Subscription boxes, such as snacks, beauty, coffee, books, dog toys or craft kits, turn one-off buyers into customers who come back every month. On Shopify there are a few decisions to make before you launch: how customers pay, when orders close for each box, how you show a box that changes every month, and how you sell gifts. This guide covers each one.
1. Decide how customers pay
There are two ways to sell a box on Shopify, and many stores use both.
Prepaid plans, with no app
Create one product for your box and add an option called Plan with values such as Monthly, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. Give each plan its full price, for example $35 for one box and $99 for three. Customers pay once and you ship the boxes they paid for. It's simple, needs no app and works on every Shopify plan. Prepaid plans also bring cash in up front.
Recurring billing, with a subscriptions app
For true monthly billing, where the customer is charged every month until they cancel, install a subscriptions app. Shopify's free Shopify Subscriptions app covers the basics: add your box to a subscription plan, set the delivery frequency and any discount, and customers can manage, skip or cancel from their account. Other apps from the Shopify App Store add features such as build-a-box and dunning. We reviewed several in the best subscription apps for Shopify.
2. Show the saving on every plan
Shoppers compare plans by the price of one box, not the total. Show $33 a box for the 3-month plan next to $35 for monthly, and say how much they save. Highlight the plan you want most people to pick, usually the 3-month plan, and list what every plan includes, such as free shipping and when they can skip or cancel.
3. Set a monthly cutoff, and say it everywhere
Every box business has a cutoff: orders placed by a certain day go in this month's box, and later orders go in the next one. Pick a date that gives you time to order stock and pack, often the 10th to the 20th, and then make it impossible to miss. Put it in the announcement bar, near the buy button and in the cart. “Order within 5 days 3 hours to get the December box” sells better than a line in the FAQ, and saves you a lot of “when will my box arrive?” emails.
4. Show what's inside
A box that changes every month is hard to photograph once and forget. Instead:
- Reveal this month's box on the homepage: a photo, the theme and each item with its value. Adding up the values (“$46 value for $35”) is the most persuasive thing on the page.
- Keep past boxes in a gallery. They show the variety and quality better than any promise.
- Sell one-off boxes and extras. Past boxes and favorite items make good one-time purchases for people who aren't ready to subscribe.
5. Sell gift subscriptions
Gifts are a big share of box sales, especially in November and December. Make gifts a separate product with lengths such as 1, 3 and 6 boxes. Make them prepaid and set them never to renew, so the recipient never gets an unexpected charge. Then let the buyer add a gift note and a send date. Line item properties save both on the order, so your packing team sees them.
6. Make skipping and cancelling easy
It sounds backwards, but saying “skip or cancel anytime” clearly gets more people to subscribe, and it reduces chargebacks from customers who feel trapped. Say how to skip and the deadline for it, put it near the plans, and make sure your subscriptions app's customer portal really lets customers do it themselves.
A theme built for subscription boxes
Our Crate theme was made for this setup. It has a plan picker that works out the price per box and saving, a monthly cutoff countdown in the hero, on the product page and in the cart, a “This month's box” section that adds up item values, a past boxes gallery, and a gift section that saves a gift note and send date. It works with prepaid plans and no app, and shows Shopify Subscriptions plans automatically when you add them. It comes with twelve styles, including snacks, beauty, coffee, books, dog boxes, kids crafts, tea and plants, each with a live demo store.
