Skip to main content

Product Settings

The Product Settings tab allows you to configure how products are displayed and priced within the customer subscription portal.

Overview​

Product Settings covers two main areas:

  1. Product Filters - Help customers find products in their portal
  2. Price Update Settings - Control automatic price synchronization
  3. Match Items to the Subscription Variant - Only offer one-time items that fit the customer's Build-your-box variant

Product Filters​

Product filters allow customers to browse and find products more easily when managing their subscriptions. Instead of showing a long list of all available products, filters let customers narrow down options by category.

What Are Product Filters?​

Product filters are custom tags or categories you create to organize your subscription products. They appear as dropdown options or filter chips in the customer portal.

Example filters:

  • "Premium Products"
  • "Seasonal Items"
  • "Best Sellers"
  • "New Arrivals"
  • "Vegan Options"
  • "Gluten-Free"

Customer experience: When a customer wants to add or swap products in their subscription, they can filter by these categories to quickly find what they're looking for instead of scrolling through all products.

Creating Product Filters​

To add a new filter:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Product Settings
  2. Scroll to the Product Filters section
  3. Click Add Filter
  4. Enter a filter name (2-50 characters)
  5. Click Add Filter

Filter naming guidelines:

  • Keep names short and descriptive (2-4 words)
  • Use customer-friendly language (not internal SKU codes)
  • Be specific enough to be useful ("Protein Powder" not "Powder")
  • Match language customers would use to search

Character limits:

  • Minimum: 2 characters
  • Maximum: 50 characters

Managing Existing Filters​

To edit or delete a filter:

  1. View your Current Filters list
  2. Click on a filter to edit its name
  3. Or click the delete icon to remove it

⚠️ Warning: Deleting a filter removes it from all assigned products. This action cannot be undone.

Assigning Products to Filters​

After creating filters, you need to assign products to them. There are two ways to do this:

Method 1: From the Product Page​

  1. Go to Products in the main navigation
  2. Click on a product to open its detail page
  3. Find the Product Filters section
  4. Select one or more filters from the dropdown
  5. Click Save

Best for: Assigning filters to individual products or when setting up new products

Method 2: Bulk Assignment​

  1. Go to Products in the main navigation
  2. Select multiple products using the checkboxes
  3. Click Actions → Assign Product Filters
  4. Select the filter(s) to assign
  5. Click Apply

Best for: Assigning the same filter to many products at once

Product Filter Best Practices​

How Many Filters Should You Create?​

Recommended: 4-8 filters

  • Too few (1-3): Doesn't provide enough value - might as well show all products
  • Just right (4-8): Meaningful categorization without overwhelming customers
  • Too many (10+): Customers get decision fatigue, filters become less useful

Filter Organization Strategies​

Strategy 1: Product Type

  • Protein Powders
  • Pre-Workouts
  • Recovery Drinks
  • Snacks

Best for: Stores with diverse product categories

Strategy 2: Dietary Preferences

  • Vegan
  • Gluten-Free
  • Keto-Friendly
  • Organic

Best for: Health and wellness stores where customers filter by restrictions

Strategy 3: Experience Level

  • Beginner-Friendly
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
  • Professional

Best for: Hobby or skill-based products

Strategy 4: Popularity/Curation

  • Best Sellers
  • Staff Picks
  • New Arrivals
  • Customer Favorites

Best for: Building trust and guiding customers to quality products

Strategy 5: Hybrid Approach Combine multiple strategies:

  • Product types (3-4 filters)
  • Dietary flags (2-3 filters)
  • Curation tags (1-2 filters)

Assigning Multiple Filters​

A product can have multiple filters. This provides flexibility in how customers find products.

Example: "Organic Vegan Protein Powder" could have filters:

  • Protein Powders (type)
  • Vegan (dietary)
  • Organic (dietary)
  • Best Sellers (curation)

Guidelines:

  • Assign 2-4 filters per product on average
  • Every product should have at least 1 filter
  • Don't over-tag - only use filters that truly apply

Testing Your Filters​

After setting up filters:

  1. View your customer portal as a test customer
  2. Try finding products using only the filters
  3. Ask: Can I quickly find what I'm looking for?
  4. Adjust filter names or assignments based on the experience

Price Update Settings​

When you change product prices in Shopify, these settings control whether existing subscription prices automatically update to match.

Automatic Price Updates​

Setting: Automatic price updates

When enabled:

  • Changes to product prices in Shopify automatically flow to active subscriptions
  • Next billing cycle uses the new price

When disabled:

  • Subscription prices remain at the original price
  • Even if you update the product price in Shopify, existing subscriptions keep their old price
  • Only new subscriptions get the new price

Only Update to Lower Prices​

Setting: Only update to lower prices

Available when: Automatic price updates are enabled

When enabled:

  • Price increases are ignored - subscriptions keep their current price
  • Price decreases are automatically applied
  • Useful for promotional periods or price drops

When disabled:

  • All price changes (increases and decreases) sync to subscriptions

Example:

  • Product currently $20
  • Subscription currently $20
  • You change product to $18 → Subscription updates to $18 ✅
  • You change product to $25 → Subscription stays at $18 (not updated) ✅

Choosing Your Price Update Strategy​

Configuration:

  • ✅ Automatic price updates: Enabled
  • ⬜ Only update to lower prices: Disabled

Best for:

  • Standard retail products with normal price adjustments
  • Stores where cost basis changes regularly
  • When you want pricing consistency across all customers

Pros:

  • Simple to manage - one price to maintain
  • Fair to all customers (new and existing)
  • Reflects your actual current pricing

Cons:

  • Price increases may cause cancellations
  • Requires customer notification strategy

Customer impact: Customers pay current market price, whether they subscribed 1 month ago or 1 year ago.

Option 2: Only Decrease Prices (Customer-Friendly)​

Configuration:

  • ✅ Automatic price updates: Enabled
  • ✅ Only update to lower prices: Enabled

Best for:

  • Premium subscription programs
  • High-value customer relationships
  • When you want to reward loyalty

Pros:

  • Customers never pay more than when they signed up
  • Customers get the benefit of sales and promotions
  • Great for customer retention

Cons:

  • Complex pricing - subscribers may pay different prices
  • Can squeeze margins if costs increase
  • New subscribers might feel unfair if they pay more than old subscribers

Customer impact: Customers get price drops but are protected from increases (grandfathered pricing).

Option 3: Manual Price Management​

Configuration:

  • ⬜ Automatic price updates: Disabled

Best for:

  • Subscription products with locked-in pricing
  • When subscription pricing is fundamentally different from one-time pricing
  • Complex pricing strategies (e.g., founder plans)

Pros:

  • Complete control over subscription pricing
  • Can offer subscription discounts without affecting one-time pricing
  • Predictable revenue

Cons:

  • Must manually update subscription prices when needed
  • Customers might not get the benefit of sales
  • More administrative work

Customer impact: Subscription price is locked at signup price indefinitely.

Price Change Communication​

If you have automatic updates enabled:

  1. Notify customers in advance - Send email 30 days before a price increase
  2. Explain the reason - Cost increases, product improvements, etc.
  3. Offer an out - Let customers cancel before the increase takes effect
  4. Grandfather option - Consider manually protecting long-term customers from increases

Legal requirement: In many jurisdictions, you must notify customers of price increases in advance (typically 30 days). Check your local regulations.

When to Change Settings​

Change from disabled to enabled:

  • You want to simplify price management
  • Your prices have been stable and are likely to remain so
  • You want to ensure all customers pay current pricing

Change from enabled to disabled:

  • You're planning significant price increases
  • You want to offer locked-in pricing as a loyalty benefit
  • You need to segment pricing (VIP customers vs. standard)

Enable "only lower prices":

  • During a promotional period (temporarily)
  • As a loyalty benefit for long-term subscribers
  • When cost reductions allow for permanent price drops

Match Items to the Subscription Variant​

Setting: Match items to the subscription variant (off by default)

When your Build-your-box product comes in variants, this keeps the one-time items a customer can add in line with the variant they subscribed to.

When enabled:

  • The one-time item picker in the customer portal only shows variants whose options match the customer's box variant. Every option an item shares with the box has to have the same value, and items that share no option with the box are hidden.
  • Default Item Fill only places matching items.
  • Items already in a customer's order stay visible, so they can still change or remove them.

Example: your box comes in the sizes Small, Medium and Large, and your add-on items use the same Size option. A customer subscribed to the Medium box is only offered the Medium variant of each item. An item that also has a Color option is still offered in every color, because Size is the only option it shares with the box. An item without a Size option isn't offered at all.

What it requires: the box and the items need the same option name, spelled exactly the same. Option names and values are compared exactly as written, including upper and lower case.

You can set this per plan with a per-plan override. The badge next to the setting shows how many plans override it.

Troubleshooting​

Product Filters Not Showing in Customer Portal​

Possible causes:

  1. No products assigned to the filter
  2. Assigned products aren't available for subscription
  3. Customer's subscription plan doesn't allow product changes

Solution:

  • Verify products are assigned to filters
  • Check that Subscription Features settings allow product editing
  • Ensure products are active and in stock

Price Updates Not Applying​

Possible causes:

  1. Automatic updates are disabled
  2. Price increase with "only lower prices" enabled
  3. Subscription has a discount code that overrides pricing

Solution:

  • Check your Price Update Settings configuration
  • Verify the direction of price change
  • Review individual subscription for overrides

Need help? Contact support if you have questions about product organization or pricing strategy.