A merchant wants to launch seasonal subscription boxes shipped quarterly (March, June, September, December) with charges occurring around the 1st of these months to allow cancellation time.
Current Challenge:
Existing subscription apps with quarterly billing features have fees too high for a new launch with limited initial subscribers
Attempted workaround using preorder + subscription combination doesn’t work—Shopify only allows one or the other per product
Seeking Solutions:
Free or low-cost app alternatives for seasonal/quarterly subscription billing
Potential workaround using Shopify Flow
Status: Question remains unanswered; merchant is looking for affordable technical solutions to enable this specific billing and fulfillment schedule.
Summarized with AI on October 28.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
Hi, I am having issues finding a solution that would work for my subscription boxes.
I want to launch seasonal boxes that would only be sent out on the first weeks of march, june, september and december ( at the start of the seasons), since my products are all seasons related. My clients would need to be charged around the 1st of these months as well, so they have time to cancel their subscription prior if needed.
I can’t seem to find how they can subscribe to these seasonal boxes and be charged only around the 1st of these months. I have looked at subscription apps, but the fee for these kinds of features are too high for me, since it would be a new launch on my website with only a few subscribers at first.
I tried adding a preorder feature, so that they could subscribe and I would charge them on the 1st of the next season and create a 3 month delivery frequency. It would have worked perfectly, but it seems to be either preorder OR the subscription that is possible for a product, not both.
I wonder if there is an app where this would be free or if I can find a way to add this in my Shopify Flow?
Any help is appreciated, I really hope I can launch the seasonal boxes soon!
Seasonal subscription boxes are definitely possible in Shopify, but what you want charging only on fixed dates (March 1, June 1, Sept 1, Dec 1) isn’t something Shopify supports natively with just Flow or preorder features.
Here’s why you’re having trouble:
Shopify only allows one selling plan per product (so you can’t use preorder + subscription together).
Most subscription apps charge more for anchor dates (fixed billing dates), which is why the fees look high.
That said, you can achieve your seasonal box setup using:
1) Subscription Apps With Anchor Dates (even on lower plans)
Some apps allow you to set specific billing dates like the 1st of each season.
You set a fixed charge date, and all customers are billed on the same schedule.
This gives you:
Billing on March 1, June 1, September 1, December 1
Fulfillment right after
Customers able to cancel before billing
It’s the closest match to what you’re trying to do.
2) Alternative Setup: Manual Seasonal Billing (Free Method)
If you need a zero-cost solution, another workaround is:
Let customers purchase the upcoming seasonal box as a regular product
Use Shopify Flow + tags to remind you who purchased which season
Then manually send customers a payment link each season
It’s not automated like a subscription, but it avoids subscription app fees until your subscriber base grows.
3) Why Shopify Flow Alone Can’t Do This
Flow can automate actions after an order or subscription exists, but it cannot:
create a subscription
set billing dates
trigger seasonal charges
So Flow can help organize your workflow, but it cannot replace a subscription engine.
If you don’t understand any part of this, I would love to explain it more clearly.
You might consider combining a preorder method with manual recurring payments through Shopify Draft Orders. Customers “subscribe” by pre-ordering the seasonal box, and you create a draft order for each season at the beginning of the season for payment. Shopify Flow can automate notifications, but truly automated seasonal subscriptions generally are a feature of a subscription app with scheduling.
Bit late to the party, but for any merchants looking to do a subscription box similar to @ameliealain’s approach, pre-orders and subscriptions don’t work together on the same product in Shopify.
Because a pre-order is designed for a single delayed fulfillment, while a subscription needs to establish an ongoing billing schedule from the first purchase.
If you’re a new business just starting out and still validating the concept (in this case the seasonal box), here’s what I’d recommend:
For pre-orders, you could start simple without an app. The most important aspect is to set clear customer expectations, which you can do by:
Changing the “Add to cart” button text to something like “Pre-order now”
Adding expected ship/delivery dates in the product description
Display pre-order messaging on the product page
Edit your order confirmation email and/or set up a separate email flow dedicated to pre-orders and mention the pre-order info
This manual approach is good enough when you’re starting out with a few products. Don’t need to pay for a pre-order app yet. Then when you’re ready to scale and automate a high volume of pre-orders with advanced features, you could use a Built-for-Shopify pre-order app like ours (Early Bird).
For subscriptions, this is more complex than pre-orders and you’re better off using an app because you need:
Recurring billing functionality (automatically charging your customers on a schedule)
Secure storage of payment information
A way for your customers to manage their subscriptions (pause, skip, cancel)
All these capabilities require either a subscription app, or you’d need to build custom solutions with draft orders and Shopify Flow (which is a lot more work and still requires manual payment collection in most cases anyway).
If you really wanted to avoid subscription app fees entirely at launch, you could:
Sell the first seasonal box as a simple pre-order (just mention on your product page/socials/customer comms/manual button text change etc.)
Collect emails of interested customers
Manually reach out to them before each season to gauge interest and process orders
Start using a proper subscription app once you have enough recurring customers to justify the cost
This keeps your overhead low while you validate demand for your product concept.
You can set up seasonal subscriptions with RecurrinGO’s automatic charges feature. Here’s how to create quarterly seasonal boxes:
