Free Shipping Default for Subscriptions

traditioncoffee
Excursionist
11 0 11

We use Bold as our subscription APP, but since the cart is fully controlled by Shopify, there needs to be more Subscription features in the cart. For example, I want my subscribers to always have free shipping on all of their orders, plus get 50% off their first subscription order.  

OR 

allow customers to add items that are one-off items to their next and not be charged shipping.

I have a problem where if I update the product on someones subscription, it will start charging them shipping again if it is under $50 (which is where we offer non-subscription free shipping). I have to first temporarily move the product to free shipping, update the subscription ,then move it back once done.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Replies 17 (17)

Poulping
Shopify Staff
29 4 4

Hello ,

> I want my subscribers to always have free shipping on all of their orders, plus get 50% off their first subscription order.  

The admin allows to setup free shipping discount to the subscription and the Subscriptions API allows to set up selling plans with a pricing policy.

I don't know how the Bold app is setup, but theoretically it looks like what you describe is possible.

 

I would advise you to reach out to Bold for support,

 

Thanks!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

traditioncoffee
Excursionist
11 0 11

Thank you for the note, Bold has already told me that Shopify controls the cart and that I should reach out to Shopify.  I can have our developer look into hte above again, but they said that the cart is pretty locked down and we need to use the settings that are natively offered (which does not include defaulting subscriptions to free shipping)

Poulping
Shopify Staff
29 4 4

Hi,

I have linked to an example that lets you setup free shipping discounts on subscriptions in the Shopify admin, can you try that in conjunction with the settings you need to offer discounts on recurring  orders in Bold ?

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

traditioncoffee
Excursionist
11 0 11

Hi,

Thanks for trying to find a solution.  However, this only allows me to apply items to discount code categories.  It does not allow an item to be in 2 categories. For example if my client subscribes to receiving 1 bag of coffee per month, then that should be free shipping as they are receiving recurring orders.  Conversely, if another client wants to just 1 bag as a one time purchase, I will charge shipping for that item as it does not exceed the $50 threshold. The Discount Codes only allow for one or the other when it comes to defaulting codes, UNLESS you use a code. HOWEVER, 1. the client has to remember to use the code, and 2. if the client ever changes their subscription preferences, the discount code that gave them free shipping is lost and the subscription will in-turn charge shipping when the refresh on the new product occurs.  If this doesnt make sense, please let me know and I am happy to seek out other ways for this to make sense.  

thank you!

Poulping
Shopify Staff
29 4 4

Hi traditioncoffee,

The docs reference how to associate a selling plan group with a shipping profile here. This with the pricing policy should allow you to do what you are trying to do ?

I do not know however how this would be implemented with Bold.

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

mmerfeld
Visitor
2 0 1

saw your thread and am in a similar situation.  wondering if you ever found a solution?  I've tried a few things with no luck at this point.  Thanks

traditioncoffee
Excursionist
11 0 11

It still continues to be an issue, only allowing one code to be used for clients.  Meaning, if you have free shipping on subscriptions, they can't use other codes. I think it has to do with the tight hold Shopify is keeping on their Holy Grail "The Shopping Cart".  The only solution I have found when updating my subscription users, is I have to email tech support at BOLD to have the code re-applied. The flaw in this is that if a customer updates their subscription preferences, they have to somehow remember to reapply the code, which they never do as it isnt logical to think you would need to do that. I usually find out about these instances upon the customer telling me, which triggers a shipping refund transaction, OR I notice it and take the same action of refunding the shipping.  Bold tried adding field to add the ability to re-enter the code on the admin portal but it was removed and was quite buggy. Would love to know if anyone else would like to see FREE SHIPPING be a default for subscriptions to free up the option for othe codes to be used!

Poulping
Shopify Staff
29 4 4

Hello @traditioncoffee,

can you tell me which app version you use from BOLD subscriptions please  (v1 or v2)?

 

Thanks!

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

traditioncoffee
Excursionist
11 0 11

We use Bold v2

DylanL
Visitor
2 0 3

Update:

 

My Shopify Script works for creating free shipping for subscriptions at checkout and mixed carts, however upon the renewal of the subscription it charged the regular rate. This was only solved by creating a private app and following this section of this guide using that private app's password. I ran this using Postman with my own sellingPlanGroupsToAssociate and a new free shipping profile:

 

https://shopify.dev/apps/subscriptions/shipping-delivery#specify-free-shipping-for-all-subscriptions

 

Running this will update the groups you enter to charge whatever profile you add to them, in my case free shipping, while one-time purchases still charge the regular rates I have set up. In a mixed cart, the one-time purchase will be charged the regular rate and the subscription items will be free shipping, showing and charging both rates to the customer at checkout. If you want mixed carts to be free, you would need to create a script with the Shopify Script Editor (only available to Shopify Plus stores).

 

If anyone would like a copy of the script I made for free shipping on mixed carts I can provide it.

DouglasMorales
Visitor
1 0 0

Hey there - do you have that script available online somewhere I can check out?

 

winsa
Shopify Partner
1 0 0

Hey @DylanL could you share the scrip you with us in anyway?

LegacyFood
Visitor
2 0 0

Can I get that script from you as well? And will it work for the ReCharge App?

Brian_S
Shopify Partner
153 19 39

@LegacyFood  @traditioncoffee  I think we can support your use case and we'd be happy to jump on a call to discuss it further and how to migrate existing subscriptions if you think Awtomatic would be a good fit. 

 

Feel free to DM me here or on Shopify Partner slack (@Brian Singer) and if you'd like to grab time on our calendar you can use this link: 

https://calendly.com/awtomaticsenam/30min?back=1&month=2022-01

 

Even if a migration doesn't make sense maybe we can help you out : )

Brian Singer
CTO & Cofounder of Subscription Service - Awtomic
mmerfeld
Visitor
2 0 1

Thanks for the response and sorry you haven't found a solution.  Our other issue is with mixed carts (one-time and subscription products).  Part of the cart will be charged shipping (one-time products) and part of it will ship for free when we want the whole cart to ship for free if there is a recurring item in the cart.  We thought we could work with Intuitive Shipping (3rd party shipping rate provider) to set up a rule to fix this and also provide free shipping without using the discount code solution, but their solution can't "see" any attributes that would allow them to identify a recurring item.  Kind of stuck at this point...I'm sure there must be a number of other people running into this issue.  It has all but stopped us from migrating to any of the shopify naitve checkout subscription solutions.  Good luck and will let you know if we get anywhere. 

DylanL
Visitor
2 0 3

@traditioncoffee @mmerfeld I'm also using Bold v2 and have run into this issue. I have a single profile to charge all orders a fixed amount, but want to give free shipping to subscription orders while still charging the fixed amount for one-time. I was able to accomplish this at checkout with Shopify Scripts(I believe only available to Shopify Plus subscribers) and it works by identifying if line_item.selling_plan_id, a ruby object, was true and overriding shipping to be free successfully, this also made mixed carts free as well, which for me is ok but may not be ideal for others wanting to charge one amount for one-time and one amount for recurring both in the same checkout. I'm also still testing to see if the next recurring order is also free shipping or if it gets overridden by Shopify when the renal comes in (another reason why it needs to be a default setting). This script does not help for migrating from v1 to v2 since the script only runs at checkout. It also looks like the line_item object has a selling_plan_allocation property that may also help identify subscriptions items in cart/checkout. I also came across this developer document that I may try to test: https://shopify.dev/apps/subscriptions/shipping-delivery#specify-free-shipping-for-all-subscriptions

Definitely should be an option/setting that store owners can set a rate/toggle free shipping for subscription items and another rate for one-time if all of the identifying objects needed already exist. I hope this helps and I'll update if I'm able to get the GraphQL stuff to work.

MeatManMatt
Visitor
1 0 0

I'm using Shopify Checkout with ReCharge and am looking to automatically apply free shipping discount (configured for subscriptions only) to the shopping cart.  Has anyone figured out how to do this?