Price increases can be tricky to implement well. Price increases for existing auto-renewing subscriptions are regulated in most jurisdictions. A poorly managed price increase can have the opposite of its intended effect and result in loss of revenue. This guide is designed to help you through the process as safely as possible.
1. Raise prices for new subscribers
Raising prices for new subscribers is a relatively simple process and can help you understand the effect of your new prices without risking existing revenue or running afoul of complicated regulations.
Create new App Store, Play Store, and Stripe subscription plans. Create one new plan with your updated pricing for each existing plan with your previous pricing.
Import the new plans into your Treefort dashboard from the Monetization tab and publish them.
Archive the old plans from your Treefort dashboard, but don’t change them in App Store Connect, the Play Console, or Stripe.
This process ensures that new subscribers will pay the new prices while existing subscribers can continue renewing at the prices they originally consented to pay. If existing subscribers decide to switch plans they will have to choose from one of the new plans and update to the new pricing.
2. Notify existing subscribers
👉 If you don’t need to raise prices for existing subscribers, you’re done! Skip the rest of this guide.
🚧 Price increases can significantly increase cancellation rates, even before the increase is scheduled to take effect. You might consider experimenting with price increases for new subscribers before determining how to handle existing subscribers.
🚧 The size of your price increase can determine whether Apple or Google will still allow automatic subscription renewal. You may wish to consult their documentation (step 3) before determining your new prices.
It’s important to notify existing subscribers of a price increase well in advance of the actual change, both as a consideration and to comply with regulations. Apple and Google will send out automatic notifications when you schedule the change in their systems, but Stripe will not. Either way, we recommend sending out your own notification first.
Details such as how to send the notification, how to word it, and when to send it may be regulated, so please consult with your lawyer. We recommend, at the very least, a dedicated email to your subscribers clearly stating their current price, what their new price will be, when the increase will take place, and why you are raising prices.
3. Schedule price increases for existing subscribers
🚧 Apple and Google place limitations on price increases to protect subscribers and comply with regulations. Some price increases may disable automatic subscription renewal, potentially resulting in significant revenue loss. Read the documentation from Apple and Google (linked below) for details.
You can schedule a price increase for your App Store and Play Store subscription plans via App Store Connect and the Play Console. Please see Apple’s instructions for increasing prices and Google’s instructions for increasing prices. No changes are needed in your Treefort dashboard.
Stripe does support scheduling price increases for existing subscribers, but their dashboard only allows you to do this for one subscriber at a time. Bulk updates must be done via their API. Please reach out to us for help with this.