We’re excited to announce Ongoing has launched a new feature, called Gift Subscriptions.
This new feature will give you even more choices when it comes to creating a subscription product.

Gift subscriptions are a great way to get people on your store to buy products for their friends and family.

It’s also an awesome way to set up a subscription that automatically cancels itself!

If you are wondering how you can offer this on your online store, this article will show you how.

We’ll cover what gift subscriptions are, why they are important for generating revenue, and how you can easily create them on your own.

Gift Subscriptions for Shopify Stores

Gift subscriptions are changing the way people are shopping these days. Shopify gift subscriptions let customers buy unique and thoughtful gifts for their friends and families.

When someone receives a gift subscription, its a great experience because it feels like the gift that keeps on giving. The recipient receives multiple deliveries.

The neat thing about gift subscriptions is they end after a certain amount of time.

This makes customers more likely to purchase them, because it’s a little bit more flexible and creates confidence.

Topics to be covered:

• What is a Gift subscription?
• Is a gift subscription different than a standard subscription?
• How do Gift Subscriptions work?
• When would you use a Gift Subscription?
• What products make good gift Subscriptions?
• How to create a Gift subscription?
• Gift Subscription Benefits
• Best Gift Subscriptions Shopify App
• Selling Gift Subscription Boxes
• Discount Gift Subscriptions
• Quarterly Gift Subscriptions
• Bi-annual Gift Subscriptions
• Summary

What is a gift Subscription?

A gift subscription is a subscription plan that ends automatically.

Let’s say I wanted to offer a 3 month Subscription Box and then after 3 months it ends, you would want to create a gift subscription to accomplish this.

Is a gift subscription different than a standard subscription?

Yes.

A standard subscription continues forever, and does not end.

A gift subscription ends after a period of time.

The recurring billing would stop.

How do Gift subscriptions work?

To convert your plan into a gift-able plan we have introduced the ability to set a maximum number of “billing cycles”.
Max billing cycles creates a subscription plan that ends after a period of time

Imagine that you have the following plan set up:
Delivery Every Month
Billing Every 3 Months
Max Billing Cycles Set to 4

In this scenario your customer will be billed exactly 4 times and then their gifted subscription will automatically cancel.

This gives your customers more confidence when making a purchase on your store and it can help to increase your conversion rates!

When would you use a Gift Subscription?

A gift subscription is perfect for products that you think shoppers will want to purchase as a gift for someone else.

The person buying the product or subscription box would only commit to a certain amount of time, like 3 months or 6 months and then the recurring charges would end.

It’s also perfect for offering it to people who just want to try your product for a short amount of time, and not commit forever.

This gives them a taste of your offerings, and also opens up the possibility for them to be a future or continued customer.

A gift subscription is a great option if you want to create a subscription plan that automatically cancels.

This will cancel the subscription orders automatically and stop all charges.

What products make good gift Subscriptions?

Lots of products make good gift subscription, but the most popular would be subscription boxes.

Since most subscription boxes are curated with a collection of handpicked artisanal items, this makes for the perfect gift.

Another product that makes for a great gift subscription is any type of beauty product or skincare.

Coffee and tea products make for the perfect gift subscription as well. Most people drink caffeine and enjoy a surprise selection of coffee and tea products they can discover.

Anything edible like food products or consumables like liquor, or beverages also make for pretty great gift subscription products.

Basically if you have a product people can enjoy frequently like chocolate or jewelry, you can make a gift subscriptions.

Gift subscriptions are gaining popularity these days. Many consumers search google for “best gift subscription for women” or “best gift subscription for mothers,” which means there is a definite market no matter what type of product you sell.

From online dog clothing stores, to floral arrangements and even hot sauce, pretty much anything can be a gift subscription.

How to Create a Gift Subscription?

To create a gift subscription on your online store, you’ll need to use a subscription software.

We recommend checking out Ongoing Subscriptions which is a Shopify app.

If you have a Shopify store, you can easily set up a subscription product in minutes.

With Ongonig Subscriptions app, you can specify whether you want your subscription plan to end.

To convert your plan into a giftable plan we have introduced the ability to set a maximum number of “billing cycles”.

Imagine that you have the following plan set up:
Delivery Every Month
Billing Every 3 Months
Max Billing Cycles Set to 4

And my product would end up looking something like this:

So since a one time purchase is normally $35 bucks, and in this case, my customer is paying quarterly (every 3 months for 3 boxes delivered once a month), the customer will have to pay $105 upfront.

They’ll get charged every 3 months, get delivered once a month, and this will last for one year.

In this scenario your customer will be billed exactly 4 times and then their gifted subscription will automatically cancel.

Gift Subscription Benefits

There are lots of advantages to offering gift subscriptions on you Shopify store. Below I’ll list the several perks of offering gift subscriptions.

Less Commitment

Instead of a lengthy commitment, gift subscriptions allow your customers to buy a product for a certain amount of time, and then it ends

Increase Sales

Your shoppers might want to buy product for their friends and family and gift subscriptions is the perfect solution for this

More Options

Give your shoppers more choices to choose from on your product page.

Earn More Upfront

With prepaid gift subscriptions, you can collect the money upfront

Higher Conversion

How well can your store convert leads into customers? Shoppers looking for a gift subscription will be glad you have the option, which can lead to less abandoned carts and a successful checkout process

Perfect for Subscription Boxes

Shoppers might want to give themselves a gift, or buy

Best Gift Subscriptions Shopify App

The best gift subscriptions Shopify app is Ongoing Subscriptions.

It gives you everything you need to create a real gift subscription that is complete with automatic recurring billing and subscription order management.

We are excited that we launched this feature which lets you set the “max billing cycles.”

Customers can cancel anything during this period, which gives them extra flexibility.

After the max billing cycles has been reached, the plan ends and the charges stop.

Ongoing handles all recurring charges which makes it headache free.

Ongoing also provides a wonderful customer portal where the person who bought the gift subscription can manage their orders and cancel at any time.

Selling Gift Subscription Boxes

If you already sell subscription boxes, try adding gift subscriptions into the mix.

This will help you offer more purchasing options to your customer.

Gift subscription boxes are great because they encourage your shoppers to buy something extra for their friends and family.

Discount Gift Subscriptions

One way to get shoppers to buy a gift subscription is to offer a discount.

If they buy a gift subscription, they can lock in a discount.

With Ongoing, you can offer different kinds of discounts on your gift subscription:

• Percentage Based Discount – An example of a subscription discount would be 10% off.
• Set Price Discount – Or I can chose to make my gift subscription a set price like $50.
• Fixed Amount Off Discount – I can also choose to do a fixed amount off like $5 off.

3 Month Gift Subscriptions (Prepaid)

You can easily create a quarterly gift subscription with Ongoing.

This is a gift subscription that ends after 3 months.

If it charges the customer upfront for the 3 months, this would be a prepaid subscription.

Here is an example of what that setup would look like on our Shopify subscriptions app, Ongoing.

Since my cookie box costs $35 per delivery, the price of the 3 month prepaid gift subscription is $105.

My the customer is prepaying for 3 deliveries ( a total of 3 cookie boxes), one delivered each month.

Prepaid subscriptions are a great option because they are a short commitment and they also make a impressive gift.

3 Month Gift Subscriptions (Pay Per Delivery)

The other way to set up a 3 month gift subscription is to do pay per delivery.

Every time the person gets a delivery, there is a charge.

Let’s say the delivery is every month, and my billing is every month.

Here is how my set up would look for a pay per delivery 3 month gift subscription.

And then I would just specify my subscription plan will expire after 3 billing cycles.

Since one month is one billing cycles, and we want the plan to end after 3 months, that’s a total of 3 billing cycles.

Bi-annual Gift Subscriptions (Pay per Delivery )

You can also easily create a 6 month gift subscription with Ongoing.

If it charges the customer on a monthly basis, this is pay per delivery.

If it charges the customer upfront for the 6 months, this would be a prepaid subscription.

Here is what the set up would look like on the Ongoing app.

Here is how pay per delivery works.

Every time the product is received, the person who purchased the gift subscription is billed.

For example, you could set it up to deliver every month and bill every month, and then cancel after 6 months. This lets the purchaser cancel if they want to leading up to the 6 month mark.

Bi-annual Gift Subscriptions (Prepaid )

Here is how a 6 month prepaid subscription plan works.

This makes the customer pay all at once before receiving the products.

And they wouldn’t be able to cancel because there is no next billing cycle.

It’s just one billing cycle of 6 months that ends.

Here is what the set up would look like on the Ongoing subscriptions app for Shopify.

This option is great if you would like to create some sort of minimum time commitment for your subscription and get more cash upfront.

Gift Subscriptions Summary

I hope this article gave you a good idea of what a gift subscription is, and why they are important for your online store.

We think a gift subscription would make a great option for your customers.

It gives them another choice to choose from, and lets them purchase a product for another person.

Gift subscriptions are great because they don’t lock people in, and let your customers cancel when they want to.

If you’re looking for a way to create a gift subscription for your Shopify store, check out Ongoing today to get started.