Configuring product subscription plans
Recharge Product Subscription Plans provide increased flexibility and control over the subscription creation and management experience. Offer percentage-based subscription discounts for each order interval or frequency, set default frequencies, filter products, and more.
This guide covers how to configure, manage, and utilize subscription plans as well as an overview of the products page.
- Shopify Checkout Integration
- Migrated Shopify Checkout Integration
How it works
Product Subscription Plans is the default offering Recharge automatically enables for all eligible merchants. You must use the following to use Product Subscription Plans:
Product Subscription Plans and Variant Level Plans give you flexibility and control when creating and managing subscription offerings. Each plan defines the recurring charge and shipping frequency, and you can create different plans for the same product to support a variety of subscription options.
When you add a product in Shopify, Recharge automatically syncs it to your merchant portal under Products.
You can then create subscription plans for that product, such as standard recurring subscriptions or prepaid subscriptions. While you can’t create new plans for multiple products at once, you can copy an existing plan and apply it to multiple products in bulk for efficiency.
Variant Level Plans
Merchants using Product Subscription Plans can upgrade to Variant Level Plans. Variant Level Plans enhances Product Subscription Plans functionality and allows you to sell variants at different frequencies and different discounts, or exclude specific variants from subscriptions. You can upgrade to Variant Level Plans directly in the merchant portal.
You must use Variant Level Plans to enable dynamic pricing, use prepaid enhancements, or to offer different plans per product variant.
Legacy Subscription Products
You may still need to use Recharge’s Legacy Subscription Products if you do not meet the eligibility criteria for Product Subscription Plans. Legacy Subscription Products require you to add your products to Recharge, and then create subscription rules. See Legacy Subscription Products for more details.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Product Subscription Plans | Variant Level Plans | Legacy Subscription Products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Different plan types per product | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Different plan types per variant | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Dynamic pricing | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Prepaid enhancements | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Confirm your setup
Most merchants use Product Subscription Plans. Review your merchant portal to confirm what setup you are on:
To confirm if you use Product Subscription Plans or Variant Level Plans:
- Select Products in your merchant portal and click Products from the dropdown.
- Click the three vertical dot menu next to any product.
- If you cannot click Manage variant plans, you are on Product Subscription Plans.
- If you can click Manage variant plans, you are on Variant Level Plans.
You can upgrade to Variant Level Plans at any time. See Upgrade to Variant Level Plans for more information.
To confirm if you use Legacy Subscription Products:
- Select Products in your merchant portal and click Products from the dropdown
- Check if the Add products button is available.
If the Add products button is available, you still use Legacy Subscription Products
Use cases
Review the following use cases to learn how other merchants use Product Subscription Plans:
| Scenario | Solution |
|---|---|
| A beauty merchant wants to offer their lipstick as both a one-time purchase and a subscription. They set up two subscription options to incentivize different customer preferences: a two-week frequency with a 10% discount and a one-month frequency with a 5% discount. | Product Subscription Plans |
| A coffee merchant sells a Dark Roast blend available in multiple bag sizes, using product variants. To better match customer needs and reduce churn, they offer Small bags on a two-week subscription cycle, while Large bags are set to ship every four weeks to avoid oversupplying customers. |
Variant Level Plans |
Set up instructions
See the following instructions for creating each plan type:
Considerations
Consider the following when using Product Subscription Plans:
Consideration |
Notes |
Shipping profiles |
Recharge uses the selling plan group to link a product to a shipping profile. When you select the Storefront widget channel, Recharge creates a Shopify selling plan group and adds the product to a Recharge Custom Shipping profile. Select Storefront widget as a channel option to ensure the product is included in the Recharge Custom Shipping profile. |
| Customer portal themes |
Product Subscription Plans are compatible with the Affinity customer portal theme, and the Unity customer portal theme. Prima and Novum themes are not compatible with Product Subscription Plans. Once you have opted into Product Subscription Plans, you cannot revert back to the previous state, or use Prima and Novum themes. |
| Third-party integrations |
Some third-party integrations may not be compatible with Product Subscription Plans. Consider checking with these apps before upgrading if you have a custom widget implementation or use any of the following third-party apps:
Note: Some third-party integrations, such as Rebuy, require specific settings when using Product Subscription Plans. Recharge recommends reviewing their help documentation and contacting their support team for more details.
|
| Variant Level Plans |
Product Subscription Plans support plans on the variant level, meaning that you can create multiple subscription plans for one product with multiple variants (ie. offer a 2-week subscription on a red t-shirt, and a 4-week subscription on a green t-shirt). Products are now easier to manage when you convert to Product Subscription Plans if you had previously created multiple products to offer subscriptions for different product variants. After converting, you can create one product in Shopify with multiple variants (or use an existing product) and then assign different plans to different variants using Variant-level plans. |
| Updates to existing plans | You can update existing Product Subscription Plans or add new plans to a product at any time. These changes only apply to new subscriptions. Existing subscriptions retain the same subscription properties unless updated manually or in bulk. |
| Deleting a product in Shopify | Deleting a product in Shopify also deletes it in Recharge. |
