How to show Subscriptions as an Upsell

You can offer Subscribe & Save as part of an upsell or bundle offer — a one-tap way for a shopper choosing a bundle to switch to a recurring order. This is a great way to turn one-time buyers into subscribers at the exact moment they're deciding to buy.

The subscription upsell display is built and styled in our Essential Upsell app, and it reads the subscription plans you create here in Essential Subscriptions.

How the two apps work together

• Essential Subscriptions (this app) is where you create the subscription plan(s) — the delivery frequency, discount, and cancellation policy.
• Essential Upsell is where you add and style the Subscribe & Save option inside an offer, and where you choose the layout, wording, and default selection.

You need both apps for a subscription upsell: this app supplies the plan(s), Essential Upsell puts them in the offer.

You don't need to set up the subscription widget here

For products shown through a subscription upsell, you do not need to add or configure the Essential Subscriptions storefront widget. Essential Upsell renders the Subscribe & Save option itself.

In fact, when a subscription upsell is active on a product page, Essential Upsell automatically hides the Essential Subscriptions widget on that page, so customers never see two competing plan pickers. There's nothing to switch off — it's handled for you.

What to do in Essential Subscriptions

1. Create your subscription plan(s) in subscription campaigns on the product you want to upsell — set the delivery frequency, the discount (for example 20% off), and the cancellation policy.
2. Want more than one delivery frequency available in the upsell? Add more than one subscription option to the same campaign (e.g. every 1 month, every 2 months) — see How to Create a Subscription app Campaign. Essential Upsell reads every option you add and lets the shopper pick between them from a frequency dropdown inside the subscribe card.

Next: build the offer in Essential Upsell

1. If you haven't already, install Essential Upsell.
2. Create a Volume discount offer and turn on its Subscription section.
3. Choose the layout, wording, and whether the subscription option is pre-selected.

For the full step-by-step, see the Essential Upsell guide: Subscription Upsells.

Best practice: getting the most out of a subscription upsell

• One plan is enough if subscribing is just a nice-to-have next to a one-time purchase — the Upsell offer's Checkbox style covers this well.
• Add two or three plans at different frequencies (for example monthly and every 2 months) when the product is subscription-first — a dedicated "subscribe" collection, say — and pre-select the subscription option in Essential Upsell so the customer's main decision is "which frequency," not "subscribe or not."
• Set the discount so it escalates with commitment — a bigger saving on the longer frequency nudges customers toward it, and pairs naturally with your Volume discount quantity tiers over in Essential Upsell.
• Write a clear cancellation policy on every plan — it's pulled automatically into the upsell offer as the policy line, and it's often what settles a hesitant customer.
• Pre-select the plan you want to promote — set it as the pre-selected option so it's the one shown by default in the offer.

Troubleshooting

• The subscribe option isn't showing — check that the product has a subscription plan here in Essential Subscriptions, and that the Essential Upsell offer is published and triggered on that product.
• Only one plan shows even though you created several — check that every plan is published and assigned to the right variant here in Essential Subscriptions. A working setup shows all of them in a frequency dropdown inside the Upsell subscribe card, regardless of display style.
• The subtitle or cancellation policy is missing — subscription upsells read these directly from the plan. Make sure the plan was created in Essential Subscriptions; plans from other apps may not provide the policy line.
• I see two plan pickers — the automatic hiding of the Essential Subscriptions widget only runs on the live storefront, not in the theme editor or preview. Check the real product page.