

Subscription products


  • Packaged food and beverages customers order regularly
  • Subscription boxes for cosmetics, and other health and beauty items
  • Ongoing services, memberships, and maintenance packages


Subscription products are only available on the Commerce Advanced plan.


To offer subscriptions, you must:

Keep in mind

Create a subscription product

You can make any physical or service product a subscription.

  1. In the Home Menu, click Pages, and then click a Products Page.
  2. Click + to add a new product, or double-click an existing product to edit it.
  3. In the product editor, check Subscription product.


  1. In the window that appears, use the drop-down menus to set the subscription frequency. Subscriptions can renew as often as once every week, and as infrequently as once every twelve months based on the purchase date.
  2. To limit the number of renewals, click the Billing Cycles drop-down menu and select the number of payments subscribers will make. This number includes the initial purchase. Select Ongoing payments if the subscription will renew indefinitely.



  1. Click Save in the subscription settings window.
  2. Add or edit other product details.
  3. Click Save.

Monthly subscriptions renew on the same day each month, or the last day of the month if there's no corresponding date in shorter months. For example, if a customer buys a monthly subscription product on January 31, the subscription will renew on February 28, then March 31.

Fulfill a subscription renewal


Edit a subscription product



Manage a customer’s subscription


Manage a customer's subscription from their Customer Account: 

  1. In the Home Menu click Commerce, and then click Customers.
  3. Click the Subscriptions tab.

Delay a subscription renewal


  1. Click the subscription you want to delay. 
  2. Click Reschedule order date
  4. Click Save
  5. Click Continue.

Delaying a customer's next subscription renewal affects all future renewals. For example, if a subscription renews monthly, it will continue to renew monthly after the new renewal date.

Cancel a subscription

If a customer asks to cancel future renewals, they can cancel their subscription from their Customer account. To cancel the subscription for them:

  1. Click the subscription you want to cancel, scroll down, and click Cancel subscription.
  2. Click Confirm.



Cancel an order



How customers buy subscriptions

Here’s how a subscription product displays in your live store:


When a customer clicks Subscribe, they’re taken to Express Checkout, where they confirm the order without adding other products to their cart. They’ll be prompted to log in or create a new Customer Account.


The credit card they entered at checkout will be saved to their Customer Account, and future renewal orders will be placed automatically.

How customers manage their subscriptions

Customers who buy subscription products can view and manage their subscriptions from their Customer Account. After logging in, they click My account, and then Subscriptions.


  • The next order date
  • Price
  • Subscription frequency
  • Order history 
  • Saved billing and shipping information



To update their payment information, they click Payment Method, and then Update Payment Method.


Via the order email


Discontinue a subscription product


To discontinue a subscription product entirely:

Step 1 - Delete the product

Delete or hide the product to prevent new customers from subscribing.

Step 2 - Contact subscribers


Step 3 - Cancel active subscriptions


  1. In the Home Menu, click Commerce, and then click Orders.
  3. Back in the Commerce panel, click Customers.
  5. Repeat these steps for each subscriber.

Next steps


What happens if a customer’s payment fails?



The charge is attempted again after five days, and then for a final time five days after that. If the payment fails for a third time, the order and subscription are cancelled. Customers can update their payment information in the Subscription panel in their Customer Account.

What happens if I connect a different Stripe account?


Can a customer skip a renewal?


Can a customer pause their subscription?


Are customers notified before their subscriptions renew? 


Can I change how often a subscription renews?



Can I view the total number of active subscriptions?


What happens to subscriptions if my site expires? 

If your site is cancelled or expires, active subscriptions will be cancelled immediately. If you reactivate your site, customers must resubscribe to continue their subscriptions. 

What happens to subscriptions if I downgrade my plan?

If you downgrade to a plan that doesn't support selling subscription products, active subscriptions will expire ten days after their next scheduled renewal date. 

Can I offer different renewal frequencies for the same product?


Can a customer apply a discount to a subscription product?


Can a customer buy a subscription with a gift card?

No. Gift cards can't be applied to subscription products.

Do Commerce API integrations work with subscription products?

Yes, Commerce integrations still work with subscription products.

Does ShipStation work with subscription products? 




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Subscription products