How to set up product subscriptions on Shopify

Updated November 1, 2026 · SMART Subscriptions (E-TRADE PARTNER)

Install SMART Subscriptions and follow the 5-step setup guide on Home: add the Subscriptions Widget to your product template, create a plan in Plans, customize the Widget, activate the subscription page in Management, and activate the Emails you need. Shopify Checkout creates the subscription contract when a customer buys with a subscription option selected.

A coffee brand that ships bags every four weeks, a pet store that refills treats monthly, or a skincare line that wants a clear Subscribe & Save choice all need the same first outcome: a working plan on the product page, a clean checkout, and a way for customers to pause or cancel later. Setup should follow a fixed order so you do not customize a widget before a plan exists, or turn on emails before the portal path is ready.

Why a complete setup path matters

• Customers only convert when the purchase option is visible on the live product template.
• A plan without products or variants assigned never appears as a choice.
• The customer portal reduces support tickets for pause, skip, resume, cancel, payment method, and address changes.
• Email templates stay inactive until you activate them, so you control when subscribers get lifecycle messages.
• Your Home dashboard only becomes useful after the first active subscriptions start contributing to MRR.

What Shopify can and cannot do natively

Shopify provides the foundation for subscriptions: selling plans, subscription contracts, Checkout, and stored payment methods for renewals. Native admin alone does not give you a merchant-ready product-page purchase widget, plan builder with subscribe & save discounts, customer portal actions, dunning settings, or editable lifecycle emails. Those pieces come from a subscription app built on Shopify's APIs.

Setup steps in SMART Subscriptions

1. Install SMART Subscriptions and open the app from Shopify admin. Start on Home so you can follow the setup guide.
2. Activate the widget: the first Home step opens the theme editor on your product template. Add the Subscriptions Widget app block and save. Do this on the theme you publish.
3. Create a plan under Plans. The plan title is internal. Add one or more subscription options; each option's Label is the name customers see. Set Delivery every (1-99 days, weeks, months, or years), Pay as you go or Pay in advance, and an optional discount: Percentage, Amount off, or Fixed amount (a fixed price). Assign products or specific variants.
4. You can also assign products from Shopify admin: use Manage subscription plan on a product's Purchase options card, or select products in the product list and choose Add to subscription plan.
5. Customize the widget under Widget with a live preview: colors, spacing, typography, text, translations, and custom CSS. Choose whether to show the sale badge and the price before discount. The Behaviour settings (select subscription by default, hide one-time purchase) apply to every product with a SMART plan.
6. Under Management, activate the Subscription management page in the new Shopify customer accounts. Customers then get pause, resume, skip and unskip, cancel, a switch to another saved payment method, and shipping address, pickup, or local delivery edits. Optionally activate the Thank you page card and the Order action button.
7. Set up Emails. There are 17 Liquid templates, all inactive until you activate each one. You can preview them, send a test email, translate day and month names in dates, and set the sender name and reply-to address.
8. Optional: review Settings for payment failure and inventory failure retries and the final action (cancel, pause, or skip). Defaults are already set.
9. Place a test order on an assigned product and confirm the contract under Subscriptions. Home shows active subscriptions and MRR after its next refresh, about every 10 minutes.

Worked example: monthly coffee Subscribe & Save

A roastery wants 250 g bags on a monthly Subscribe & Save offer at 10% off, with one-time purchase still available. Customers should manage their own pause and skip actions after checkout.

1. Under Plans, create a plan with one option: Label “Delivered monthly, save 10%”, Delivery every 1 month, Pay as you go, Percentage discount of 10%. Assign the 250 g bag product.
2. On the product template, keep the Subscriptions Widget in place and leave one-time purchase on. Optionally select subscription by default; that setting applies to every SMART product.
3. Under Management, activate the Subscription management page. Pause, resume, skip and unskip, cancel, payment method, and address changes all come with it.
4. Under Emails, activate Subscription created, Billing successful, and Billing failed first. Leave the rest inactive until you need them.
5. Test with a customer account: buy the subscription, open the subscription page from the account (or the thank-you card or order action button), skip the next order, then confirm the upcoming order shows as Skipped under Subscriptions.

That path ships a complete loop: product-page offer, Checkout contract, self-service management, and the first emails that keep renewals understandable.

Practical tips before you launch

• Follow the Home order: activate widget, create plan, customize widget, allow management, set up emails.
• Assign only the products or variants that should offer the plan. A missing assignment is the most common reason a product looks like a one-time item.
• Use Duplicate on a plan to start a similar one quickly. Option names can be translated per language.
• If you need subscription-only products later, read hide one-time purchase.
• If the widget still does not appear after setup, use subscription widget not showing.
• Confirm your payment gateway supports subscriptions before you market the offer widely. See subscription payment gateways.

What success looks like after setup

You are ready to sell when an assigned product shows the Subscriptions Widget, Checkout creates a contract, the customer can open the subscription page from their account, and the emails you activated send for the events you care about. From there, watch Home for active subscriptions and MRR, and refine discounts or frequencies in Plans without rebuilding the whole stack.

Frequently asked questions