Getting started

This guide covers the main steps required to set up and launch your subscription program with Yari Flow.

You will learn how to:

Configure subscription products and selling plans
Review billing and shipping settings
Set up users, roles and permissions
Set up the customer experience
Configure Cancel Flow
Test your subscription journey
Prepare your store to go live

For detailed instructions on a specific feature, follow the related guides linked throughout this article.

What is Yari Flow?

Yari Flow is a Shopify-native subscription platform that allows merchants to sell products on a recurring basis.

You define the subscription options available to customers, including how often they are billed, how often products are delivered and whether a subscription discount applies.

Yari Flow then helps your team manage recurring subscriptions, subscriber accounts, customer experiences and subscription performance as your program grows.

A typical subscription journey works as follows:

1. You configure products and selling plans. Selling plans define the subscription options customers can choose, such as billing frequency, delivery frequency and subscription discounts.

2. The customer chooses a subscription. The customer selects a subscription option on the product page and completes their purchase through Shopify Checkout.

3. Recurring orders are processed. Future subscription orders are processed according to the schedule associated with the customer’s subscription.

4. The customer manages their subscription. Subscribers use the My Account to view and manage their subscriptions. Depending on your configuration, they may be able to skip an order, pause a subscription, swap products, update payment details or make other changes.

5. Your team manages and monitors subscriptions. From the Yari Flow Dashboard, your team can manage subscriptions, review subscriber activity and monitor real-time performance data.

Before you start

Before configuring Yari Flow, confirm that:

The products you want to offer are active in Shopify
Your subscription terms, delivery schedules and discounts have been agreed
Your shipping rules have been defined
The relevant team members have access to the Yari Flow Dashboard
The roles and permission levels required by your team have been identified
Any integrations required for launch have been identified
Your Shopify theme is ready to display the Yari Flow subscription experience

Step 1: Create your subscription plan and assign products

Start by creating the subscription plan that customers will be able to select.

A subscription plan defines the terms of the subscription, including how often customers are billed, how often products are delivered and whether a subscription discount applies.

To create a subscription plan:

1. In the Yari Flow Dashboard, go to Plan Groups.

2. Create a new Selling Plan Group.

3. Inside the Selling Plan Group Create Selling Plans

4. Configure the available options, including:

Name
Description
Delivery frequency
Delivery Interval
Subscription price policy type
Subscription discount

5. Save and activate the subscription plan.

Next, assign the subscription plan to the relevant products:

1. In the left-hand menu of the Yari Flow Dashboard, go to Products > Products.

2. Find the products you want to make available for subscription.

3. Confirm that the product information and variants are correct.

Next, configure the selling plans that will apply to those products:

1. Select Open in Shopify inside the product.

2. Scroll down to Product information.

3. Under Purchase options, select a Selling Plan Group.

4. Save and activate the selling plan.

Once your products and selling plans have been configured, check that the correct subscription options appear on the relevant product pages.

Step 2: Review your essential settings

Before accepting subscription orders, review the settings that control recurring billing, shipping and team access.

Billing Schedule

Go to Manage Settings > Billing > Schedule to review when recurring subscription billing is processed.

Within these settings, you can review or configure:

‍Shop timezone: Defines the timezone for your shop‍
Recurring billing: Yari Flow runs recurring billing daily and processes subscriptions that are due according to their individual schedules.‍
Billing reminder: Controls the reminder associated with the daily billing process.

Review these settings before launch to make sure the billing timing reflects how your subscription program should operate.

Shipping settings

Yari Flow uses the shipping configuration set up in Shopify when subscription orders are created.

Before launch, review your Shopify shipping settings and confirm that the correct rates and rules apply to the products available for subscription.

Test your setup with:

Different delivery addresses
Different subscription products
Free-shipping thresholds
Location-specific shipping rates
Any shipping profiles linked to subscription products

Check that the expected shipping charge appears during the initial checkout and on subsequent subscription orders.

Failed Payments Dunning

Failed Payments Dunning controls how Yari Flow retries recurring subscriber payments that fail.

This is separate from the Billing:

‍Billing Schedule determines when recurring billing runs each day.‍
Failed Payments Dunning determines how unsuccessful recurring payments are retried.

To review these settings:

1. Go to Manage Settings > Billing

2. Find the Failed Payments Dunning section.

3. Configure:

‍Days between retries: How long Yari Flow waits before attempting the payment again.‍
Max Failed Attempts on Cycle: The maximum number of retry attempts made within each cycle.‍
Max Failed Cycles: The maximum number of unsuccessful retry cycles.

Review the retry configuration before launch to make sure it reflects how you want Yari Flow to handle failed subscriber payments.

Users, roles & permissions

Before launch, make sure each team member has access to the areas and actions required for their role.

In Yari Flow, you can create roles and choose:

Which sections of the Dashboard each role can access
Which information users can view
Which actions users can perform
Which settings or subscription changes users can manage

This allows you to give support, ecommerce, operations and finance teams the access they need without giving every user full account permissions.

To review your team access:

1. Go to Users.

2. There you have All Users and Roles, review the existing users and roles.

3. Create any additional roles your team requires.

4. Select the access and actions available to each role.

5. Assign the correct role to each user.

6. Confirm that each user can access the areas required for their responsibilities.

Depending on your team structure, you may want to create separate roles for:

Customer support
Ecommerce or subscription management
Operations
Finance and invoicing
Administrators

Only give full administrative access to users who require it for their responsibilities.

Step 3: Configure the customer experience

This stage covers the parts of Yari Flow that subscribers see and interact with directly.

A clear customer experience can make subscription management easier and reduce avoidable support requests.

My Account

The My Account is the area where your team configures the subscription experience that customers see within My Account.

Go to the Yari Flow app > My Account to configure:

Colours and visual styling
Page layout
The widgets shown to subscribers
Available subscription-management actions
Empty-state behaviour

Before launch, access My Account using a test customer and review:

1. The login experience

2. The page design and branding

3. The widgets displayed

4. The available subscription actions

5. The empty states shown when no information is available

6. The experience on desktop and mobile

Customer login page

Review the page customers use to access My Account and make sure it reflects your store branding.

Go to Storefront > My Account and locate the relevant login settings.

Check that:

The store name and branding are correct
The instructions are clear
Customers understand how to access their account
Error and empty states provide useful guidance
The page works correctly on mobile devices

Email notifications

Yari Flow can send automated emails for important subscription events.

These may include:

Upcoming subscription orders
Subscription changes
Payment-related events
Cancellations

Go to Retain > Email Notifications to review the notifications available for your store.

Before launch:

1. Confirm which notifications are enabled.

2. Review the sender name and sender details.

3. Check the email branding and content.

4. Review any dynamic customer or subscription information.

5. Confirm when each notification is sent.

6. Send test emails where supported.

7. Check how the emails display on desktop and mobile.

Step 4: Configure Cancel Flow

Cancel Flow controls the experience shown when a subscriber attempts to cancel their subscription.

You can configure:

A standard Cancel Flow
An AI-powered Cancel Flow

Depending on the subscriber’s cancellation reason and your configuration, the flow can present relevant alternatives before the cancellation is completed.

These may include:

Pausing the subscription
Skipping an upcoming order
Changing the delivery frequency
Swapping a product
Receiving an eligible retention offer

Configuring Cancel Flow allows you to create a clearer and more relevant cancellation experience.

To set it up:

1. Go to Subscriptions > Cancel Flow / Cancelation AI Flow.

2. Choose whether to create a standard or AI-powered Cancel Flow.

3. Configure the cancellation reasons customers can select.

4. Define the journey or response associated with each reason.

5. Configure any alternative actions or eligible offers.

6. Review the final cancellation confirmation.

7. Test the complete flow as a subscriber.

Only present alternatives that are relevant to the customer’s cancellation reason. Customers should always be able to understand how to continue and complete their cancellation.

Further guidance

Merchants migrating from another platform

See Migration overview for information about what to expect before, during and after moving subscriptions to Yari Flow.

Contacting Yari Flow support

Contact your Yari Flow account team by using help@yariflow.com.

When contacting the team, include:

Reason of contact
Your store name
A brief explanation of the situation