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Subscription apps

There is nothing to connect. Charm reads subscriptions straight off the Shopify order, so every subscription rule works the moment you switch it on — no API key, no webhook, no app-to-app setup.

Which apps work

Section titled “Which apps work”

Any subscription app that bills through Shopify’s native subscription APIs, including:

  • Shopify Subscriptions (native)
  • Appstle Subscriptions
  • Recharge
  • Seal Subscriptions
  • Loop Subscriptions
  • Skio
  • Bold Subscriptions
  • PayWhirl

The list isn’t a compatibility matrix Charm maintains per app — it’s simply what “bills through Shopify” means in practice. Charm never talks to the subscription app at all.

How it works

Section titled “How it works”

When a subscription app bills a customer through Shopify, the resulting order carries a selling plan on the line item. Charm looks for exactly that, which is why it doesn’t care which app put it there:

  • Charm counts orders, not subscription contracts. Every paid order containing a selling-plan line counts as one subscription payment.
  • Because the signal is a native Shopify field, switching subscription apps doesn’t break your loyalty program — history keeps counting.

What you can build on it

Section titled “What you can build on it”
RuleWhat it does
Start a subscriptionOne-time bonus the first time a customer subscribes — the nudge from one-off buying to subscribing
Subscription payment milestonesA reward after the 3rd, 6th, 12th payment — any thresholds you like, each paying out once per customer
Points per amount spentRecurring orders earn like any other order

Milestone rewards don’t have to be points. Each step can grant bonus points, a free product, an amount or percentage off, or free shipping — so a one-year subscriber can receive an actual thing on their anniversary rather than a number.

Three behaviours worth knowing

Section titled “Three behaviours worth knowing”
  1. Counting starts when you create the rule. Payments made before that don’t count, so switching milestones on in a store with long-running subscribers never triggers a surprise mass payout.
  2. Refunds and cancellations self-correct. A refunded order stops counting and progress rolls back.
  3. One payment per calendar month is capped by default. A customer with three parallel subscriptions progresses one step per month instead of jumping three steps every billing cycle. Switch it off to count every subscription order.

Check it in 30 seconds

Section titled “Check it in 30 seconds”

If you want to confirm your setup before building rules on it:

  1. Open any recent subscription order in your Shopify admin.
  2. Look at a line item — a subscription order shows the selling plan / delivery frequency on the line.

If it’s there, Charm sees it. If a line has no selling plan, that order was created outside Shopify’s subscription APIs and won’t count as a subscription payment — rare, and usually a sign of a legacy checkout integration.

Redeeming rewards on subscription orders

Section titled “Redeeming rewards on subscription orders”

By default, a customer’s redeemed reward discount codes do apply to subscription orders. To restrict rewards to one-time purchases, turn on Exclude subscription orders — see exclude subscription orders from rewards.

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