How selling plans work: Subscriptions docs

Shopify sells subscriptions through selling plans. Chargezen creates and manages them for you, so you rarely touch them in Shopify. Knowing how they fit together helps you set up plans that show the right options, bill at the right time and import cleanly. You manage them in Subscriptions → Catalog → Subscription Plans.

Plan groups and plans

A plan in Chargezen is a Shopify selling plan group. It has a name, the products it applies to and a delivery profile.
Selling plans are the options inside it, like "Every 2 weeks" and "Every month". Each one has its own billing rules, delivery rules, discount and trial.
On the product page, customers see the group's Plan selector title and pick one selling plan by its Plan selector label.

Billing interval vs delivery interval

The billing interval is how often the customer pays. The delivery interval is how often an order ships. When they match, customers pay for each delivery. When billing is a longer multiple of delivery, the customer pays up front for several deliveries. That's a prepaid plan.

Where a plan is offered

Every plan has four channels, all on to start:

Online Store: product pages, cart and checkout.
Portal: plans customers can choose in the Squircle Launcher portal.
Contract import: creating and importing subscription contracts.
Subscription management: changing products and plans on a subscription from the admin.

Hidden from the Online Store

Turning off Online Store detaches the plan's products from it in Shopify, so no storefront offers it. Existing subscriptions keep billing.

Add a plan from the Shopify admin

You can also create a simple plan while editing a product in Shopify.

Open the product in Shopify

In the purchase options section of a product or variant, open the Subscriptions action from Chargezen.

Name it

Title is what customers see on product pages (for example "Subscribe and save"). Internal description is for your reference only.

Set the discount

Turn on Offer discount and choose Percentage off, Amount off or Fixed price.

Add delivery options

For each Option, set the Delivery frequency and Delivery interval (weeks, months or years). Use Remove option to drop one.

Save

Choose Save. You'll see "Subscription plan created".

Plans and imports

Imported and hand-made contracts need a plan with the Contract import channel on. Recharge App sync matches each subscription to an active plan with the same billing and delivery frequency, so create those plans before you import.

Troubleshooting

An import says the plan isn't available for contract import

Open the plan, turn on the Contract import channel, save, and run the import again. Or choose another plan.

A plan doesn't appear in the customer portal

Customers can only switch to plans with the Portal channel on.

Shopify says no purchase option is selected

Select a product or product variant in Shopify, then open the Subscriptions action again.

Shopify subscriptions: built for Shopify checkout, Shop Pay and customer accounts.
Glossary: subscription frequency, subscribe and save, prepaid subscription.

How selling plans work