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Automatically Generated — This event is created by Upstack backend services for Shopify customers. You do not need to fire this event manually.

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Overview

The subscription_initial_purchase event is generated when a customer signs up for a new subscription — the first order in a subscription sequence. It fires for stores using subscription apps like Recharge, Bold Subscriptions, Skio, Loop Subscriptions, or native Shopify Subscriptions.

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How It Works

When a subscription order is processed, Upstack analyzes the order metadata:
  1. Order received — Shopify sends a purchase webhook to Upstack
  2. Subscription detection — Upstack checks for subscription app tags and order properties
  3. Classification — The order is classified as initial or recurring based on the subscription data
  4. Event generation — The appropriate subscription event is generated
  5. Forwarding — Events are sent to your configured destinations
Upstack identifies subscription orders through order tags from subscription apps (e.g., subscription_first_order, recurring_order), order and line item properties containing subscription metadata, and subscription app-specific identifiers in the order data.

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Use Cases

  • Measure subscriber acquisition — Track how many new subscribers you’re acquiring
  • Calculate subscriber CAC — Understand the true cost to acquire a subscriber
  • Optimize acquisition campaigns — Train ad algorithms to find subscription-likely customers
  • Attribution for LTV — Attribute the full potential LTV to the acquiring campaign

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Properties

This event includes all properties from the original purchase event:

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Destination Mapping

This event is forwarded to destinations as:

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Metrics Available

E-commerce subscriptions only — this event is for subscription boxes and recurring product purchases. For SaaS subscription lifecycle events (plan changes, trials), see SaaS Events.