Understanding Skio Journeys

  • Updated

If you’re still using Skio's Automations feature, you’ll soon be asked to migrate to Journeys. Learn how to migrate from Automations to Journeys in our help doc here.

What is Skio’s Journeys feature?

Journeys is Skio’s visual workflow builder that lets you automate subscription changes across the customer lifecycle. Using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can build “if this, then that” logic flows that respond to real-time events like an order being placed, a product added, or a billing date changed.

Each Journey runs automatically and can include custom triggers, conditions, and actions. With deep integrations (like Klaviyo), Journeys gives you full control over how subscriptions evolve without writing any code. Learn how to set up a Journey in our setup guide here. 

How does Journeys work?

Journeys are built from nodes, each representing a step in the workflow:

  • Trigger node: When the Journey should begin (e.g. after an order, product change).
  • Condition node: What rules decide which customers follow which paths.
  • Action node: What should happen (e.g. swap product, apply discount, send notification).

You can combine multiple nodes into a single Journey, giving you full control over how your subscription experience evolves.

Example of a Journey

The screenshot above shows a simple Journey in action. This setup is built to automatically display a banner in the Customer Portal when certain conditions are met after a customer places an order:

  1. Trigger (After order): The Journey begins right after an order is completed. This includes both checkout and recurring orders.
  2. Condition (Contains products AND Shipping interval): The flow checks if the subscription includes a specific product and has a certain shipping interval. Only customers who meet both conditions will continue down the “Condition(s) met” path.
  3. Action (Trigger banner): If the customer qualifies, a banner is shown in the Customer Portal encouraging them to upgrade their subscription to a 12-pack and save 5% on the next 3 orders.
  4. End point: If the conditions are not met, nothing happens. The Journey ends for that subscriber.

There are a few premade Journey templates available 

  • Product swap
  • Upgrade suggestion
  • Change discount over time 

What Triggers are available in Journeys?

Triggers determine when a Journey starts. You can choose from the following:

  • The Journey starts after an order is completed. This includes both checkout and recurring orders. Use the Order number filter to differentiate between the two. 

  • The Journey starts when a product is added or removed from a subscription. This includes:

    • Recurring products: Applies to subscription lines outside of build-a-box.
    • One-time upsells: Optional toggle.
    • Quantity changes: Includes increases, decreases, and product removals.
    • Box updates: Applies to build-a-box subscriptions only.
    • Product swaps: Includes any time a product is replaced with another in the same subscription.
    • Delay journey: Set a delay in days or hours before the journey starts.

    You can toggle each of these on or off when configuring the trigger.

  • The Journey begins after a manual change to the subscription’s next billing date. This includes changes made via:

    • Quick Actions
    • Customer Portal (e.g., Skip, Set Order Date, Temporary Pause, Reactivate)

    This does not apply to automated billing date changes.

  • The Journey begins when a customer replies with a specific keyword. You can configure any keyword like SKIP, SWAP, or UPGRADE to launch a corresponding Journey. When a customer texts the keyword to your SMS number, the Journey begins automatically.

    This lets you create interactive, SMS-based flows tied to customer actions, like:

    • Swapping a product with one word

    • Skipping an upcoming order

    • Triggering upgrade incentives

    Keywords, follow-up actions, and confirmation messages are fully customizable in Postscript. You can link multiple keywords to different Journeys to support various flows.

    This trigger only appears in the Journey builder if your store has Postscript enabled and integrated with Skio.

What are trigger filters and how are they different from conditions?

Trigger filters control which orders trigger the flow.

Conditions determine which customers go down each path within the flow after it's triggered.

What Conditions are available in Journeys? 

Customers who meet the specified condition(s) will follow the corresponding path in the flow. You can choose from the following:

  •  
    • Customer tag
    • Credit balance
    • Tier
  •  
    • Order number
    • Total quantity
    • Total value
    • Subscription creation date
    • Day of week
    • Discount code
    • Is prepaid renewing
    • Migrated from another platform
    • Next billing date
    • Shipping interval
    • Subscription country
    • Subscription ID
    • Subscription note
    • Subscription type
  •  
    • Contains products
    • Contains dynamic boxes
    • Contains static boxes
    • Exclude products
  •  
    • Audit log
    • Cancel Flow
    • Quick action
    • Surprise and Delight

What Actions are available in Journeys?

Actions define what happens once the Journey is triggered and conditions are met. You can choose from the following:

  • Swap a product in the subscription.
  • Add a discount to a subscription.
  • Add a single product to the subscription.
  • Set a new shipping price that remains until updated.
  • Change the subscription’s delivery frequency.
  • Display an interactive and customized banner in the customer portal.
  • Override the price of this product in matching subscriptions.
  • Set the next billing date to a specific day or interval.
  • Send a custom email, SMS message, or integration event.
  • Replace one product with multiple products.
  • Delay the order by a set number of hours or days.
  • Remove one or more products from a subscription.
  • Remove the first matching discount from a subscription.
  • Indefinitely pause the subscription.
  • Swap two static boxes with the same size and product variants.
  • Swap two dynamic boxes with the same size and product variants.
  • Remove the entire box (including its products) from the subscription.
  • Grant credits to the customer.
  • Convert a prepaid subscription to a recurring one. Learn more in our Sunset Prepaid guide here. 

Common Journey use cases

Skio Journeys give you powerful control over subscription behavior across the entire lifecycle. Here are some popular ways merchants use Journeys:

Trial-to-full-size conversions

Automatically swap a trial SKU for the full-size product after a specific order. For example, after the first or second cycle, swap trial-sized product to full-sized product and adjust the price. 

Bundle expansion or kit splitting

Some merchants sell “bundles” as a single line item in Shopify, which limits how subscribers can manage them in recurring orders.

This Journey breaks a bundled SKU into individual products at a chosen point in the subscription, giving subscribers more flexibility to swap or remove items.

Lifecycle upsell and cross-sell

Add one-time or recurring products after key actions like when a product is added or a certain threshold is met. This lets you create advanced upsells and quantity-based flows that repeat throughout the subscriber’s lifecycle.

In-portal engagement

Use interactive banners in the Skio Customer Portal to nudge subscribers after specific behavior: offer upsells, a last-minute discount before renewal, or guide them through next steps. Commonly used for “upsizing” flows.

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