
See Configuring Skio Notifications for more details.
Account login page
Customize the branded login page customers use to access their subscription account. Go to Storefront > Customer Portal and look for the login page settings.
See Customer login options in Skio for more details.
Step 4: Enable retention and recovery tools
These two tools have the highest direct impact on revenue and are worth activating early.
Payment Recovery
Payment Recovery automatically retries failed charges and sends recovery emails on a schedule you control. It's one of the fastest ways to recoup revenue that would otherwise be lost to involuntary churn.
Set it up at Retain > Payment Recovery.
See Payment Recovery for more details.
Cancel Flow
Cancel Flow intercepts customers who try to cancel and presents targeted offers (like a discount, a pause, or a product swap) before they leave. Even a modest reduction in voluntary churn compounds significantly over time.
Set it up at Retain > Cancel Flow.
See Cancel Flow for more details.
Key features and where to find them
Once your core setup is done, here's a map of where to find everything in the Skio Dashboard:
What you want to do | Where to go |
|---|---|
View subscription analytics and revenue | |
Manage individual subscriptions | |
View and manage customer profiles | |
Set up Build-a-Box | |
Create Quick Actions for emails and SMS | |
Set up Smart Upsell | |
Configure a loyalty program | |
Run bulk updates on subscriptions | |
Export subscription data | |
Connect integrations (Klaviyo, etc.) |
For a full walkthrough of the Dashboard layout and navigation, see Navigating the Skio Dashboard.
Where to go for specific tasks
For your CX or support team: See Onboarding for Customer Experience Teams for more details on how to handle common subscriber requests, navigate subscription records, and manage escalations.
If you're migrating from another platform: See Migration Overview for more details on what to expect from the migration process.
For analytics terminology: See Analytics Glossary for more details on the key metrics you'll see across your dashboards.
To contact the team: Reach out to your account team or email help@skio.com