Sell a Product by Subscription Only (Essential Subscriptions app)

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

Remove the One-Time Purchase Option

1. Open Subscription campaigns and open the campaign.
2. On the Settings tab, find the One-time purchase card.
3. Click Delete one-time purchase.
4. Click Save, or Publish if the campaign is not live yet.

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

Note: A new campaign starts with a one-time purchase already added, so this is a step you take rather than something you turn on.

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 with these purchase options.
3. Save.

The widget respects this: when it is on, the one-time option is hidden even if a 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. In the campaign's Products tab, use the picker and select individual variants. The row then reads something like 1 out of 3 variants selected.

The widget appears only when the customer has one of those variants selected. Choosing another variant hides it. This is worth knowing when a merchant reports the widget "disappearing" while clicking through variants.

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

A Subscription-First Product Page

If subscribing is the main way you sell a product, two more settings help:

• In the campaign's Widget tab, Layout card, set Preselected option to the subscription option you want chosen when the page loads.
• Use the Detailed layout so each frequency is its own block, rather than a single subscribe toggle.

Customers then choose which frequency, not whether to subscribe.