Creating a subscription contract from an app admin

[d_tehrani]

We're building an app that uses the Subscription API and would like to know how to accept subscription orders from outside of a Shopify store (e.g. offline)

We found out that merchants cannot create a subscription order from the orders page in the admin in the same way as a one-time purchase.

So, we would like to create a feature which merchants can create subscription orders, for example which represents offline subscription orders, from the App and set a payment status. (Or enter a credit card number if that's acceptable)

We have done our research on the compliant way of enabling subscriptions in Shopify stores, and we're not sure if such feature is compliant.

I would appreciate it if someone could guide us through how to think about this feature's compliance.

Thanks.

[ya_shopify]

Hello,

Thank you for you question!

Just to clarify, when you say create a subscription order, did you mean you mean by creating a draft order that is associated with the subscription? 

If so, then Draft Orders are currently unsupported for subscriptions. However, support is planned for this feature is planned for the future.

See the Subscriptions APIs FAQ for more details: https://shopify.dev/concepts/apps/subscriptions-faq#which-subscription-features-are-in-development-a...

[d_tehrani]

Thanks for the reply!

Is it ok to implement a feature in an app that enables merchants to create subscription draft orders before the H1 2022 Draft Order support?

[d_tehrani]

Hi.

Any update on this?
Please tell me if my question needed more context.

[ewalker]

would like to know how to accept subscription orders from outside of a Shopify store (e.g. offline)

 Can you provide an example of what an offline order or other "outside of Shopify store" source would be concretely?

There is not way to create a draft order at present that would set up a subscription contract.

[d_tehrani]

We are expecting orders by phone calls and simple order forms without a payment checkout. Customers can pay after they order a subscription using their preferred payment methods.

Isn't it possible to create a subscription draft using the subscriptionContractCreate mutation? I tried and it worked. (Am I missing something here?)

[ewalker · Accepted solution]

Hi DanielTehrani, what you've described would seem to be inline with the acceptable use of the subscriptions API since the intention is to help merchants create subscriptions.

We would expect to introduce similar functionality directly in the Shopify admin in the future. When that happens, merchants would naturally expect your feature to be revised to work in concert with the Shopify admin.