Have you considered jumping on the subscription bandwagon for your Shopify store? Trust us - it's a great time to do it! Subscriptions are the hottest trend in commerce right now, and they offer many exciting opportunities for your brand to connect with like-minded customers who share your values and really engage with what you're all about.
More than half (54.3%) of worldwide subscriptions come from two categories: food and beverage and beauty and personal care.
Instead of just selling a product or service one time, you charge your customers a recurring fee to access it on a monthly or yearly basis. This approach helps you build deeper relationships with your customers and create a loyal community of people who love what you do. It's a great way to add purpose to your brand and keep customers coming back for more!
WHAT IS A SUBSCRIPTION-BASED MODEL
A subscription-based business model charges customers a regular fee to access a product or service, usually on a monthly or yearly basis. By offering a subscription-based model to your customers, you can build strong relationships with them and create a loyal community of repeat customers who are invested in your brand's mission and values.
PROS OF PRODUCT SUBSCRIPTIONS
Improved Customer Lifetime Value: Subscriptions create a recurring revenue stream from consistent orders, which can increase customer lifetime value by encouraging repeat purchases. Repeat customers are 50% more likely to make another purchase than new customers and, on average, spend 33% more.
Increased Average Order Value (AOV): Using subscription-based models provides exciting opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. In 2020, Alpine merchants experienced a 6% increase across different industries, indicating that customers are becoming more engaged with subscription-based brands than ever before.
Predictable Revenue: Subscriptions offer a steady stream of revenue that can help stabilize your cash flow and give you a better understanding of your financial situation.
Increased Customer Loyalty: With a subscription model, you can build a community of loyal customers who are invested in your brand and feel like they are part of a special group.
Reduced Marketing Costs: Once you have a solid subscriber base, you may not need to spend as much money on marketing campaigns since your existing customers will continue to make purchases.
It’s 5–25% more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.
Deeper Insights: With a subscription model, you can gather valuable data on your customers' preferences and purchase behaviors, which can help you improve your products and marketing strategies.
SUBSCRIPTION TYPES
There are three different types of subscription models to choose from. They are curation, replenishment, and access. Each model has its own unique advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to do your research and figure out which one is the best fit for your business.
CURATION
The curation subscription model is the most popular, with around 55% of merchants choosing this option. With this model, merchants can create a box of one or more products packaged together and shipped out at regular intervals.
REPLENISHMENT
The second-most popular subscription model is replenishment, chosen by around 32% of merchants. With this model, customers receive the same product consistently, and it's often called "subscribe-and-save." Replenishment works best for consumable products that customers use daily, ensuring they always have what they need.
ACCESS
Access is the third and fastest-growing subscription model, with approximately 13% of merchants choosing this option. This model gives subscribers access to exclusive memberships or gated availability to certain products or services. The popularity of this model is increasing due to the vast range of benefits that merchants can offer their subscribers.
HOW TO SET UP PRODUCT SUBSCRIPTIONS IN YOUR STORE
Before setting up the subscriptions in your Shopify admin, you will need to choose one of the subscription apps in the Shopify App Store.
We recommend the following two options that are approved by our platform:
1. Recurpay - Manages subscription products with flexible billing cycles and a self-serve customer portal + solution for bundles—Build-a-Box: lets customers build their own multi-product subscription box.
🔍 How to add Recurpay Subscription Widget to the Products
Step 1: Install Recurpay Subscriptions App
Go to the Recurpay Subscriptions app page on the Shopify App Store.
Click Install app and follow the installation instructions.
Initial Setup
Recurpay will ask you to define your store niche. Simply proceed with the suggested option.
You'll be prompted to Enable subscription app block. Click the Open Shopify Theme Settings button.
In the theme editor, double-check that the Recurpay app is turned on.
Click Save to apply the changes.
Step 2: Set Up Subscription Plans
After enabling the app block, you'll see the Recurpay Plans setup page. You can always find this manually: Recurpay app → Plans → Select your plan. Here you can adjust subscription plans.
Configure Monthly Subscription Plan
Click on the Monthly Subscription plan to open its settings.
Adjust the Subscription discount % field to set the discount amount—this automatically updates the discount mentioned in the description below, so you don't need to edit it manually.
Update the Description:
Update the 3rd point to a friendly, motivational note, e.g., "You will receive your order every month."
Click Add/Remove products.
Search for and select the products you want to include in the subscription.
If you only want to offer a general 1-month subscription, delete the extra offered plans.
Click Save to apply all changes.
💡Setting a competitive subscription discount (e.g., 10-15%) encourages customers to choose recurring orders over one-time purchases.
Step 3: Configure App Settings
Go to Settings and edit three sections: General, Widget Customization, and Notifications.
General Settings
Under Basic Settings, upload your Logo and Favicon (other fields auto-fill from Store Settings).
Under Customer Portal, set colors for the account widget and button.
Click Save.
Widget Customization
In Widget Design, update your brand colors.
Click Save.
Notifications Settings
Navigate to Sender Details and set the logo and button colors.
Click Save.
💡Color Reference:
For Button Background, use the Accent 1 color from your website:
Go to Online Store → Edit theme → Theme settings → ColorsFor Button Text Color, use black/white or the text color from your website
If your store has a dark theme, adjust Primary Color & Secondary Color from black to white or another relevant light color.
Step 4: Verify Subscription Widget on Product Pages
Go to your Shopify storefront-end.
Navigate to a product page where you added the subscription.
Verify that the subscription widget appears with the correct discount and frequency options.
Test the checkout with the selected subscription option as well.
Your subscription widget is now enabled and configured! 🚀 Customers can now subscribe to your products and enjoy recurring deliveries with discounts.
2. Seal Subscriptions—An alternative budget-friendly subscription app with transparent, flat-rate pricing.
A guide for setting up this subscription in your Shopify store can be found here.
Subscription products
You can limit your subscription products to being sold only as a subscription, or you can enable both subscription and one-time purchases.
From your Shopify admin, click Products.
Click the product that you want to manage the subscription of.
Select whether to sell the product as a subscription-only:
To sell the product as a subscription only, check Sell product as a subscription only.
To sell the product as one-time purchases as well as subscriptions, uncheck Sell product as a subscription only.
Subscription discounts
If you offer subscription products, then there are more options when creating fixed-amount, percentage, or free shipping discounts.
The Purchase type section appears on the Create discount code page. You can choose if a discount applies to subscription purchases, one-time purchases, or both.
From your Shopify admin, go to Discounts.
Click the discount that you want to edit.
In the Purchase type section, choose the purchase type that you would like to limit your discount code to:
If you select Subscription as the purchase type for your discount code, then you can choose which subscription products to apply your discount to. You can limit the use of your discount code to specific subscription products or a specific collection.
If you choose to limit your discount to a specific subscription product or collection, then search for your product or collection using the Browse button that appears.
Change usage limits on Free shipping discount
If you offer a free shipping discount that applies to subscription products, then you can specify for how long the discount applies. You can choose to limit your free shipping discount to the first payment, limit your free shipping to a certain number of payments, or enable free shipping on all future subscription payments.
From your Shopify admin, go to Discounts.
Click the free shipping discount you want to edit.
Update the purchase type to Subscription in the Purchase type section of the discount editor.
In the Usage limits section, select the limitations that you want to apply to your discount under Recurring payments for subscriptions.