Prepaid, separate orders lets customers pay upfront for several deliveries while every delivery still gets its own Shopify order. Customers pay on the first order, and Appstle then creates a $0.00 Shopify order for each later delivery that payment covers.
Use it when your 3PL, fulfillment or inventory app needs one Shopify order per delivery. If it doesn't, use Prepaid, auto renew instead, which prices all the deliveries for you and supports trials and later discounts.
It's one of four billing types. To compare them, see Subscription billing types: pay as you go and prepaid.
How it works
Say an option has a Billing frequency of 6 weeks and Deliver every 2 weeks, so each payment covers 3 deliveries. Delivery 1 is a charged order, deliveries 2 and 3 are $0.00 orders, and delivery 4 is charged again, and so on. Each charged order costs the product's price once, so on an $18.00 product, $18.00 pays for all 3 deliveries. To charge $54.00 instead, see Price your product for all deliveries.
The How it works panel in the option editor, for an $18.00 product: deliveries 1 and 4 are charged orders, and the ones between are $0.00 orders.
Before you start
Your Appstle plan must include Prepaid, separate orders. If it doesn't, the card is greyed out and shows the plan that does, with an Upgrade link below the cards.
Create a subscription plan for your products. See Create a subscription plan.
Decide how you'll charge for all the deliveries one payment covers. See Price your product for all deliveries below.
Price your product for all deliveries
Appstle doesn't multiply the price. Each charged order costs the product's price once, with your discount, and the orders in between are $0.00. If the option is on an $18.00 product, customers pay $18.00 for 3 deliveries.
To charge for all 3 deliveries, use one of these:
Put the option on a variant priced for all the deliveries, such as a 3-pack at $54.00.
Raise the product's price to $54.00. This also changes its one-time price.
In the Discount step, turn on Discount, click Fixed price and enter 54.00 in Subscription price. Every charged order then costs $54.00 per item for every product and variant in the plan, and recurring products customers add in the customer portal get that price too. Use it only when everything in the plan costs the same.
A percentage or amount-off discount applies to every charged order. Separate orders can't have a second, later discount.
The Discount step with a Fixed price of $54.00, the price of all 3 deliveries. The banner explains which orders are charged.
Set up Prepaid, separate orders
In Appstle Subscriptions, go to Subscription Plans and click Edit on your plan.
Under Subscription options, click Add option.
In the step list, click Basics, then pick Prepaid, separate orders under How customers pay.
Set Billing frequency and Deliver every. Billing frequency uses the same unit as Deliver every and has to hold at least 2 deliveries exactly, such as 6 weeks with a delivery every 2 weeks. The line under Billing frequency shows how many deliveries one payment covers.
If you want a discount, set it in the Discount step.
In the Display step, turn on Add a description and explain how customers are charged, for example: "Pay $54.00 every 6 weeks for 3 deliveries, one every 2 weeks."
Click Done, then click Save in the bar at the top of the plan page.
Basics with Prepaid, separate orders selected, Billing frequency 6 weeks and Deliver every 2 weeks. The banner reminds you to price the product for all 3 deliveries.
Shipping
The $0.00 orders cover the products only. Every order, $0.00 ones included, gets shipping from your shipping profile, so unless that rate is free, customers pay shipping on each delivery. Mention it in the option's description.
To change shipping from a given order on, add a shipping reward in the Rewards step. From the order it starts on (order 2 at the earliest), Appstle charges the reward's shipping price on every order, $0.00 ones included.
What customers see
At checkout, Shopify shows the first payment followed by $0.00, for example "First payment $54.00, then $0.00 every 2 weeks" for the $54.00 3-pack, and the subscription widget says the discount goes to 100% after the first order. That's expected: Appstle charges the later payments itself. Your option's description (step 6) is where you explain it.
In the customer portal, the subscription shows a Prepaid subscription bundle banner with the number of prepaid orders, the date of the next order and the date of the next payment.
Each product is labelled with where the next delivery falls in the payment, such as "Cycle 2 of 3 (covered)". If that delivery is already paid for, its price reads Already paid (except inside Shopify customer accounts).
To change the banner's text, click Customer Portal, then Customize portal. On the Subscription detail page, set Showing to Prepaid, click the banner text, edit it in the panel on the right and click Save.
To edit a line the preview leaves out, such as "You've prepaid for…", type its first words in the search box at the top and click the result. Edit it in the same panel and click Save.
Let customers change products in the customer portal
By default, customers can't add, remove, swap or change the quantity of products on a Prepaid, separate orders subscription in the customer portal. To let them:
In Appstle Subscriptions, click Customer Portal, then click Customize portal.
Click Features, then open Prepaid subscriptions.
Click More options. While this setting is off, it's listed there.
Turn on Customers can change products on prepaid (separate orders) subscriptions.
Click Save.
If Customer Portal opens on a Configuration tab instead, check Allow customers to modify prepaid separate subscription on that tab and click Save. Either way, customers can only add or swap in a recurring product if it has a Prepaid, separate orders option with the same Billing frequency and Deliver every.
Prepaid subscriptions in the customer portal editor's Features, with More options open. The first switch lets customers change products on separate-orders subscriptions.
When customers cancel
A customer who cancels in the customer portal keeps the deliveries they've already paid for. The subscription ends after the last delivery of the current payment, so the next payment is never charged. If you cancel from the Appstle admin, the subscription ends at once.
In the Cancellation step, Orders before customers can cancel and Orders before the subscription ends count every delivery, $0.00 ones included. For example, ending after 6 orders means 6 deliveries and 2 payments. Checkout doesn't show either limit, so mention them in the option's description.
Things to know
Trials and first-order or change-later discounts aren't available. The Trial step is greyed out, and your Discount applies to every charged order.
You can't change a saved option to or from separate orders. Click Add option on the plan page to create a new one.
The schedule can't change after purchase. Customers can't change the delivery frequency in the customer portal, and a subscription can only move to another Prepaid, separate orders option with the same Billing frequency and Deliver every. A recurring product can only be added if it has such an option.
Neither you nor your customers can split or merge these subscriptions, change a product's price, variant or selling plan directly, or change the delivery interval directly. Appstle shows an error and the subscription stays as it is.
FAQs
Why does checkout show $0.00 after the first payment?
Checkout reads the 100% discount Appstle saves for the orders between payments, so it shows the first payment and then $0.00. Appstle charges the later payments itself. Explain how customers are charged in the option's description (step 6 of the setup).
Why was a customer charged only the price of one delivery?
Appstle charges the product's price once per charged order and doesn't multiply it. Price the option for all the deliveries in one of the ways in Price your product for all deliveries above.
Why can't my customer add, remove or swap a product?
The setting Customers can change products on prepaid (separate orders) subscriptions is off by default. Turn it on as described in Let customers change products in the customer portal above: it's under More options in Prepaid subscriptions. If it's on and a recurring product still can't be added, it doesn't have a Prepaid, separate orders option with the same Billing frequency and Deliver every.
The Prepaid, separate orders card is greyed out. Why?
Your Appstle plan doesn't include it, or the option is already saved with another billing type. In the first case, the card shows the plan that does, with an Upgrade link below the cards. In the second, it shows New plans only: click Add option on the plan page and choose Prepaid, separate orders in the new option.
Why does Billing frequency show an error?
Each payment has to cover a whole number of deliveries, and at least 2. If Deliver every doesn't fit evenly into Billing frequency, or fits only once, the field says so and lists values that work. For example, with a billing frequency of 6 weeks, you can deliver every 1, 2 or 3 weeks.
Why was a customer charged shipping on a $0.00 order?
The $0.00 covers the products only. Shipping on every order comes from your shipping profile. See Shipping above.
A customer cancelled but still got an order. Why?
A cancel in the customer portal keeps the deliveries already paid for, so the rest of the current payment's deliveries still go out. The subscription ends after the last one, and the next payment isn't charged. To end it at once, cancel it from the Appstle admin.
Need help?
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