Manage auto-renewable subscription pricing in App Store Connect

Thank you for joining our session.

Today, we'd like to provide step-by-step guidance to show you some of the ways you can manage price changes for your auto-renewable subscriptions in App Store Connect.

I'm Bryan and I'm part of the App Store Monetization team based in Cupertino.

App Store Connect provides many tools to help you manage your subscriptions pricing on the App Store.

To name a few examples, you can use App Store Connect to create subscription offers to help you acquire, retain, and win back customers.

You can also use it to set the price of your subscription across all available territories.

It gives you the ability to increase or decrease the price of your subscription for new customers as well as manage price increases for customers on preserved pricing.

And today's presentation is focused on these last two capabilities.

Today we'll walk through the necessary steps to create and manage your price increases.

We'll show you how to remove preserved pricing from specific cohorts, how to initiate a price decrease, and finally, we'll discuss how you can edit upcoming price changes before they go live.

So let's get started by simulating the steps you would take in order to initiate a price increase on your subscription.

This process will begin in the subscription pricing section of App Store Connect, which can be found within the details of your auto-renewable subscription.

Start by clicking on the plus button.

Then, click on Plan Subscription Price Change from the drop-down menu.

You'll then be prompted to select the territories where you want to edit pricing.

Once you've made your selection, click Next.

You'll then choose the date you'd like to begin your price increase, followed by the currency and new price.

Then, click Next.

Apple automatically calculates the prices for all territories based on your chosen price point, determined by the most recent foreign exchange rates and taxation.

However, you still have the option to set different price points per territory in the event it's more appropriate to your services value in those markets.

Once you've completed your review of pricing in each region, click Next.

Then, you'll be prompted with the option of how to manage pricing for your current subscribers.

You can either keep the current price for existing subscribers so that anyone who has subscribed before the start date of the price change won't be affected, or apply the new price to your existing subscribers.

Let's review that first scenario more closely.

If you don't want to apply your price increase to your existing subscribers -- for example, to keep existing customer commitments or reduce churn -- select Preserve current price for existing subscribers.

Then, click Next.

You'll then be prompted to review and confirm the list of planned price changes.

Now, let's discuss how you would apply your price increase to your existing subscribers.

By selecting "Apply price increase to existing subscribers," you will have the option to apply the price change to existing subscribers who are paying the price of your subscription currently displayed on the App Store.

Any subscribers on previously preserved prices won't be affected.

The App Store will automatically communicate to any customer impacted by the price increase that a change is scheduled to occur.

Depending on certain criteria, customers will either be notified or asked to consent before renewing at a higher price.

Customer consent is required in certain markets as well as in scenarios when large or frequent price increases occur.

In the event your price change meets these criteria, App Store Connect will provide an indicator icon noting consent is required.

Apple will then inform affected customers through email, push notification, and in-app messaging to ask them to agree to the new price.

You also have the option to use the showPriceConsentIfNeeded() method to surface the in-app consent sheet at specific times.

In the event of the notification flow, Apple will send an email to all customers and provide an in-app message to customers on iOS 13.4 and later, at least 30 days prior to the price increase.

Then, seven days prior to the price increase, if a customer has not yet viewed an in-app message and has push notifications enabled, they will also receive a push notification on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

The price will then automatically increase on day 30, unless a customer chooses to cancel their subscription before then.

Now jumping back into App Store Connect.

When choosing to apply your price increase to existing subscribers, you'll be prompted to select the regions where you would like to schedule your price change.

Once selected, click Next.

As mentioned, Apple automatically calculates the prices for all territories based on your chosen price point.

But you again have the option to set different prices for specific territories.

Once you've set any specific territory prices, click Next.

You'll again be prompted to review the list of planned price changes.

And in the event you want to export the list, click Export as CSV in the top right.

And once you're ready to initiate your price increase, click Confirm.

In both scenarios, once a price change has been scheduled, you'll be able to review it until it goes into effect, alongside your current prices.

And you can view details about your upcoming price change by clicking on the drop-down next to the date of the change.

However, note that once a price change goes into effect on your scheduled date, it cannot be edited or undone.

If you initially decide to preserve prices, you have the option to undo this action at a later time.

Now let's talk about how you would initiate this in the event you have subscribers on multiple preserved prices.

Keep in mind that if you have subscribers on multiple preserved prices in the same territory, you can only increase a preserved price to the next highest price.

So if you decide to bring all subscribers on preserved prices to the current price, start with the preserved price closest to the current price and unpreserve it, then unpreserve the next highest price, and so on.

Let's take a look at an example.

This developer is looking to increase multiple preserved customer cohorts to the 3.99 price point, which is the price they currently have displayed on the store.

They'll start by increasing the price of their 2.99 cohort since it's the closest group to the current price.

As you can see here, the new price of 3.99 goes into effect on February 1.

Next, they'll bring the 1.99 cohort up to the current price of 3.99 on March 1, and all of their customers will now be paying the same price for their subscription.

While this example shows price increases occurring on the first of the month, note that you have the ability to choose whatever date works best for your business.

To initiate a price increase on a preserved cohort, click the date of the price change that occurred closest to your current price.

Then, click Edit Price.

And select the territories where you want to unpreserve the price.

Click Next.

Review the changes and click Confirm.

You'll then repeat these steps for subscribers on other preserved prices, starting with the next price closest to the current price.

Now, let's look at how to plan a price decrease.

We'll start again in the Subscription Pricing section of App Store Connect.

Click on the plus button, then click on Plan Subscription Price Change from the drop-down menu.

Select the territories where you want to decrease the price.

Once you've made your selection, click Next.

You'll then choose the date you'd like to begin your price decrease, followed by the currency and new price.

Then, click Next.

Again, you'll be prompted to review the price changes in each territory and optionally set different prices per territory.

Once you've completed your review of pricing in each region, click Next.

You will then be prompted to confirm your upcoming price decreases by clicking Confirm.

In the event that any current subscribers are paying higher than the new price, they will automatically renew at the lower price.

Your price decrease will then go into effect on the scheduled date.

Note that if you want to decrease the price of your subscription, the price will decrease for all subscribers and you can't preserve any higher-priced cohorts.

Let's take a look at another example.

Here the developer has chosen to reduce the price of their subscription to 99 cents starting on March 1.

Since that price is cheaper than all of their existing pricing cohorts, all customers will be brought down to the new price starting on March 1.

Finally, let's talk about how you can edit your upcoming price changes before they go into effect.

If you decide you no longer need the price change to occur, click Delete Price Change or click Edit Price Change to make your necessary modifications.

You'll then be able to make edits to the regions where your price change will occur, the date your price change will begin, and your new subscription price.

You can also automate many elements of subscription price management with the App Store Connect API.

For more information on all of the topics discussed today, please visit our developer website, which has a number of resources for you to review.

And that concludes today's presentation.

We hope this has helped you understand the necessary steps to take when choosing to initiate a price change for your business.