How to Start a Shopify Subscription Box (With Examples)

Studying Time: 10 minutes

Beginning a Shopify subscription field enterprise is the perfect concept you’ll have all 12 months, due to the magic of recurring income, which supplies low buyer acquisition prices, excessive buyer lifetime worth, and the monetary stability what you are promoting must develop.

At this stage, you may need a incredible subscription field concept, even perhaps an understanding of the Shopify platform and the way it works. 

However let’s take a step again, since you additionally must construct, bundle, ship, and market your containers, to not point out retain prospects, all of which want a method.

This text teaches you tips on how to begin a subscription field enterprise with Shopify and supplies actual examples of profitable shops to encourage your personal.

Why begin a subscription field enterprise on Shopify?

Recurring income is the bedrock of sustainable ecommerce, and that’s what you get promoting subscription containers. One sale can flip into income over months and probably years, spreading any acquisition prices paper-thin.

Meaning extra earnings for you, and the slice you possibly can take is spectacular: Research And Markets estimates the subscription financial system was value $152.8 billion in 2025 and predicts it to develop to a staggering $340.9 billion by 2030.

Right here’s why you need to begin a subscription field enterprise:

• Recurring income you possibly can rely on
• Prospects keep longer than one-time consumers
• Predictable stock and money stream
• Increased lifetime worth per buyer
• Constructed-in alternatives to upsell and check merchandise
• Decrease acquisition prices over time

Shopify is among the finest platforms to construct your subscription field enterprise as a result of it handles ecommerce out of the field. Its primary function is its app ecosystem, which helps you to construct a tech stack to develop and promote subscriptions and bundles, and market all of them effortlessly.

As an illustration:

• Set up Omnisend, and you may cowl your buyer journey throughout e-mail confirmations, follow-ups, renewal reminders, and win-back campaigns
• Decide Loop as your subscription app, and you may construct subscriptions, flexible bundles, and supply buyer accounts for self-management

Easy methods to begin a subscription field enterprise with Shopify

To launch your subscription field on Shopify, you first want a longtime area of interest, tech stack, and Shopify configuration that automates your transport, stock administration, and advertising and marketing. We’ve damaged down the steps for you:

1. Select your area of interest

A distinct segment you’re acquainted with works nice (maybe you might have earlier expertise as a purchaser or vendor), however it isn’t vital to start out what you are promoting. All you want is a distinct segment with regular demand, and there are loads to select from:

• Pet provides
• Meal kits
• Dietary supplements
• Books
• Tea and low
• Snacks and specialty meals
• Craft and DIY provides
• Vegetation and gardening

From these, you possibly can provide curated containers or let prospects construct their very own.

Something you possibly can field, bundle, and promote on subscription is honest recreation, however it’s solely as much as you to choose successful merchandise and worth your containers in order that they’re worthwhile. Some niches have higher pricing energy, resembling pet provides and dietary supplements.

Additionally, contemplate potential return charges with any niches. Books and craft provides gained’t see excessive return charges, but when there’s a nasty batch of espresso or dietary supplements, that may disrupt your stream. It’s safer to start out with low-risk niches.

2. Choose a subscription app

Should you’re questioning tips on how to create a subscription field on Shopify, the very first thing to know is that Shopify doesn’t natively deal with subscription containers. You want an app to bundle, bundle, handle, and market your subscription containers. 

Shopify provides tons of of subscription apps, lots of that are rated 4.5/5 or larger.

The perfect subscription apps will combine together with your e-mail advertising and marketing instrument, letting you ship focused campaigns and set off automated e-mail flows primarily based on buyer exercise. Take a look at the three apps beneath, which all combine with Omnisend:

• Recharge: The perfect subscription field app for Shopify for dynamic bundles, tiered reductions, retention instruments, and buyer portals
• Loop: Has a better ranking than Recharge (5/5 vs 4.8/5) with build-a-box choices if you need prospects to construct their very own containers
• Seal: Excellent for promoting subscription containers with loyalty incentives, free items, magic hyperlinks, customized transport, and reductions

Test the App Store for more, and evaluate every of their options and pricing. Some apps cost a normal month-to-month price, some solely cost transaction charges per order, and others ask for each a month-to-month cost and transaction charges.

3. Arrange product pages

Your product pages must current your subscription containers fantastically, reply all the suitable questions, and persuade prospects to buy there after which.

Three elements primarily decide the standard of your product pages:

1. Your theme, which you should buy by way of the Shopify Theme Store or by way of a third-party, resembling ThemeForest. Free themes can be found, however you may miss out on premium options like one-click demo imports and built-in countdown timers. For instance, the Root theme has beautiful product pages:

2. The content material, together with photographs, movies, and user-generated content material (UGC). Plus, after all, the written phrase throughout headings, textual content containers, and downloadable PDFs.
3. Web page format, resembling putting belief badges and refund data straight beneath your “BUY NOW” CTA button, letting prospects construct their very own containers on the product web page as an alternative of in an exterior app, and exhibiting social proof above the fold.

Right here’s what to at all times embrace on product pages:

• Cost choices
• Belief badges
• Delivery data
• Guarantee data
• Returns and alternate data
• Social proof
• Actual-life pictures (not inventory photographs)

Tick all these containers and your Shopify subscription field enterprise will get off to the perfect begin.

4. Configure transport, packaging, and success

Your subscription field might be plain or branded. A customized field feels unique and will increase the standard notion of your model, however a plain field might be marketed as eco-friendly and reusable (for the client), so both can work.

For transport choices, log in to Shopify, then head to Settings > Delivery and supply. From there, you possibly can handle transport places, most popular carriers, calculate charges, and arrange pickup factors and pickup in retailer (if you wish to provide them):

An app value contemplating to enhance your transport capabilities is Packlink PRO, which provides distinctive transport charges and allows you to examine them in real-time.

Both strategy can present flat or variable transport charges, although flat-rate transport is commonly the perfect strategy to simplify the method for you and your prospects.

The way you fulfill orders depends upon your ecommerce mannequin. You may:

• Pack and label your subscription containers, then take them to the depot or have a courier (resembling USPS) gather them
• In case your margins permit it, use a success middle to retailer your product of their warehouse and deal with all the pieces from choosing and packing to cargo
• Take a hybrid strategy, scaling to finish automated success later after you have sufficient gross sales to justify it

The selection is yours.

5. Market your subscription field enterprise

You’ll be able to construct your Shopify retailer and hope individuals discover you. They may — ultimately. However with out a clear advertising and marketing technique that will get your subscription containers in entrance of the suitable viewers, development shall be gradual, and earnings even slower. 

The very first thing you need to do is set up an e-mail advertising and marketing app, resembling Omnisend, so to construct your subscriber checklist with kinds and popups on landing pages, get better deserted carts and checkouts, and improve the professionalism of your affirmation emails:

Shopify handles order notifications as normal, however these emails aren’t appropriate to your extremely branded subscription field enterprise. Plus, Shopify gained’t allow you to construct campaigns or automations with out apps anyway, so a third-party app is the perfect strategy.

After you have an e-mail advertising and marketing app, you possibly can cowl your buyer journey with well timed emails that nurture them and contribute to income development.

One model that did simply that’s Dukier:

Dukier put in Omnisend and elevated its e-mail income by 525% in three years through the use of localized automations and segmentation throughout 5 European markets, with automations alone producing 55% of income. Learn the Omnisend buyer success story: Dukier.

Do not forget that with e-mail advertising and marketing, you personal your checklist. There are not any algorithms that may destroy your search rankings, nor are there any firms outbidding you on advert platforms. 

It’s best to pursue a multi-channel technique with additional marketing apps, however e-mail must be the cornerstone of your development and retention efforts.

Finest niches for Shopify subscription containers

Contemplate these niches to your subscription field Shopify enterprise:

• Magnificence & skincare containers: excessive margins on pattern sizes with manufacturers actively looking for distribution partnerships, and light-weight transport retains prices down
• Pet product containers: homeowners already spend month-to-month on treats and toys, so that you’re capturing current habits and comfort
• Snack containers: there’s a plentiful selection at low costs from worldwide suppliers, plus your merchandise require zero R&D
• E-book containers: loyal reader communities kind round genres, and plenty of publishers provide wholesale pricing and advance copies
• Health & wellness containers: high-margin dietary supplements with gear tied to month-to-month objectives
• Espresso or tea containers: individuals already purchase these recurrently, and you may goal small batch manufacturing to justify premium costs

6 profitable Shopify subscription field retailer examples

Our Shopify subscription field setup information wouldn’t be full with out some real-world examples. Take a look at these profitable companies to encourage your personal:

1. Birchbox

Birchbox sells month-to-month subscription containers containing 5 to 6 magnificence merchandise, letting its prospects construct their very own containers with a field builder app:

Prospects may choose from three subscription tiers:

• Month-to-month memberships
• Rebillable three-month subscriptions (pay as you go)
• Rebillable 12-month subscriptions (pay as you go) 

Every subscription field ships month-to-month, with its 12-month tier providing the bottom costs in return for one 12 months of recurring income.

2. Reel

Reel sells eco-friendly bamboo rest room paper (amongst different paper merchandise) with subscribe & save choices on its product pages:

It units supply timelines to match the product, with the product above delivered each eight weeks, no matter amount alternative. Its subscription containers embrace plastic-free packaging and are absolutely branded, as proven within the picture beneath:

3. Bokksu

Bokksu sells the Bokksu Snack Field, a subscription field containing Japanese snacks, candies, and teas sourced from throughout the nation. 

It solely provides subscriptions (no one-time purchases) and provides tiered subscription plans with financial savings for longer-term prospects:

After deciding on a plan, the web site upsells present packaging on the cart web page after which once more at checkout. The checkout additionally pre-applies Bokksu Safety+ for $6.75, which supplies transport safety and precedence assist.

4. Greenback Shave Membership

Greenback Shave Membership provides one-time purchases and subscriptions for shaving, together with standalone blades, shaving heads, grooming merchandise, and extra. A few of its containers are curated, such because the examples beneath:

Nevertheless, prospects may add merchandise to a subscription whereas looking the positioning to create a singular bundle, or subscribe to particular person gadgets, resembling these razor blades:

5. Cometeer

Espresso retailer Cometeer sells curated espresso containers for various roast ranges, together with combined, gentle, medium, darkish, decaf, and half, with its normal subscription protecting month-to-month deliveries:

Moreover, Cometeer lets prospects construct their very own field with distinctive product picks, or by way of a curated selection pack primarily based on roast degree, origin, and taste profile:

6. Finn

Pet complement retailer Finn sells all its merchandise with subscribe & save choices, with every product customizable by canine measurement:

Prospects may buy bundles, that are curated subscription containers containing a number of merchandise primarily based on well being themes, resembling plaque, dry paws, stress, and coat well being:

Our favourite function on Finn’s web site is the interactive quiz. It’s principally a signup kind, as a result of step one asks to your identify, final identify, and e-mail. Following the steps then supplies a plan suggestion, such because the one beneath:

Able to launch your Shopify subscription field?

Discover a area of interest with demand and low competitors. If it’s saturated, search for distinctive bundle alternatives, aftercare, and cost choices to face out.

The next step is to join Shopify should you haven’t already (the most cost effective Primary plan will do), navigate its dashboard, try its apps, and plan a tech stack that may create the subscription field expertise you need for purchasers.

This can span advertising and marketing, gross sales, aftercare, and follow-ups, with every factor in what you are promoting requiring a high-quality strategy.

Omnisend is among the many finest Shopify e-mail advertising and marketing apps for all levels of your development. Its ready-to-go automations cowl your buyer journey, its pre-built segments assure probably the most acceptable concentrating on, and you may add SMS and push notifications into your e-mail flows.

FAQs about Shopify subscription containers