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This guide explains how subscriptions work in post-purchase offers and what to keep in mind when offering them to your customers.

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Offering Subscription Products After Checkout

If a product has selling plans enabled in Shopify, you can offer it in one of three ways.

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1. One-Time Purchase Only

This works like a standard upsell.
  • Customers can purchase the product one time.
  • No subscription option is shown.
  • The experience feels like a typical post-purchase offer.

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2. Subscription Only

In this setup:
  • The product must be purchased as a subscription.
  • Customers cannot choose a one-time purchase.
  • The available subscription options (pricing and delivery frequency) come directly from Shopify.
This is useful if you want to fully commit the offer to recurring revenue.

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3. One-Time Purchase and Subscription

This gives customers flexibility. They can choose between:
  • A one-time purchase, or
  • A subscription (based on the product’s selling plans in Shopify)
The pricing and delivery frequency are automatically pulled from Shopify. This option is commonly used when you want to encourage subscriptions without requiring them.

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Choosing a Default Option

If you offer both one-time and subscription options, you can decide which one is preselected when the offer loads. This default selection:
  • Guides customer behavior
  • Highlights your preferred option (like a subscription)
  • Still allows customers to switch before accepting
It’s a simple way to promote subscriptions while keeping the experience flexible.

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Subscription Upgrades

Aftersell also allows you to upgrade subscriptions during the post-purchase experience. You can:
  • Change the frequency only
    Update how often the customer is billed and receives the product.
  • Replace the product only
    Swap the product while keeping the same subscription frequency.
  • Change both
    Update the product and the frequency at the same time.

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Converting a One-Time Purchase into a Subscription

You can also replace a one-time purchase with a subscription version of the same product after checkout. This allows customers to:
  • Start a subscription immediately after purchasing
  • Avoid re-entering payment or shipping details
  • Seamlessly switch to a recurring order
The subscription is created using the selling plan selected in the offer.

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Important

If a customer accepts a subscription upsell during the post-purchase flow:
  • Any additional offers in the funnel will no longer include subscription options.
To avoid skipped or redundant offers, it’s best practice to allow only one subscription upsell per order. For step-by-step instructions, see:
How to Set Up a Replacement Upsell for Subscriptions

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Subscription Discounts

If you apply a discount to a subscription upsell:
  • The discount applies only to the first billing cycle.
  • Future recurring orders will be charged at the regular subscription price.
Customers can clearly see this in the offer experience under the “Recurring subtotal”, which shows what future renewals will cost.

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Shopify Subscription Limitations

There’s one important Shopify limitation to be aware of:
You cannot add a subscription to an order that already contains a subscription.
This restriction is set by Shopify and applies to all post-purchase apps.

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What this means

  • If the original order already includes a subscription, you cannot offer another subscription post-purchase.
  • Subscription upsells are only available when the original order contains no subscription items.

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Subscription App Compatibility

Aftersell integrates directly with Shopify’s Subscription API. This means it works seamlessly with modern subscription apps like:
  • ReCharge
  • Appstle
  • Smartrr
  • And other apps built on Shopify’s Subscription API
No additional setup is required as long as your subscription app uses Shopify’s native subscription system.