Sell a Product by Subscription Only (Essential Subscriptions app)

By default the widget offers a one-time purchase next to your subscription plans, so customers can choose. If a product should only ever be sold as a subscription, remove that choice.

A new campaign from scratch starts with a one-time purchase already added, so this is a step you take rather than something you turn on. On the Pick a template page, you can also start without one: open the One-time purchase chip and pick No one time purchase. See Start a Campaign from a Template.

Step 1: Remove the one-time purchase option

1. Open Campaigns in the app menu and open the campaign.
2. On the Purchase options tab, find the One-time purchase card.
3. Click the trash icon on that card. If the campaign is published, click Delete to confirm.
4. Save the campaign, or click Publish if it is not live yet.

You can do the same from the Widget tab: open the Layout card and set One time purchase to No one time purchase.

The widget now shows your subscription plans only. Customers add the product to the cart on a subscription or not at all.

To bring it back later, click Add one-time purchase on the Purchase options tab.

Step 2: Lock it down in Shopify too

Removing the option hides the choice in the widget. To stop a one-time purchase from being possible at all, including through links and other apps, set it on the product in Shopify:

1. Go to Products in your Shopify admin and open the product.
2. In the Purchase options section, tick Only sell this product as a subscription.
3. Save.

The widget respects this: when it is on, the one-time option is hidden even if the campaign still has one. The app does not change this setting itself, so it stays as you set it.

Offer a subscription on one variant only

You do not have to cover a whole product. On the campaign's Products tab, click Add products (or Manage) and tick single variants. The row then reads, for example, 1 out of 3 variants selected.

The subscription plans show only when the customer has one of those variants selected. On another variant, the widget shows the one-time purchase alone. If the campaign has no one-time purchase, the widget hides. This explains a widget that seems to "disappear" while a customer clicks through variants.

If you want a pack sold by subscription while the single unit stays one-time, either assign only the pack variant to the campaign, or keep the pack as its own product.

A subscription-first product page

If subscribing is the main way you sell a product, two more settings help. Both are on the Widget tab, in the Layout card:

• Set Preselected to the plan you want chosen when the page loads.
• Pick the Detailed or Minimal layout, so each plan is its own row or card.

Customers then choose which plan, not whether to subscribe.