Customize your subscription program
Once your business matures and expands, you may be ready for some advanced customizations beyond Recharge’s out-of-the-box features. Fortunately, Recharge is built to grow with you. There are no key steps for this stage since every business is different, but there are some common ideas many merchants choose to explore.
Three ways to customize your subscription offering
Check off these essential steps when upgrading your subscription choices.
- Enhance the customer portal. You can modify your customer portal beyond just updating the CSS . Merchants on the Pro and Custom plans can also take advantage of the Theme Engine to modify page layouts, update the source code, and integrate with third parties. Alternatively, if you have the resources, it may be time to consider more advanced customizations using the API, even building your own customer portal .
- Individualize product recommendations. The key to truly taking your average order value (AOV) to the next level is individualization. You can start making more personalized upsell recommendations with an integration like Carthook , or explore creating a preference quiz to upsell customers before they even make the sale.
- Integrate with an app. The Recharge API gives you the flexibility to build or expand on anything you need. For instance, if your brand decides to launch a mobile app, you can ensure a seamless experience for subscribers by feeding the app subscription details using the API. If you’re not equipped to build this customization on your own, our agency partners can help.
Use customization to offer personalized recommendations. Bumpin Blends utilizes a custom customer portal and a quiz flow , making it easy for shoppers to select their products and manage their subscriptions. Native implemented a fully custom and responsive dashboard that delivers an innovative experience to online shoppers, making their subscription management easy to navigate.
Resources for your developers
If you’ve decided to work with an in-house developer, make sure to send them to our Developer Hub . From there, your developers will be able to find everything they need, including API documentation and more.
Find a development partner
You’ll need developer resources to implement most advanced customizations beyond our out-of-the-box options, but if an in-house developer isn’t in the cards yet, you can still achieve your goals. Work with our trained and approved agency partners to make your dreams come true. Whether you’re hoping to integrate with an app not listed in our integrations directory , launch a custom subscription widget , or just explore the freedom to create entirely custom experiences for your subscribers, there’s an agency partner who can help.
Why upgrade to Pro or Custom?
The Pro and Custom plans offer additional features and services targeted to merchants with more mature subscription programs. For example:
- Improve the depth of your analytics through additional dashboards and reports
- Unlock advanced customization tools to fully personalize your subscription experience
- Solve problems quickly with access to live phone support
Common questions when customizing your subscription program Expand all
Why shouldn’t I just build my own subscription solution?
If your subscription business is doing really well, it might be tempting to pursue a completely custom subscription solution. Recharge has invested in a powerful API to grant you the flexibility for the customization you need without all of the hidden costs involved in building a fully custom solution. Resources Weigh the upfront and hidden costs
Which customer portal solution is right for me?
If you’re only looking to make small updates to your customer portal such as language or slight style changes, Recharge’s out-of-the-box tools will be sufficient. The Recharge Theme Engine, available for merchants on Pro and Custom plans, supports more complex updates while still hosting the portal within Recharge. Lastly, if you prefer to host your own independent customer portal, you can power it with the Recharge API. This is also a great option if you intend to use subscription data to power related initiatives such as referral or loyalty programs. Resources Compare my options
Can Recharge support a headless build?
The term headless refers to a store built with a split front and back end, allowing each to be fully optimized and customized. Merchants can take advantage of Recharge’s API to operate headlessly. Resources Learn more about the benefits of headless Ballsy’s Headless Success Story
What are some common uses of the Recharge API?
Although we’ve covered some ambitious API projects already on this page, most API applications are smaller in scale. For example, you might further customize the display of certain features, offer subscriptions on some variants of a product but not all, improve user tracking, and more. Our developer docs contain more examples and even sample code snippets. Resources Developer docs
How do I access the Recharge API?
You can generate API tokens from the Apps section of Recharge. Resources Accessing the Recharge API