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_1]

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_1 , @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_1]

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.

[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!

[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?

[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 ?

[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!