With Bulk Autoswaps, you can automatically replace products that were previously removed from a Build-a-box!

We built this feature specifically to handle boxes where product changes are necessary. Rather than blocking the order, or selling something that you no longer have "on the menu", we make it easy to replace products for all of your current subscribers.

Bulk Autoswap is only available for bands on Standard or Enterprise plans—please reach out to our team if you need more information.

Section 1 - Initializing the autoswap

Autoswap is available from the 'Select products' section of the Build-a-box page.

When you update the product list or collection from the "Manage" button, you will be prompted to select a swap type if any item was removed from the list.

During this step, you can choose to maintain the current selection or replace the products with new selections. If you choose to maintain the selection, subscribers will continue to receive items that they currently have selected. Choosing to replace will look for the removed items in any existing subscription and replace them with new items.

Note: Simply adding products via "Manage" will not trigger an autoswap. This is because your customers will have already subscribed to the available options.

There are four options to choose from when replacing products:

Random product from list
- This option will pick replacements at random from any product currently available
Based on position within collection (only available on collection swaps)
- This option will look for the position of the removed item and preselect a replacement with the same position in the new collection. For example, if 'Product A' was in the first position within the removed collection and 'Product B' was in the first position of the new collection, we will attempt to replace Product A with B.
- If no product is available at the position, we leave the option unselected so that you can choose the best alternative.
Matching product type
- This option attempts to find matching pair based on the "product type" of the product. For example, if you remove "Lavender shampoo" (which has product type "shampoo"), but another product called "Coconut shampoo" is available (and this item also has product type "shampoo"), we will attempt to replace the outgoing product with the other available option.
- If no match can be found, we leave the option unselected so that you can choose the best alternative.
Select specific replacements
- This option simply allows you to pick each replacement manually.

Once you've made your selection, you simply select 'Continue' in the modal. Any additional prompt appears to confirm the swap.

Now the process begins running in the background. Note that the 'Manage' button will be disabled while the process is running.

Section 2 - Triggering a swap without updating the product list

Sometimes, you may want to trigger an autoswap to run asynchronously from updating the products (as described in Section 1 above). This may be needed if you made changes to a collection's contents outside of Awtomic (within Shopify's product section). Or perhaps, you simply decided not to run it previously.

In order to replace the removed item, you will be able to trigger a random swap from the "three-dot" menu within the 'Select products' section of the Build-a-box bundle page.

This triggers a modal to appear which describes the autoswap process. Once you're ready to trigger the swap process, select 'Continue' and then Confirm from the follow-up confirmation screen.

Important note: This type of swap ONLY allows for random swaps. This is because we no longer have a historical record of the "previous" available options.

Once the process initiates, we look for any removed products in the current subscriptions of this build-a-box and replace them with an available option.

Section 3 - Tracking the progress of the autoswap

You will be able to find the progress of the autoswap process from the new Bulk processes page, located next to the 'Export' button on the subscription list.

When a process, finishes, it is marked with a 'Completed' badge. If an error occurs, it will be marked with an Error badge.

You will be able to download a report via the details page of the bulk action. Please locate the 'Download' button near the top right to download a CSV file that contains success and failure details. This will allow you to make manual changes in the event of a system failure.

Closing thoughts

These autoswap options provide a lot of powerful tools to keep your customers engaged and your business running smoothly. Our mission is to enable long-lasting relationships between merchants and customers, increasing the retention rate and LTV of your subscription boxes.

We hope this article serves to answer any questions you may have regarding the autoswap functionality for build-a-box, but if you have further questions, do not hesitate to reach out to our team via [email protected].