Costs went up, and the box price has to follow
Postage went up, the brands you work with raised their unit prices and your mailer supplier sent a new price list. The box price has not changed in a long time, and it has to. The decision is made. The problem is doing it.
The subscription app can change the price on the product, but not on existing subscriptions without a bulk edit. Some subscribers are on an old founding-member price you promised to honour. Some are on prepaid plans. Some are gift subscriptions. Someone suggests an email to everyone and a bulk update on the 1st, and someone else remembers what happened the last time: charges at the new price for people who never saw the email.
Why a price change turns into a project
Subscribers are not one group. Each has a different history and a different set of promises attached.
- Founding members or early subscribers may have been promised a price for life or for a period.
- Prepaid plans are already paid and should not change until they end.
- Gift subscriptions are paid by someone else and end on their own date.
- Monthly subscribers renew on different days, so 'from next month' means different dates.
- Some subscribers are paused and will not see a charge for months.
The subscription app sees subscriptions. The groups and the promises live in someone's memory and old emails.
What a messy price change costs
Subscribers charged a new price without notice complain, ask for refunds or dispute the charge. People promised a locked price who get the new one feel misled, and they are often your most loyal. Notices that arrive too late, or go to the wrong group, force a second round of emails and apologies.
The other risk is that the price change never fully happens. Half the subscribers get moved, the rest stay on the old price because of edge cases, and nobody finishes the job.
The price change run we build
- Every active, paused, prepaid and gift subscription is pulled from your subscription app and sorted into groups by plan, start date, any locked-price promise you record and next renewal date.
- For each group, you choose what happens: new price from a set renewal, locked price kept, change at the end of a prepaid plan, or no change for gifts.
- Each subscriber gets a notice in your words, sent a set period before their first charge at the new price, with the date and amount for them specifically.
- The new price is applied in the subscription app only after the notice has gone and the notice period has passed for that subscriber.
- Paused subscribers get their notice when they are due to resume, not months early.
- A record shows each subscriber, the notice sent, the date sent and the renewal where the new price took effect.
| Group | Example handling | Notice timing |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly, standard | New price from a set renewal | Your notice period before that renewal |
| Founding members | Locked price kept, or changed as you decide | Only if changing |
| Prepaid | New price at the next prepaid purchase | Before the plan ends |
| Gift | No change until the gift ends | Not needed |
| Paused | New price when resuming | Before the resume date |
How much notice to give and what the notices must say is for you and your adviser to decide. The run makes sure whatever you decide is applied to each subscriber and recorded.
A price change that finishes
You set the groups and the dates once. Notices go out on their schedule. The price in the subscription app changes renewal by renewal as each subscriber's notice period passes. Support can see exactly what each subscriber was told and when, so complaints can be answered precisely. Founding members keep what they were promised, and nobody is charged a price they were not told about.
At the end, a report shows every subscription on its correct price, with none left behind.
Is this the price change you are putting off?
- You know the box price needs to rise but dread the admin.
- Some subscribers have been promised a locked price.
- Your last price change led to disputed charges.
- Paused and prepaid subscribers were handled inconsistently.
- Some subscribers are still on an old price by accident.