Guide
Shopify subscriptions, explained
Shopify has subscriptions built into the platform but not into the admin. Here is how the pieces fit together, and what to decide before you launch.
Start here
How to Add Subscriptions to Your Shopify Store covers the decisions in the order you will meet them.
The platform
Shopify provides the APIs — selling plans, subscription contracts and billing attempts — and no merchant interface. An app supplies the interface. The important consequence is that contracts created through Shopify's own APIs are objects in your store, which is what makes leaving an app survivable.
The decisions
- Prepaid or pay-as-you-go — cash now versus conversion
- How much to discount — and the break-even cycle count
- Which app — and the questions the listing pages do not answer
- Launching on a store that already has customers
Selling into India
If you are an Indian store, the payment rules change the design of the whole thing — mandates, pre-debit notifications and a per-transaction limit that should shape your pricing. Read that guide instead, first.
Everything in this guide
How to Add Subscriptions to Your Shopify Store
A practical walkthrough of adding subscriptions to Shopify — selling plans, choosing an app, pricing the discount, and the decisions that are hard to change later.
Prepaid vs Pay-As-You-Go Subscriptions: Which to Offer
Prepaid takes cash up front and kills mid-term churn. Pay-as-you-go converts better. How to choose, and why prepaid matters more where mandate limits apply.
Shopify Selling Plans Explained (Groups, Policies and Contracts)
Selling plan groups, delivery and billing policies, pricing adjustments and subscription contracts — what each object does and how they fit together.
How to Set Up Subscribe and Save on Shopify
Subscribe and save converts better than any other subscription offer. How to set the discount, pick frequencies, and present it so people actually take it.
How Subscription Checkout Works on Shopify
What happens between a customer selecting a plan and a subscription contract existing — and the checkout details that quietly cost you signups.
Choosing a Shopify Subscription App: What Actually Differs
Subscription apps look alike on the listing page. The differences that matter are where contracts live, whose billing runs, and what happens when a payment fails.
The Subscription Customer Portal: What It Must Let People Do
The portal is the screen your subscribers use most. The six actions it has to support, and why a separate login quietly costs you retention.
Launching Subscriptions on an Established Shopify Store
You already have customers who reorder. How to convert them to subscriptions without cannibalising revenue or discounting purchases that would have happened anyway.