Setting up a product subscription
- Step 1 - Add product to Recharge
- Step 2 - Select subscription type
- Optional - Add a discount
- Step 3 - Set your order schedule
- Optional - Charge customer on a specific day of the week or month
- Optional - Set subscription to expire after a set number of charges
- Step 4 - Save your subscription rule
- Shopify Product page
- Manage products
Subscription rules control everything about how a subscription functions, including the charge frequency, subscription discounts, and automatic shipments. You can offer a product as a subscription to your customers once a product is added to Recharge.
Subscription rules are set on a product level to allow for greater flexibility and customization. This guide explains how to create a subscription rule for your product.
Step 1 - Add a product to Recharge
Add your products to Recharge after creating them in Shopify or BigCommerce:
- Select Products from the merchant portal and click Products.
- Select Add products to get started.
- Click the checkbox next to the product(s) you want to offer as a subscription and select Add products.
The following steps will vary based on how many products you're adding to Recharge.
Add a single product
To add a single product to Recharge, proceed to Step 2 after clicking Add products and selecting the product.
Add multiple products
Add multiple products to Recharge to match an already configured product:
- Select the products you want to add to Recharge and click Add product.
- Choose which product's frequencies you want to assign to the selected products. Click Next: Copy frequencies.
- Confirm the updates and click Confirm: copy frequencies.
If you've added multiple products, you can skip steps 2- 4 as the product subscription information was copied from the source product.
Step 2 - Select subscription type
Select one of the following subscription-type options. This determines how customers can purchase a specific product.
Subscription type |
Definition |
One-time and subscription | Customers have the option to receive the product once or they can subscribe for recurring shipments of the product. |
Subscription only | Customers can subscribe for recurring shipments of the product. |
Prepaid subscription | Customers can pay for multiple shipments upfront. For example, if you offer a 6-month prepaid subscription option, a customer would pay for six months upfront and receive $0 shipment orders every month for six months. |
Optional - Add a discount
You can offer a discount as an incentive for customers to subscribe and save. This gives your customers the option on the product page to purchase products as a one-time order or subscribe with a discount incentive.
- Under Set up a discount, check Yes, I'd like to offer a discount.
- Add a percentage amount in the % off box.
The option to Set up a discount is only available if you set the product's subscription type to one-time and subscription.
Step 3 - Set your order schedule
The order schedule determines the billing and shipping frequency for subscription products. Recharge charges your customers according to the specified frequency. If a charge is successful, Recharge sends the shipment order to your ecommerce platform for the fulfillment process.
- Click the Add frequency button to include multiple frequencies.
- Select the frequency type from the dropdown menu. You can set your subscription to ship on a daily, weekly, or monthly frequency.
Note:You can switch frequencies between days, weeks, and months, but they must all be within the same time period. For instance, you can offer your product every 2 weeks or 4 weeks, but not every 2 weeks or 1 month. Prepaid subscriptions don't support multiple frequency options. You can have a maximum of 31 frequencies associated with subscription products.
Optional - Charge customer on a specific day of the week or month
Use the Charge customer on this day dropdown to specify a specific day of the week or month your customers should be charged. For example:
- If the subscription frequency is set to weeks, you can charge your customers every Monday
- If the subscription frequency is set to months, you could charge your customers on the 15th of every month
Customers are charged on the same day of the week or month they originally signed up for if you keep the default When they sign up option.
Optional - Set subscription to expire after a set number of charges
You can set your subscription to expire after a set number of charges. This automatically cancels a customer's subscription when they've been charged the set number of times.
This feature is typically used with prepaid gift subscriptions.
Step 4 - Save your subscription rule
Select Save to save the subscription properties to your product, at which point Recharge will sync the subscription properties to the product in your store.
The subscription widget will appear on the subscription product page, providing customers with the option of purchasing the product as a subscription:
The subscription widget appearance varies slightly for the Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce, but has identical functionality:
Place a test order once you have configured your subscription rules to experience the customer flow.
- Follow Recharge's instructions on Running a test transaction if you are using the Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce.
- Follow Shopify's instructions to place a test order if you are using the Shopify Checkout Integration.
Shopify Product page
Configure subscription rules for a product directly in the Shopify admin. Shopify integrates Recharge directly into the Product page for a specific product. If you are using Recharge with your Shopify store, a Subscriptions card is available on the Product page of each product.
This feature only works when adding or editing products that are available as one-time and subscription, or subscription-only. This feature is not available for prepaid products at this time.
Add option
You can add a product to Recharge from the Shopify Product page.
- Select Add option.
- Select Add new option.
- Configure your subscription settings.
- Subscription type: Choose between offering the product as both one-time and subscription, or as a subscription only.
-
Set order schedule: Confirm the amount of time between orders using the Delivery Frequency dropdown. Confirm if orders should be sent on a daily, weekly, or monthly frequency using the Period option.
- If you are offering a one-time and subscription product you can use the Discount option to set an incentive discount for customers to purchase the product on subscription at a lower cost.
- Use the Add frequency button if you’d like to create additional subscription frequency options for the product.
- Select Create plan once you are ready to publish the product as a subscription.
Edit
Select Edit beside a specific subscription frequency option to update the subscription order schedule for the product.
Edit the subscription to add additional subscription frequencies to the product at any time.
Remove
Select Remove to delete the subscription option for a product. If all subscription delivery options are removed, the product is deleted from Recharge.
Only allow the purchase of this product as a subscription option
The option to “Only allow the purchase of this product as a subscription” can be toggled on or off. When enabled, the product will only be available for purchase on the Shopify storefront as a subscription.
By default, this setting is automatically enabled if you configure a product as Subscription only in Recharge. When enabled, customers are only able to purchase the product as a subscription.
If the subscription widget is disabled, and this setting is enabled, customers trying to check out with this product will be met with an error message saying "Variant can only be purchased with a selling plan error". This error message will prevent customers from completing their orders.
If you disable this option on the product page in Shopify, the subscription type for the product automatically swaps to One-time & subscription in Recharge.
Manage products
View and manage your subscriptions products directly in Recharge:
- Select Products in the merchant portal and click Products. A list of your products saved in Recharge should appear. Each heading in the list provides additional information about your subscription products.
Heading
Purpose
Product Lists the title of the product. Clicking the product will take you to the product summary page. Shopify status Lists the status of your product which can be Active, Draft, or Archived.
Also lists if the product is published on the online store.
Purchase type Reflects the purchase type of the product. Frequencies Displays the number of frequencies that are configured for the product. SKU Displays the product SKU. Last synced The date and time that the product was last synced to the database. Actions Make the following updates to the product through the Actions menu:
- Remove from Recharge - The button will delete the product from Recharge and it will no longer display in Products or Collections. It will not impact existing customers who are subscribed to the product.
- Click on a product's name to open the subscription rules for that product.
- Update any of the subscription properties. Press Save to update the subscription rules for that product.
The updated subscription properties only apply to new subscriptions created after your changes were saved. Manually adjust existing subscriptions to match the new properties, or action a bulk update using one of Recharge's bulk management tools.
Bulk copy and replace frequencies
Bulk copy and replace allows you to copy the frequencies from a source product, over to other products in Recharge. You can update a maximum of 50 products at one time.
- Select Products in the merchant portal and click Products.
- Search for and select the products to update the frequencies.
- Click Update frequencies.
- Choose which product's frequencies to assign to the selected products and click Next: Copy frequencies.
- Review your updates and if everything looks as intended, select Confirm: copy frequencies. All existing subscription plans on the selected products will be replaced once you confirm.