In Shopify, subscriptions are built from three separate pieces:
Selling plan = what customers pick at checkout (e.g., “Deliver every 2 weeks”, “Subscribe & save 10%”, “minimum 3 cycles”).
Subscription contract = the ongoing subscription record Shopify creates after the first order (customer, product/variant, frequency, status, next billing date, etc.).
Recurring orders = the actual orders Shopify generates each time the contract renews.
Because contracts are separate from selling plans, editing a selling plan usually does NOT change existing subscriptions.
Core rule
Changing or deleting a selling plan affects new subscriptions only.
Exception: Product swap + Automatic actions
In Kaching Subscriptions, product swap rules and automatic actions can affect both new and existing subscriptions going forward, because they work like "rule engines" that evaluate subscriptions over time.
Important: not retroactive
Automatic actions are not retroactive:
They don’t change past orders.
They don’t “rewrite” existing history.
But they can apply to future renewals of subscriptions that already exist - if those subscriptions match the rule conditions later.
This typically happens when:
The subscription reaches a specific order number (e.g., the next renewal is #3 in an “after 2 orders” rule), and
The subscription’s product/variant matches the rule’s targets.
You can learn more about automatic actions in this article.
Example
Setup
Selling plan: “Subscribe monthly — 10% off”
Product: Coffee Beans (Variant A)
Existing: 100 active subscriptions created from this plan
Change made today
Automatic action: “After 2 successful orders, swap product to Variant B (Decaf)”
What happens
Past orders stay the same.
For any of those 100 subscriptions, if their next renewal is order #3 and they’re still on Variant A, the next renewal will be swapped to Variant B.
So:
✅ Past orders remain unchanged
✅ Future renewals can change, even for subscriptions created before the update
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