Multiple Shipping Rates for Subscriptions

[WAWbox]

Does anyone know how to (or if its even possible) to offer multiple shipping rates for subscriptions? It appears currently that due to Shopify limitations, if you create your own zones, the lowest fshipping rate will be used and it will be called "subscription shipping" in checkout. But what if customers in the different zones want faster shipping? Trying to offer Ground and 3 day select rates but doesnt seem possible (we create the prices for them since we eat some of the cost of the shipping on our side).

[JuanHoyos]

Hello WAWbox.

You can create new delivery methods with subscription-specific delivery profiles. For example:

mutation {
  deliveryProfileCreate(
    profile: {
      sellingPlanGroupsToAssociate: ["gid://shopify/SellingPlanGroup/1"]
      name: "Subscriptions To Canada and International"
      locationGroupsToCreate: {
        locations: "gid://shopify/Location/1"
        zonesToCreate: [
          {
            name: "Canada Shipping"
            countries: [{ code: CA, includeAllProvinces: true }]
            methodDefinitionsToCreate: [
              {
                name: "Express"
                rateDefinition: { price: { amount: 25, currencyCode: CAD } }
              },
              {
                name: "Standard"
                rateDefinition: { price: { amount: 15, currencyCode: CAD } }
              }
            ]
          }
          {
            name: "Rest of World"
            countries: { restOfWorld: true }
            methodDefinitionsToCreate: {
              name: "International Shipping"
              rateDefinition: { price: { amount: 15, currencyCode: CAD } }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ) {
    ...
  }
}

 
To find more details about subscription-specific delivery profiles please visit https://shopify.dev/apps/subscriptions/shipping-delivery.

Best,

Juan

[WAWbox]

But what if its not a one time purchase? We only have subscriptions, so it
would be an additional subscription rate, which I've been told isnt doable.

[JuanHoyos]

mmm, I totally missed your point in my previous answer. You are totally right, at the moment we only display the cheapest shipping option for subscriptions at checkout.

I'm interested to know how this is impacting you or the merchants you are working with. Feel free to DM me if you see it fits better.

[Greg_P]

Hi, this is real problem for many, many merchants and their customers, Shopify definitely should do something with this bug because we cannot say it's a feature.

[JuanHoyos]

@Greg_P , @WAWbox: can you expand a bit more on the problem displaying multiple shipping options could solve for merchants/customers?

I could see a potential benefit to display them when they have the same shipping cost but it seems a bit awkward a customer wanting to not choose the cheapest one.

[WAWbox]

So this is for a subscription box that includes wine, so many times the
customer will want expedited shipping so the wine isnt sitting in hot
trucks and warehouses. But with shopify the lowest subscription shipping
price only shows, and it wont show 2day or 3day rates.

[JuanHoyos]

Gotcha and it makes sense for the first shipping. Do you know if they generally want the expedited shipping for the recurrent cycles? My gut feeling tells me they would simply want to have their wine delivered as per the subscription and that's something subscription apps could adjust in the contract.

[WAWbox]

We have customers that order monthly, every other month and quarterly, and
many who we have to manually charge for today or three day shipping for
each of their shipments not just the first one. So it’s very time consuming
to remember these customers that one expedited shipping and manually charge
different rates.

[Greg_P]

Another case is when we have different carriers which provide different quality of shipping, merchant needs to use different pricing because cost for merchant is different and it's up to customer which method is better - cheaper but with some kind of lower quality or more expensive but with better quality. I think shipping time is on of example of quality indicator but not the only one.

[diego_gilon]

@JuanHoyos I have a good example here. I'm trying to get a merchant on Shopify and they have several delivery rates, all the same price but those rates have an operational difference. 
A one-time purchase will show all the options while a subscription will only show one of them. It's confusing as a buyer. Adding a `deliveryProfile` to the selling plan won't solve the issue since it would create 2 separate lines on the order total and the buyer would get charged twice for a similar delivery. 

[KlaudiaZapiet]

@JuanHoyos @Shopify 

Are there any plans to overcome this rate limitation?

We've developed a rates feature using Shopify Functions and we discovered that due to this limitation, stores offering subscriptions cannot use our app's rates. The rates configured in our app are essentially Shopify shipping rates which we then filter based on the method selected on our widget.

If a store offers free pickup and paid delivery, the paid delivery rate will never show at checkout due to this limitation. Would be great to know if there are plans to address this limitation!

[otlab]

Shopify team - When will this be tackled? We are a subscription brand in the pet food space and we work with multiple shipping carriers. Giving customers the option of which carrier they want to use is an absolute must, all our competitors offer this feature. Could you please let us know if this is in the roadmap?

[JuanHoyos]

Hello @otlab 👋🏽. I cannot give you an ETA but I can tell you this is in our radar.

The feedback you all have shared so far has been very useful.

[Halvard]

This is crucial for us as well. We want the customer to be able to choose place of delivery for their subscription packages when they start the subscription. We're considering moving away from Shopify because of this.

Any timeline for this?

[Louis29]

Hello @JuanHoyos ! 
Is there any ETA now ?
Cheerz

[farmersteph]

I just want to throw my hat in the ring for this, please!

[maxlime]

You to get this sorted ASAP!

[Romain59]

Hi 

Before you solve this issue offering different options for subscription shipping (same rules than one time purchase)

Is there a way to get the most expensive shipping option instead of the cheapest one ?

[MagaliWD]

Hello Juan,

What about your radar on this point ?

This display at checkout is incomprehensible to our clients.

Thanks

[Tel]

It's infuriating that shopify forced recharge users to migrate from the recharge checkout (where correct shipping options were available) to the shopify subscription checkout that does not function at the same level. Offering multiple shipping options (tracked, untracked, express etc) is basic service. When will this be fixed to show all shipping options? It's an urgent issue for subscription stores.

[otlab]

@JuanHoyos almost a year later and it seems like this hasn't been tackled yet? Is there a custom solution available for Shopify Plus merchants? We're losing tons of customers...

[maarko]

Hey Juan, is there any update on the issue?

Lots of people are waiting for this!

[Tel]

Hi, 

Just stopping by this old thread seeing as shopify finally made changes to the shipping set-up for subscriptions. I see they now allow customers to choose their shipping rate BUT only for the initial order, after that the shipping price still just reverts to the cheapest option. I just want to be clear that this isn't an acceptable solution- customers want to choose a shipping option that will apply to ALL their future renewals. Not just choose the shipping method for the first order then have no control over the rest of their subscription shipping. this partial fix is almost a waste of time, hopefully it's just the first step in a complete fix for this flaw? Is there an eta for when customers will be able to choose a shipping option (from multiple available shipping options) and have it apply to all their future renewals?

Thanks!

[ShopifyDevSup]

Hey @WAWbox and @Tel , 

Tel, when you mention the shipping that's for the original order, are you referring to this behaviour here, when products are combined on the initial order? 

When one-time purchases and subscriptions are in the same delivery profile, coming from the same location, shipping for one-time purchases is calculated and combined with the subscription purchases. Subsequent subscription shipping rates are calculated separately.

This may be the answer to both of your questions, but once the contract is created from the original purchase, you can update the subscription contract to reflect the merchants preferred shipping options. https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/purchase-options/subscriptions/update-subscription-contract#step...

I realize my answer may be a little simplistic here. If you can share a little more detail on the mutations you're making and examples where the current API's are not sufficient, I will be sure to get this feedback over to our product teams. It helps to have specific examples of where you're being blocked. 

- Kyle G. 

[Dpansbo]

Hi Kyle.

I'm doing my best to answer (I think we all have a similar use case), and have stolen the description from MariaMaskups' post:

As part of the subscription, we send the product to customers via the cheapest carrier (free shipping delivered to the pickup point). The second delivery option is a courier delivering the package straight to the customer, this option is at a surcharge though. 

For us, this means that our customers will always be renewed at the cheapest rate, even though they are interested in paying for home/direct delivery. We have lost around 10-15% of our client base because of this. 

[KommaKaffe]

Still waiting.....

[MariaMaskup]

We have the same issue. As part of the subscription, we send the product to customers via the cheapest carrier (free shipping delivered to the pickup point). The second delivery option is a courier delivering the package straight to the customer, this option is at a surcharge though. Our customers are entrepreneurs, some do not have time to go to the pickup point and prefer to pay extra and choose a courier. Therefore, the ability to choose between 2 delivery options is very important to us. When will you set it up?

[Halvard]

It's hard to believe this hasn't been fixed yet given Shopify's track record of shipping and how much work they've done on the Subscriptions API. Without this, we can't offer:

- The choice between home delivery and pickup

- The choice between different shipping vendors

- The choice between slower and faster shipping methods

- The choice of your favorite pickup place

We'd love both multiple shipping options and the option of using the same shipping apps we use for one-time purchases.

Missing this feature is enough to make us consider moving away from Shopify. Please let us know whether this is on your roadmap!

[CallumGriffiths]

Just adding to the thread, as I have been facing the same issue, we offer customers a 'No Hurry', 'Standard' and 'Express' delivery option. Some customers also prefer some couriers over others, so this is an essential feature for our business. 

Anyhow, in the interim, I have found a workaround. It's not perfect, but it has been working for me. 

We know if you add a one-off item, you'll get all your shipping rates, but when using native checkout for a subscription, you only have the cheapest option displayed. If you add a one-off, PLUS recurring/subscription item, you return to the standard checkout display. 

If you force a free product into the cart (could be a picking slip etc), it triggers a 'one off' item, combined with the recurring item, and therefore displays the full shipping options to the customer. 

[Greg_P]

Interesting solution 😀

[MariaMaskup]

Hi Callum Griffiths, I think your solution is cool. I tried to implement it but dunno how. How do you force a free product into a cart? I tried discount (buy x, receive Y for free) but a client needs to manually add a free product - so it is not the best solution. How did you set up the automatic free product inclusion into a cart, when byuing subscription?

Many thanks for any suggestions

Maria

[Tel]

Unfortunately this fix doesn't really work- the checkout displays "subscription shipping" and "one-time purchase" shipping as two seperate sections (at least mine does anyway), so it just charges customers for shipping twice when they have both sub products and non-sub products in their cart. The "Subscription" shipping option still only shows the cheapest rate and even says next to it that this is the amount the customer will be charged every month. 

We should not have to find workarounds for this problem- multiple shipping options are a basic service for online stores, even more so for subscription products as customers are commiting to a recurring charge for it. they need to be able to view their options and make an informed choice. shopify need to fix it asap- it is nuts that they are pushing use of their own checkout for subscriptions when it doesn't even function properly. They are still saying that they are looking into a fix for it but this thread is now a year old, they just aren't taking it seriously. A fix can't be that difficult- the recharge app checkout worked perfectly with the exact same shopify shipping profiles 🙃

[Alchemist_John]

How are you actually doing it?

[Dpansbo]

Would love to understand how you do this

[Jamie07]

We need this feature, too very urgent. The biggest part of our customer uses subscriptions, but we want to offer express delivery or alternative shipping companies. Unfortunately, we can not provide this.

I do not see any reason why it could be useful to hide delivery options if they are configured!? I also do not see the use case if my customers buys a basket once he can choose the delivery options, but if we want to buy it automatically every week he is not able?

Please fix this issue soon!

[Marine-Mamazoa]

Hi there,

I have migrated from wordpress to Shopify recently, and even though I'm very happy with this new platform, I must say this limitation in the check out for subscriptions is a HUGE disappointment !

@JuanHoyos hello ! Just so you know : we're losing MANY customers because of this limitation in checkout. On my website, only standard delivery is offered to my customers with a subscription in the cart, and It's the most expensive. I know that I'm loosing conversions because many customers nowadays prefer to choose pickup delivery (mondial relay for example) - and I had many customers choosing Mondial Relay on my Wordpress website. 

So no doubt that both Shopify & its clients are loosing money here 😉 

Could you please update us about this urgent issue ?

Many thanks !

[krzysztofbialek]

Any update @JuanHoyos @Shopify 

This is a huge problem for any shipping option using pickup points. Our shipping app offers customer to choose from 5 closest shipping points as not always the one with smallest straight line distance is the most convenient. What is more in this case, shipping app also provides option for courier in single block. That last one I can go around by adding second shipping option with just it but there is no way to display multiple dynamic pickup points. What we get is random one from the points provided by the app.

This makes the subscription plans not usable in any country that has pickup points as very popular and convenient method.

Example for single and subscription purchase.

For one time purchase I have options to choose different pickup point because the default one is not convenient for me. For subscription this is the only choice. This is a deal breaker unfortunately.

Please do something about that. 

[kdutkowski]

@JuanHoyos @Shopify Any updates? I have exactly the same situation in my shop, from my perspective (and I believe much of the Polish market as we depend on locker pickup points a lot) having Subscriptions that work like this is not much better then having no subscriptions at all.

I really regret choosing Shopify, but I'm stuck with it for the time being, so please fix it.

[HutchWhite]

Trying to use the Shopify Subscription app on a new subscription only site.  I can't believe this first came up in 2022 and has still not been addressed.  What is the timeline for this?  It is a major flaw for subscription only sites whether using the Shopify app or Recharge or other subscription apps. ????

[MPDigital]

I have the same exact issue, and this functionality is crucial to a campaign I'm launching for a client! Compared to others on here who have additional delivery apps, my client's issue is rather simple. 

My client has a FREE delivery threshold of £17 or more, and when a subscription goes through that's less than that, it still offers the FREE Delivery option even though the subscription or the original order hasn't met the minimum need.

I'm horrified that Shopify would release a great feature like this and then slap on such a silly rule... "Subscriptions take the cheapest shipping option/rate". Surely any basic UAT or QA of the feature would have picked up on this issue...

Shopify, Please action the following as soon as you can:

ASAP - Subscription shipping rates should still respect pricing thresholds that are in the Shopify admin.

Long Term - Create a means to apply shipping rates to subscriptions or not.

[HutchWhite]

At present the only solution I have is to use the app Checkout Buddy. It
allows me to offer express shipping as a product and if that product has
been chosen and is in the cart will not offer it again. The free shipping
offer still appears and I am working on using css to hide that if Express
shipping is in the cart. Not ideal!

Shopify support is trying to tell me that features will be provided even if
there are flaws in order to provide new features. I told them that having
been in the software business for 30 years there is no excuse and this
should have been fixed a long time ago based on the number of Google search
returns from as far back as 2022.

They also told me Shopify subscriptions is a bare bones offering but this
also happens with Recharge as well so it is a flaw within Shopify that I
hope they address soonest.

Sorry you are having these issues as well!

Hutch White