Configuring Discounts for Subscription Products

SHOPLINE’s discount campaigns include dedicated settings that let you control exactly how discounts interact with subscription orders. You can specify whether a discount applies to subscription purchases, one-time purchases, or both — and set how many renewal cycles the discount remains active for subscription customers. 

This guide explains how to configure supported product types when creating a discount, set subscription usage restrictions, and understand how these settings affect your customers’ checkout experience.

Configuring Supported Product Types for a Discount

The Supported product types setting determines whether a discount applies to subscription orders, one-time purchases, or both. This setting is available for all discount campaigns, including both discount codes and automatic discounts.

To set the supported product type:

1. Go to Admin Panel > Discounts.
2. Click Create discount and choose your discount type.
3. Complete your discount setup details, then locate the Supported product types section.

4. Select one of the following options:

   • Non-subscription products: The discount applies only to one-time purchases. Subscription orders are excluded.
   • Subscription products: The discount applies only to subscription orders. One-time purchases are excluded.
   • Both (all products): The discount applies to both subscription orders and one-time purchases. This is the default selection.

   

5. Complete the remaining settings and save your discount.

Configuring Subscription Usage Restrictions

The Subscription usage restrictions setting lets you control how many subscription renewal cycles a discount remains active. This helps you manage your promotional budget for subscription customers — for example, offering a discounted rate only on a customer’s first few subscription orders.

Supported Discount Types

The Subscription usage restrictions setting is available only when the Subscriptions app is installed in your store. It supports the following discount types:

To configure subscription usage restrictions:

1. On the discount creation or editing page, scroll to the Subscription usage restrictions section.

2. Under Total available subscription contracts, open the dropdown and select one of the following:

   • Applies to the first subscription only: The discount applies only to the customer’s initial subscription order. This is the default selection for new discounts.
   • Applies to multiple subscriptions: The discount applies for a set number of renewal cycles. Enter a whole number between 2 and 99,999,999 in the field provided.
   • Applies to all subscription contracts: The discount applies to every renewal cycle with no limit.

   

3. Click Save or Update to apply the settings.

How Subscription Discounts Are Applied at Checkout

When a customer’s cart contains both subscription and non-subscription items, discounts are matched to each item based on the Supported product types setting:

• Discounts set to Subscription products apply only to items added via the subscription purchase option.
• Discounts set to Non-subscription products apply only to items purchased as one-time orders.
• Discounts set to Both (all products) apply to all items regardless of purchase type.

If the same product appears in the cart as both a subscription and a one-time purchase, each purchase type is treated separately and matched to its own applicable discounts.

For subscription renewals after the initial order, SHOPLINE automatically applies the discount configuration recorded at the time of the first purchase. The discount remains active for the number of renewal cycles set in Subscription usage restrictions. Once the limit is reached, subsequent renewals do not receive the discount.

Important Notes for Subscription Discount Settings

• The Supported product types setting is locked after a discount is created and cannot be modified. Plan your product type selection carefully before saving.
• With this feature, a product can participate in two separate automatic discount campaigns simultaneously — one for subscription purchases and one for one-time purchases. However, each purchase type is still limited to one active automatic discount campaign at a time.
• The Subscription usage restrictions setting is not available for Buy X Get Y, M Items for N Price, Nth Item Discount, or Free Lowest-Priced Item discount types.
• Discounts created before this feature was released default to Both (all products) for supported product types and Applies to the first subscription only for subscription usage restrictions.
• The Supported product types setting is not available in the SHOPLINE Admin mobile app. Discounts created on mobile default to Both (all products). Discounts configured on desktop retain their product type setting when viewed or edited on mobile.