Create a subscription plan

A subscription plan is what your customers choose on the product page: how often the product arrives, how they pay, and the discount they get for subscribing. This guide walks through creating one from start to finish. It takes about 3 minutes.

Before you start: you need at least one product in Shopify. To show the plan on your storefront you also need the RecurX widget turned on — see Install and customize the subscription widget.

1Step 1: Open Plans and click Create plan

1. In your Shopify admin, open Apps → RecurX Subscriptions.
2. Go to Subscriptions → Plans.
3. Click Create plan in the top right.

2Step 2: Start from a template (optional)

Under Plan details, the Quick start row fills in the discount, delivery interval and trial for you. Click the one closest to what you want — you can change every value afterwards.

Tip: The templates disappear once you pick one. To start again, click Discard in the save bar and reopen Create plan.

3Step 3: Name the plan

1. Title — the name customers see on product pages, for example Subscribe & save 10%.
2. Internal description — a note for you and your team. Customers never see it.
3. Tick Subscription only (hide the one-time purchase option) if the products in this plan should only be sold as a subscription. This needs the RecurX widget on your theme.

Note: If another active plan already has the same title, RecurX suggests a different one (for example Save 10% monthly (6)). Two plans with the same name can confuse customers on your storefront.

4Step 4: Choose the plan type

Open the Plan type dropdown and pick one:

• Subscribe and save (standard) — a physical product delivered on a schedule. Most stores use this.
• Membership (access and perks, no physical delivery) — customers pay a recurring fee for perks, a member discount or members-only content. Extra settings appear for the member discount, customer tag and benefits.
• Build-a-box or mystery box — customers pick items from a product pool, or you curate a mystery selection. Box size and item rules are set on the Build-a-box page (click Set box rules).

5Step 5: Add products

1. In the Products card, click Select products (or Add a collection to add a whole collection).
2. Shopify's product picker opens. Tick the products or variants this plan applies to.
3. Click Add.

The products now appear in the card. Click the trash icon next to a product to remove it.

Tip: Tick Let customers swap products and variants to let subscribers switch to another product in this plan from the customer portal.

6Step 6: Set delivery, billing and the discount

In Delivery options:

1. Billing type — Pay as you go bills the customer for every delivery. Prepaid charges up front for several deliveries (set Deliveries per payment — for example 3 with monthly delivery is one charge for 3 months).
2. Delivery frequency — a whole number, for example 1.
3. Delivery interval — Days, Weeks, Months or Years. Frequency 2 + interval Weeks means "every 2 weeks".
4. Keep Give a discount on this option ticked and enter the Discount amount. Choose Percentage off or Fixed amount off under Discount type.

Tip: Want to offer several frequencies in one plan (for example every 2, 4 or 6 weeks)? Click Add option at the top of the card. Each option has its own frequency and discount, and customers pick one on the product page.

Tip: Tick Change the discount after a number of orders to reward loyalty — for example 10% off the first 3 orders, then 15% after that.

7Step 7: Check pricing and trial

The Pricing and trial card is optional:

• Price (overrides the product price) — leave it as it is, or clear it so each product is charged its own price minus the discount. A price here applies to every variant in the plan.
• Free first order (trial days) — above 0, the customer's first order is free and the next order is charged one delivery interval later. 0 means no free first order.
• Minimum number of orders — a commitment. Customers can't cancel from the customer portal until they've received this many orders (or they pay an early cancellation fee, if you've set one).
• Maximum number of orders — used only when Auto-expiration is turned on under Advanced settings.

8Step 8: Advanced settings (optional)

Each section in Advanced settings is collapsed until you open it. A section with a setting already on starts open.

• Auto-expiration — end subscriptions after a number of orders or on a date.
• Shipping discount — a shipping discount for subscribers.
• Free gift — add a gift at sign-up or after a number of months.
• Post-purchase product switch — let customers switch product after buying.
• Anchor day scheduling — bill every subscriber on the same day each week or month.
• Bullet points — the selling points shown under this plan in the widget.
• Volume pricing — a better price for buying several at once.
• Priority and display — the order of this plan's options on the product page, the selector title and the description.

9Step 9: Review the summary and save

The Summary card on the right shows what customers get — for example Every month · $39.00 $35.10 · Save $3.90 per order. Check it, then click Save in the bar at the top of the page.

RecurX publishes the plan to Shopify as a selling plan (you'll see Publishing to Shopify…). The plan's status is Active, so the subscription options appear on those product pages straight away.

What happens next

• Check your product page. Open one of the products on your storefront: the RecurX widget shows the new subscription option. If it doesn't, see Widget not showing on my product page.
• Editing later: changes apply to new subscriptions only. Existing subscribers keep the terms they signed up with — change an individual subscriber from their page in Subscribers.
• Pausing a plan: open the plan and click Deactivate plan under Status. Inactive plans are hidden from your storefront; existing subscriptions continue.

Troubleshooting

• "Select at least one product." — add a product in Step 5 before saving.
• "This discount is equal to or more than the plan price" — the discount makes the plan free. Lower the discount or tick This is a free plan if that's intended.
• "The product picker only works when the app is open in Shopify admin." — open RecurX from Apps inside your Shopify admin, not from a separate tab.