E-commerce and subscription · Renewals

How do I remind subscription customers before their renewal is charged in Australia?

By BREME · Updated 19 October 2026

Who this is for: Owners of small Australian subscription businesses, such as coffee, pet food, skincare or meal boxes and memberships, who charge customers on a recurring basis and want fewer surprised customers, complaints and chargebacks.

Why the reminder matters

A subscription customer who is surprised by a charge rarely blames themselves. They blame you, and the next message you get is a cancellation, a complaint or a dispute with their bank.

A clear reminder turns that moment around. The customer who still wants the order does nothing. The customer who is away, overstocked or short on money can skip or pause instead of cancelling. Making the exit easy is what makes staying feel like a choice.

What Australian law says

The Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 was introduced on 1 April 2026. On 2 July 2026 the Australian Government announced it had passed Parliament, and that unfair trading practices and subscription traps will be banned from 1 July 2027.

According to the Parliamentary Library's Bills Digest, the Bill adds a new Division on subscription contracts to the Australian Consumer Law. Subscription contracts include contracts for an indefinite or fixed period, and contracts with an initial free period or an initial discount period. Businesses will have to disclose prescribed key information when the offer is made, give subscribers notices at specified points during the subscription (for example before a free trial expires, when a subscription will be renewed, or when prices change), and make every cancellation method easy to find, straightforward and limited to reasonably necessary steps.

The important detail for timing: the Bills Digest says both the required information and the timing of these notices will be set out in regulations. We have not seen those regulations published, so no one can yet tell you the legal number of days. Some subscription protections also extend to small business subscribers on standard form contracts.

Until 1 July 2027, the existing Australian Consumer Law still applies, including its prohibitions on misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct and unfair contract terms. Building good reminders now means you are not scrambling later. Check with an adviser once the regulations are released.

Timing we suggest

These timings are our practical suggestion, not a legal requirement. Adjust them once the regulations set the rules.

• Weekly or fortnightly orders: rely on one email about 2 to 3 days before each charge, and make skipping a single click.
• Monthly orders: an email about 7 days before, and an SMS 1 to 3 days before for customers who opted in to texts.
• Annual renewals: an email about 30 days before and a second email about 7 days before, because a year is long enough to forget you signed up.
• Free trials converting to paid: a reminder before the trial ends, saying exactly what will be charged and when.
• Price increases: a separate, plain notice well before the first higher charge, never tucked into a newsletter.

If you use Shopify Subscriptions

Shopify's help centre says Shopify Subscriptions emails your customer 3 days before each recurring order is charged, giving them time to skip the order, update their payment details, or pause or cancel before the charge. Email notifications are on by default, and you manage them in the Subscriptions section of Notifications in your Shopify admin.

If your subscriptions run through a third-party app, Shopify says that app's own notification schedule applies, so check its settings. Either way, read the reminder your customers actually receive. If it does not show the amount and an obvious way to change the order, add your own reminder alongside it.

What every reminder should include

• The charge date, written out in full.
• The exact amount in AUD, including shipping.
• What is in the order or what the renewal covers.
• One link to skip, pause, change or cancel, with no login maze in between.
• How to reach a person if something is wrong.

A note on SMS

Keep the reminder text about the renewal. If you add a promotion, the ACMA's rules for commercial messages apply: identify your business, include contact details and offer a working unsubscribe option. The ACMA also notes that alphanumeric SMS sender names generally cannot receive replies, so only ask customers to reply if your number can actually receive them.

Hi [first name],

A quick heads-up: your next [product or box] will be charged on [day, date] for [amount] AUD including shipping, and it will be on its way by [dispatch date].

Here's what's in it: [items].

Want to change something? You can skip this one, pause, swap items or cancel here: [manage subscription link]. It takes less than a minute.

If anything's not right, just reply and a real person will sort it.

[First name], [Brand]

[Brand]: your next order is charged on [date] for [amount] AUD. Skip, pause or cancel here: [short link]

Hi [first name],

Your [membership or plan] renews on [date], and we'll charge [amount] AUD to the card ending [last four digits].

Over the past year you've had [what they received or used]. In the year ahead: [anything changing].

If you'd like to keep going, you don't need to do anything. If you'd like to change plans or cancel, you can do it here: [link].

Thanks for being with us,
[First name], [Brand]