Subscriptions

Roast shows subscriptions, but it doesn't create them. Subscriptions in Shopify are selling plans, and selling plans come from a subscriptions app. Install one first: Shopify's own free Shopify Subscriptions app works, and so does any app that creates Shopify selling plans. The app also charges the repeat orders and gives customers a page in their account to skip, pause or cancel. Roast reads the plans the app creates and shows them in the buy box, in quick view and in the Subscription builder.

Step 1: create plans in your app

In your subscriptions app, create a plan group (Shopify Subscriptions calls it a subscription plan) with one or more delivery frequencies and a discount, such as 10% off every 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks, and add your coffees to it. The plan group's name is what the buy box calls it, so a name like "Subscribe and save" reads well. Each frequency's name becomes a button: name them the way you want shoppers to read them, such as "Delivery every 2 weeks".

Step 2: the buy box

Once a product has plans, the Buy buttons block shows the purchase options above the add button. Settings (in Product › Buy buttons):

What shoppers see with the Cards style:

• A card for each plan group, with a savings tag worked out from the group's first plan: "10% off" for a percentage discount, "Save $2.40" for a fixed amount. Each card shows the plan price, with the one-time price struck through under it.
• Choosing the card opens it onto the frequencies, as a row of buttons ("Every week", "Every 2 weeks" …), and checks the Recommended plan.
• A "One-time purchase" card with the normal price. It's left out when the product can only be bought on a plan (a setting in your app).
• The add button follows the choice: "Subscribe · $21.60 every 2 weeks" or "Add to bag · $24.00". The price under the product title stays the one-time price.
• Screen readers hear the choice: "Every 2 weeks selected, $21.60 per delivery".

When a shopper switches to a variant that isn't sold with the chosen plan, that plan is disabled and marked "Not available for this variant", and a line asks them to check what's selected before adding. A link that names a plan (?selling_plan= followed by the plan's id) opens the page with that plan chosen.

Pre-order and try-before-you-buy plans that take a deposit show "$10.00 due today · $30.00 later" in their card.

Step 3: the Subscription builder

The Subscription builder section (on any page) lets a shopper build a subscription in three steps on one card: 1 Pick a style, 2 Bag size and grind, 3 How often, then a summary with the saving ("You save $4.30 on every delivery"), the price per delivery and a Start my subscription button that adds it to the bag.

Set it up like this:

1. Make one product per style, such as "Fruity and floral subscription" and "Chocolatey and nutty subscription". Give each the options you sell it in, named like the theme settings: Size (Theme settings › Product cards › Size option name) and Grind (Theme settings › Tasting and roast › Grind option name). Options with only one value are skipped.
2. Add the products to a plan group in your subscriptions app.
3. Add the Subscription builder section and give each Subscription style block (up to four) a Product, a Title ("Fruity and floral"), a Text line ("Ethiopia, Kenya") and a Label colour for its bag swatch.

Section settings: Kicker, Heading, Text, Benefits (a bulleted list shows with check marks), the three step titles and the notes for steps 1 and 3, Remove from plan names (as in the buy box), Button label (Start my subscription), Note (Change or cancel anytime.), Show the first roast date ("First bag roasted Thursday 23 October", from the roast schedule), Layout (Text first or Builder first) and Background (default Kraft).

How the builder decides what to show:

• Step 2 shows the chosen style's options: the size option as buttons, the grind option as a select, any other option as buttons. Values that would make an unavailable variant are marked unavailable.
• Step 3 shows the plans the chosen variant is sold with. When the shopper changes style, the same frequency stays chosen if the new product has a plan with the same name.
• A style whose product has no plans reads "This coffee is one-time purchase only." and the button becomes "Add to bag · $24.00".
• A sold-out choice disables the button and says "That one's sold out for now. Pick another size or style."
• A style block without a product is left out for shoppers. With no style that has a product, shoppers see only the text column, full width; the theme editor shows sample steps and a disabled button under a note.
• Without script, the card lists the styles as links to their products, where the purchase options still work.

Without a subscriptions app

With no selling plans, nothing about subscriptions shows: the buy box sells one-time, the Subscription builder shows only its text, and quick add works as normal. Check what isn't automatic: a header Nav tag such as "Save 10%" on a Subscriptions menu link, and any text that promises a subscription discount, such as the Assurance rows, the hero or the Subscription builder's benefits. Change or remove them until your plans exist.

Elsewhere

• Product cards: a product that can only be bought on a plan opens quick view from Quick add, so the shopper picks a plan first.
• Cart: each subscription line shows its plan name and saving: "Delivery every 2 weeks · save 10%".