Subscriptions in ecommerce can be extremely lucrative if done right. From being a convenient business model for businesses and consumers alike to providing predictable recurring revenue, improved LTV, and increased retention, adding a subscription option to your store can be a huge benefit for merchants.
When the subscription market was valued at approximately USD 150 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a robust CAGR of around 37% by 2032, there’s no better time than today to get started with adding subscriptions to your store.
In this blog, we’ll break down how to get started with Shopify subscriptions, explain how to choose a subscription app, and ensure you’re getting the most out of your subscriptions as you go.
Why Subscription Fit Matters Most Before You Install Anything
Before we go any further, we need to address something that many merchants forget: not every product needs to be offered on a subscription basis. Before you install anything, pressure-test whether the item has a natural replenishment cadence, a clear customer benefit, enough margin to absorb discounts or failed-payment recovery, and fulfillment patterns stable enough to support recurring orders.
In most cases, the smartest move is not subscription-only. Instead, it’s offering one-time and subscription purchases for the same SKU, so customers can try a product on a one-time basis to determine whether they even want more and how often they need replenishments if they decide to subscribe. Shopify supports that mixed model, and it is usually the safer starting point for brands testing demand rather than trying to force subscriptions out of people who might not be interested.
Check Product and Channel Fit
Use subscriptions where repeat purchase behaviour is predictable: consumables, refills, routine-use products, or curated replenishment programs. Then, check channel fit. Shopify states that subscription products are supported on the online store, Shopify POS, Shop app, and custom storefronts.
One important thing to note, however, is that subscription-only products without a one-time purchase option can be sold only on the Online Store sales channel. If you want broader channel flexibility, keeping a one-time purchase alongside a subscription option is often the better idea for omnichannel stores.
Confirm Payment and Checkout Eligibility
Next, make sure you can accept payments for your subscription orders. Shopify requires a supported gateway for subscriptions, such as Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Authorize.net, Adyen, or Stripe; customers cannot use local payment methods for subscription purchases.
On the experience side, subscriptions now sit inside Shopify’s current checkout and customer accounts framework: subscription management is added through blocks in the checkout and accounts editor, and legacy customer accounts are deprecated.
Choose your Shopify Subscription Architecture
When adding a subscription model to your store, you have three options:
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Install a third-party subscription app from the Shopify app store
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Develop a custom subscription app (or hire a developer to do so)
Here’s how to determine which option is right for you:
When the Official App is Enough
Shopify Subscriptions is a great low-friction route for brands that want a straightforward subscribe-and-save program without adding another app bill. The free first-party app supports auto-billed plans that renew weekly, monthly, or yearly, lets customers skip, pause, or cancel through Shopify-managed customer accounts, and includes discount support plus subscription reporting inside Shopify.
The downside is that it’s not compatible with bundles, so this is a good option if your store and subscription model are clean, predictable and simple.
When a Third-Party App is Better
Third-party apps start to earn their keep when you need more than basic recurring orders. The best Shopify subscription apps commonly position themselves around build-a-box models, stronger subscriber portals, churn/cancellation saves, richer analytics, flexible billing options, and migration support.
For scaling brands: free can be a smart starting point, but cheap now can become expensive later if your subscription tool caps merchandising or retention strategy.
When Custom App or Custom-Development Work Makes Sense
Go custom when the model itself is custom: non-standard selling-plan logic, integration-heavy ERP, 3PL, or CRM environments, deeper portal or checkout requirements, or migrations that require contract recreation. Build that work on Shopify’s current purchase options, customer account, and Functions stack.
If you’re already using Shopify’s subscription app or another third-party solution, we recommend hiring a development agency like Blue Badger to help you migrate your current Shopify subscription setup to your custom solution, ensuring everything runs smoothly and your customer experience stays intact.
Set Up the Technical Foundation
Now that you’ve decided on your subscription app solution, it’s time to set up the foundation for how your subscriptions/subscription plans are going to work. Here’s how to approach the process:
1. Configure selling plans and purchase options
The first step is to decide whether each SKU should be subscription-only or offer both one-time and subscription purchase options. In most cases, the mixed model is safer because it gives customers a choice and keeps the product usable across more scenarios.
Next, decide how the subscription actually works. The most useful models are subscribe-and-save, fixed recurring bundles, prepaid plans, tiered discounts, custom pricing rules, and free-shipping thresholds. Shopify’s Subscriptions app supports recurring plans with flexible frequencies and discount types, while third-party apps often extend that with prepaid subscriptions, build-a-box or bundle models, and more advanced pricing structures.
Then, build the plan itself: title, internal description, discount, and delivery frequency (weekly, monthly, or yearly). Once subscriptions are live, they start touching your broader operating system, including product records, subscription discounts, customer subscriptions and payment methods, orders, and reporting, so it’s important to get everything fleshed out at the beginning of the process.
2. Add widgets and subscription-management blocks
Shopify Subscriptions lets you add a subscription widget to the product page, with details also appearing on the product, cart, and thank-you pages. Shopify also automatically adds a purchase-options cancellation policy, which you should review and update if necessary.
Then add the subscription-management blocks in the checkout and accounts editor: a customer account management page, order action buttons on the Order and Order status pages, and a management link on the Thank You page, so customers don’t have to hunt for where to manage their subscriptions.
3. Configure retries, save offers, and cancellation flows
Shopify lets merchants configure billing reattempt settings, including the number of retry attempts, the interval between retries, and what happens when all retries fail. Third-party subscription platforms often go further with reminder emails, automated dunning, and cancellation flows that offer pause, skip, swap, or targeted save offers before a subscriber leaves.
This is how you’ll protect recurring revenue from failed cards, poor timing, and prevent churn.
4. End-to-end test before launch
It might seem obvious, but it’s worth mentioning that you should thoroughly test your setup before going live.
Test the initial checkout, a recurring renewal, failed-payment recovery, card-update flow, cancellation path, shipping behaviour, inventory handling, and reporting to cover your bases and reduce the odds of unhappy customers and overwhelmed CS teams.
How to Migrate From Another Subscription Stack
Whether you’re migrating from a third-party app to Shopify’s first-party app, or you’re migrating away from Shopify to something more customizable and feature-rich, the steps are similar.
The usual order is: import or clean up customer records and products first, migrate or connect supported payment methods next, and then recreate subscription contracts through Shopify APIs or with app-vendor migration support.
If you’re migrating to a third-party subscription tool, many apps have migration-specific workflows and support paths available to ensure that the integration with your Shopify store and the migration of your customer/subscription data go smoothly. We highly suggest getting in touch with a Shopify Partner agency like Blue Badger; however, they’ll have the experience you need to check all the right boxes and get you up and running quickly.
Conclusion
Adding subscription options to your store can be a strong growth lever, but only when the setup aligns with the realities of your products, margins, operations, and customer behaviour. The Shopify merchants who get the most out of subscriptions are those who choose the right architecture, build a good self-serve experience, test their billing and retention flows, and track performance closely after launch.
If your subscription model involves complex logic, migrations, or systems integration, Blue Badger has the experience you need to ensure that your subscription implementation goes well and your customers are unaffected. Contact us today to learn more.
