Overview
OCU's Subscriptions Integration allows you to offer a subscription product, both as a Pre-purchase offer and a one-click Post-purchase offer! Subscription services are a huge part of daily life and recently, subscriptions have become one of the fastest-growing categories in eCommerce.
Repeat customers are 50% more likely to make another purchase than new customers, and they spend 33% more on average. Subscriptions allow you to foster ongoing relationships with your customers that keep them coming back.
Supported Subscription Apps
OCU supports the following subscription apps for Pre-purchase offers:
Recharge Subscriptions (Shopify Checkout Version)*
OCU supports the following subscription apps for Post-purchase offers:
Recharge Subscriptions (Shopify Checkout Version)*
*All Recharge workflows, including the free trial workflow, are compatible with the integration and OCU post-purchase functionality.
**For the Loop app, set the conditions of the subscription for the product first, then create a Pre-Purchase or Post-Purchase Offer.
Which OCU offers work with subscription integrations?
Only pre-purchase and post-purchase offers are compatible with subscription integrations.
OCU can't show a subscription product as a Product Page Widget, In-Checkout (Shopify Plus) or Thank You page offer yet, but these option will become available in future updates!
Subscriptions for Pre-purchase can be used with the following offer types:
"Add to Order" (single product)
"Upgrade Order"
"Add to Order" - Same product as added to cart (dynamic)
"Upgrade Order" - Same product as added to cart (dynamic)
📝 Currently, it is not possible to offer subscriptions as part of a multi-product pre-purchase offer.
Subscriptions for Post-purchase can be used with the following offer types as Upsell 1, Upsell 2, and/or the Downsell:
"Add to Order" (single product)
Can convert a customer's one-time purchase into a subscription, or upgrade an existing subscription to a different plan
"Add to Order" - Multi 1 of 6
"Add to Order" - Same product as bought (dynamic)
Can convert a customer's one-time purchase into a subscription for the same product
"Add to Order" - Dynamic AI Offer
📝 Upgrading an existing subscription (for example, Monthly to Annual) works only with the "Add to Order" (single product) Post-purchase offer, and only with Recharge. More details
In situations where the original order already includes a subscription product:
If the post-purchase offer product is set for "subscription only" in the Subscription app, we will skip the offer page from being shown completely.
If the post-purchase offer product is set for "One-time & subscription" in the Subscription app, we will show the offer page, but only the "One-time" option will be available.
Exception: If Upgrade an existing subscription is turned on, the offer page is shown to customers whose order includes a subscription for that same product, on a plan that matches one of your upgrade paths. This is the only case where a subscription offer displays on an order that already contains a subscription. More details
The same logic applies to the post-purchase Upsell 2 page: If the customer accepts Upsell 1 which is a subscription product then the Upsell 2 "subscription only" product will be skipped.
Adding a Pre-Purchase Subscription Offer
Adding a pre-purchase subscription offer to an upsell offer works the same way as for other non-subscription products! Click here to learn more about adding products to your upsell funnels
📝 The following information applies to both "Add to Order" and "Upgrade Order" single Pre-Purchase offers:
After setting the subscription type for a product in your subscriptions app, the subscription widget will appear on the pre-purchase offer pages that use that same product for the offer.
When using a subscription product as a pre-purchase offer, you will see the following new components on the pre-purchase offer pop-up interactive preview:
Selling plan group option
Ability to edit titles
Selling plan group option (1)
Like with the pre-purchase offer subscriptions, the selling plan group option will display the "One-time purchase" option and the frequency-based "Subscription" option(s) set for that product in your subscriptions app:
How the widget will display on the pre-purchase offer pop-up is determined by the following:
“Subscription widget" settings
The “Subscription type" you choose for the product in your subscription app.
The OCU subscription integrations work with "One-time & subscription," “Pre-Paid Subscription only,” and "Subscription only" options.
Edit option titles (2)
You can edit the following option titles, which are displayed in the subscription widget via the interactive preview:
"One-time purchase"
"Subscribe"
"Subscribe & Save"
"Deliver every XX Days"
"Deliver every XX Days, Charge every XX Days"
"Recurring total" (*only for Recharge)
Just click on the subscription option element or dropdown label to use the inline text editor and make your changes! These fields cannot be blank:
Adding a Post-purchase Subscription Offer
Adding a post-purchase subscription offer to an upsell funnel also works the same way as for other non-subscription products. Click here to learn more about adding products to your upsell funnels
Just like with pre-purchase offers, the subscription widget will appear on the post-purchase offer pages that use that same product for the offer after setting up a selling plan for it in your subscription app.
When using a subscription product for the post-purchase offer, you will see additional components on the post-purchase offer page interactive preview:
Selling plan group option
Ability to edit option titles
Buyer consent form
Recurring billing summary
Selling plan group option (1)
Like with the pre-purchase offer subscriptions, the selling plan group option will display the "One-time purchase" option and the frequency-based "Subscription" option(s) set for that product in your subscriptions app:
How the widget will display on the offer page is determined by the following:
“Subscription widget" settings
The “Subscription type" you choose for the product in your subscription app.
The OCU subscription integrations work with "One-time & subscription," “Pre-Paid Subscription only,” and "Subscription only" options.
Edit option titles (2)
You can edit the following option titles, which are displayed in the subscription widget via the interactive preview:
"One-time purchase"
"Subscribe"
"Subscribe & Save"
"Deliver every XX Days"
"Deliver every XX Days, Charge every XX Days"
"Recurring total" (*only for Recharge)
As with Pre-Purchase offers, all you need to do is click on the subscription option element or dropdown label to open the text editor and make your changes! These fields also cannot be blank.
Buyer consent form (3)
In order to add a subscription item to the order, customers have to consent to your subscription policy. A consent checkbox and a link to your store's subscription policy (Settings > Legal pages > Subscription policy in your Shopify admin) appear below the Total cost summary section.
The “Pay now” button will be inactive until the customer checks the box. When the button becomes active, it is then possible to add the subscription to the order.
Recurring billing summary (4)
Post-purchase subscription offers include a recurring summary line. This line is used to communicate the selected selling plan group option and recurring cost, less tax, and shipping to the customer.
If you're using Recharge, then this line can be edited using the inline text editor by clicking on the pricing element. Useful for changing the default pricing text if the offer is part of a Recharge Workflow.
Enable / Disable the Subscription Option
If the offer product used has both "One-time & Subscription" options configured for it in your supported subscription app, then a toggle to "Allow subscription option for this product" becomes available in the "Display Offer" section of the offer editor:
The default setting has this toggle enabled, so both one-time and subscription options will show on your pre-purchase and post-purchase offers. If you’d only like the one-time option to be available, click the toggle to the off position.
📝 If your product is set to "Subscription only" the option to disable the subscription will not be available.
Subscription Upgrade Settings
Alongside offering a new subscription, OCU can change the subscription terms on a product the customer has already bought. These settings appear in the Display Offer section of the post-purchase offer editor.
Replace one-time purchase product with subscription option converts a one-time purchase into a subscription for the same product
Upgrade an existing subscription moves an existing subscriber to a different plan for the same product
Both act on a product already in the customer's order. Neither adds a second item.
Replace One-time with Subscription
The "Replace one-time purchase product with subscription option" setting appears in the Display Offer section of the post-purchase offer editor. Available on the "Same product as bought" and "Add to Order" (single product) Post-purchase offer types when "Allow subscription option" is enabled.
When a customer buys a product as a one-time purchase, this setting converts that purchase into a subscription for the same product if they accept the offer. The original one-time item is removed from the order and refunded once the subscription charge succeeds.
This requires the trigger product to have both the One-time purchase and Subscription options enabled in your subscription app.
📝 Since accepting this offer changes an order that's already been placed, review your offer headline and description once you turn this setting on. For example:
Headline: "🎁 Replace one-time purchase
{{ product_title }}with subscription option"Description: "When you accept this offer, the one-time purchase item in your order will be replaced with the subscription option."
How it works for the customer
They only see this offer if their order contains the matching trigger product as a one-time purchase.
If the trigger product doesn't have subscription options enabled, this offer is skipped.
The subscription quantity matches whatever the customer selects on the offer page (or defaults to 1 if no quantity selector is shown).
Once they accept and the subscription charge succeeds, the original one-time item(s) are removed from the order and fully refunded (price and tax), processed on the Shopify side.
Edge cases
If the customer bought multiple units of the trigger product, all units are replaced with the subscription.
If the subscription payment fails (for example, insufficient funds), the offer is added to the order as unpaid and the original one-time item stays on the order. Nothing is refunded.
📝 By default, customers aren't emailed about the refund for their original one-time item. To send them Shopify's refund notification, turn on "Email customers about upgrade refunds" in Settings > Post-purchase. More details
Upgrade an Existing Subscription
Use this option to change a subscription the customer already has, right after checkout. OCU updates the customer's existing subscription directly in Recharge. To meet Shopify's rules, a zero-price placeholder product is added to the Shopify order, while the actual upgrade happens in Recharge.
With an upgrade, you can:
Change the delivery frequency
Change the billing frequency
Do both at once
The customer's existing subscription is updated in place. No refund or new charge is issued for the subscription itself.
📝 Currently, this option is only supported for Recharge on the "Add to Order" (single product) Post-purchase offer. It isn't available for Same as Bought, Multi-product, or Dynamic AI offers.
📝 Subscriptions with dynamic pricing aren't supported, because the dynamic price can't be kept when the subscription changes.
Before you start
Add your Recharge API token in Settings > Integrations of the OCU app.
Use the same product as both the Trigger (in the funnel's Triggers section) and the Post-Purchase Single Offer.
Turn on Allow subscription option for this product in the Display Offer section.
📝 Note: Create the Recharge API token with these scopes: store_info, read_orders, read_plans, read_subscriptions, write_subscriptions.
Setting up an upgrade path
In the Display Offer section of the offer editor, turn on Upgrade an existing subscription.
Click the Upgrade path button to open the Upgrade paths window.
Pick an If Trigger plan (the plan the customer is on now) and a Then Offer plan (the plan they'll upgrade to).
Click + Add upgrade path to add up to 3 paths.
Click Save.
A summary appears under each path, for example Subscribers on "Monthly" will be offered "Annual". The offer shows if any path matches the customer's current plan.
👉 Important Notes:
One-time option is hidden. While this setting is on, the offer only shows subscription plans.
No match, no offer. If the customer's plan doesn't match any If Trigger plan, the offer is skipped.
Turning it off keeps your paths. Paths are hidden, not deleted, and come back when you turn the toggle on again.
Subscription Disclaimer
A short line under the offer buttons, above the payment disclaimer, tells the customer that the item already in their order will be updated. The default text is "Updates the matching item in your order". It turns on automatically when Upgrade an existing subscription or Replace one-time purchase product with subscription option is enabled, and you can edit it or turn it off.
What your customers see
The offer shows at a zero price, and the button reads "Upgrade subscription" (translated into 33 languages, with English used for any others).
Once the customer accepts the upgrade, the Order summary on the Thank You page shows an extra item called "Subscription Plan Upgrade".
If the plan change can't be applied, the original subscription stays the same, and the customer still goes to the Thank You page.
What happens when the offer is accepted
◼️ In Shopify: The "Subscription Plan Upgrade" product is added to the order as a placeholder line item. It's required because Shopify's post-purchase API can't add a second subscription to an order that already contains one.
◼️ In Recharge: The customer's existing subscription is updated, and no refund is issued for the original subscription. In most cases, the subscription is edited in place and keeps its ID.
👉 The new plan's pricing applies from the next recurring cycle in Recharge, not to the Shopify order the customer just completed.
The "Subscription Plan Upgrade" product
When you turn on Upgrade an existing subscription, OCU creates a placeholder product called "Subscription Plan Upgrade" in your Shopify store. This is the zero-price item added to the order when a customer accepts the upgrade.
◼️ Name and image: You can change the product's name and image in Shopify admin > Products. Customers will see them:
In the Order summary on the Thank You page, after they accept the offer
In the order-edited email Shopify sends after the upgrade is added
◼️ Billing: The new subscription plan is charged only in Recharge. Accepting the offer doesn't change the original product's stock in Shopify.
⚠️ Don't delete or archive this product if you want to keep using Upgrade an existing subscription on your Post-Purchase offers.
◼️ Re-enabling the setting: If the product was deleted or archived, turning Upgrade an existing subscription on again for any offer creates the "Subscription Plan Upgrade" product in Shopify again.
👉 You can change the product's name and image, or keep the defaults. OCU uses this product as a marker for the subscription upgrade option on all OCU offers. The product's name and image don't affect what the customer sees on the Post-Purchase offer page.
Recommended offer copy
Update your offer copy to talk about an upgrade, not an added product:
Lead with the benefit: "Switch to Annual and save 20%"
Say nothing is charged today: "No extra charge today. Your new plan starts at your next billing."
If you have several paths, keep the copy general: "Upgrade your plan and get more for less." Use a second line to show the customer they can pick the plan that suits them best: "Choose the plan that fits you best."
Description example:
Get {{ product_title }} for just {{ product_price_now }}
No charge today. Your current order ships as planned.
Starting in [proposed_delivery_frequency], you'll pay {{ product_price_now }} per delivery.
👉 Try the AI writing tool to make writing your offer copy even easier.
Subscription Widget Colors for Post-Purchase Offers
The subscription widget radio buttons, dropdown border, consent checkbox, and subscription policy link all inherit the "Accents" color from your Checkout styles set in your Theme.
To edit this color, if desired, navigate to Online Store > Themes > Customize in your Shopify admin to open the Theme Editor. Once there, navigate to Theme settings > Checkout > Colors to find the "Accents" color option there:
Important Notes about Post-purchase
Payment processors that you can use for post-purchase subscriptions are Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Authorize.net, and Stripe (only available to some merchants) as these are the only ones that are currently supported.
OCU Discounts: OCU's “Fixed amount” and “Percentage” discounts will only apply to the One-time products added to your pre-purchase and post-purchase offer page. It does not apply these discounts to the products with the “Subscription” option selected.
Only the discount set in the subscription app will be shown and used for the "subscription" option I.e. when switching from the "one-time" to the "subscription" option, the OCU discount will disappear from the offer page and the discount set in your subscription app will be shown instead.Digital Subscriptions: Digital subscriptions are supported, but the initial checkout must include at least one physical product. If the order contains only digital products, Shopify does not collect a shipping address which is required for post-purchase offers to function correctly. While the post-purchase offer may still display, a “This payment method isn’t available for subscription orders” error will be shown.
Orders without a shipping address: If the customer's checkout results in the creation of an order without a shipping address, then you can't add a subscription to the order using post-purchase. For example, a customer might have bought only digital products, which doesn't require a shipping address.
Subscription upgrade statistics: For accepted upgrades, Views and Conversions are counted as usual, but Revenue stays at zero because nothing is charged on the Post-Purchase page. Revenue from the new plan shows in Recharge.
Common Issues when Setting Up A Subscription Integration
If the following cases occur, please refer to the recommendations below:
Product with a “subscription only” option is not shown as a post-purchase offer
A subscription option is not shown for post-purchase when it’s a “one-time and subscribe” option.
Recommendations:
First, you will want to check to be sure the subscription options are available on the Post-Purchase Preview. Open the Post-Purchase Preview and make sure the preview contains the "Deliver every" element.
The preview should also contain a consent checkbox:
If you still don’t see both of these elements on the post-purchase preview page,
1) Make sure the product is set up to be a subscription within your subscription app.
2) Check the LIVE product page for that product to be sure that the subscription widget is working properly there.
If the subscription option still doesn't show up in your OCU offer editor, then ensure that your subscription widget is published/active within your subscription app. If it's published but still not showing in OCU, unpublish and re-publish the widget to your storefront. Then check the OCU offer editor to see if the subscription option shows up after that.
For Recharge for example, the subscription widget can be published/unpublished by navigating to Storefront > Subscription Widget in the Recharge app:
Frequently Asked Questions
I set up my subscription! What's Next?
Once you have your subscriptions set up in the offer editor, the next thing you'll want to do is a live test order to see your offer in action!
I tested it and it doesn't appear to be working...
First, double-check that you see the subscription option within the offer editor!
If you're not seeing the subscription widget or consent checkbox...
Check to be sure that the subscription is set up properly within your subscription app for that product.
Check the LIVE product page for the subscription widget and check to see that it's working properly.
If you are seeing the subscription widget on the offer page, but the subscription did not show during your live test...
Check to be sure there weren't any subscriptions products purchased in your original order.
Check to be sure you used a supported payment processor.
If you're still experiencing issues after taking these steps, please reach out to our Support team by clicking the chat icon in the bottom right corner of this page!
A customer accepted the subscription upgrade, but their plan didn't change. What should I check?
Make sure your Recharge API token is added in Settings > Integrations.
Check that the customer's plan matched one of your If Trigger plans.
Check the subscription in Recharge. If the change couldn't be applied, the original plan stays active.
My subscription app isn’t supported. Is there a way to make it work with OCU?
An integration is necessary for subscriptions to work on OCU's Post-Purchase offer pages. We love building integrations with other apps! If you have a subscription app that isn't currently supported by OCU, the best way to get it supported is to submit a request inside the app!
You can make a request by clicking into Settings > Integrations. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Request Integration" button:
