How to set Shopify subscription billing frequencies

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

In SMART Subscriptions, each subscription option in Plans has a Delivery every value of 1–99 days, weeks, months, or years. Choose Pay as you go to charge every delivery, or Pay in advance to charge once for several deliveries; the payment interval must be a multiple of the delivery interval, in the same unit.

A meal-kit store needs weekly deliveries. A razor brand needs every 4 weeks. A bottled sauce line needs every 2 months. Those are delivery frequencies on selling plans, not separate Shopify products for each cadence.

Frequency is the backbone of the offer. Get it wrong and inventory, emails, and customer expectations all drift. For the full selling-plan picture, see how Shopify subscriptions work.

Why frequency setup matters

• Delivery cadence should match how fast customers use the product.
• Billing cadence should match how you want cash collected: each delivery, or prepaid multiples.
• Clear option labels on the widget reduce “I thought this was monthly” tickets.
• One plan can hold several subscription options (for example every 2, 4, and 8 weeks), and it can cover many products that share the same cadence and discount logic.

What Shopify can and cannot do natively

Shopify selling plans define delivery and billing policies under the hood. Merchants usually create them through an app. In SMART Subscriptions, a plan is one Shopify selling plan group, and each subscription option inside it is one selling plan with its own frequency, billing style, and discount.

Setup steps in SMART Subscriptions

1. Open Plans in SMART Subscriptions and create a plan. The plan title is internal only.
2. Add a subscription option and give it a customer-facing Label, for example “Deliver every 2 weeks”. This is the name shoppers see in the widget.
3. Set Delivery every to 1–99 days, weeks, months, or years.
4. Choose Pay as you go or Pay in advance. For pay in advance, set Payment every to a multiple of the delivery interval, in the same unit.
5. Optionally set a minimum and a maximum number of payment cycles, and a Percentage, Amount off, or fixed price discount. You can also change the discount after X payment cycles.
6. Add more options for other cadences and reorder them. The first option is the one the widget pre-selects when subscription is selected by default.
7. Assign products or specific variants. You can also use Manage subscription plan in a product’s Purchase options card, or the Add to subscription plan bulk action on the Shopify products list.
8. Make sure the Subscriptions Widget is on the product template, then place a test order and check the contract’s Upcoming orders dates under Subscriptions.

Worked example: every 4 weeks razors

A shave brand wants blades every 4 weeks, charged each delivery, with 10% off versus one-time.

1. In Plans, add an option with the Label “Deliver every 4 weeks” and Delivery every 4 weeks.
2. Choose Pay as you go so each delivery is charged.
3. Apply a 10% Percentage discount. The widget adds a SAVE 10% badge on its own.
4. Assign the blade refill products.
5. Test checkout, then open the contract under Subscriptions and confirm the next upcoming order is about four weeks out.

Customers get a cadence that matches real usage, and renewals create new Shopify orders on that schedule.

Practical tips

• Prefer weeks or months in customer-facing labels even if you modeled the policy in days.
• Offer only the cadences you can fulfill reliably. Extra options create more skip and pause volume.
• Combine frequency with clear subscription discounts.
• Customers pause, skip, and cancel in the customer portal, but they can’t change frequency there. You can change a contract’s delivery and payment interval under Subscriptions.
• Confirm gateway support for renewals in payment gateways.
• Use how to test Shopify subscriptions before marketing the cadence widely.

Frequently asked questions