Sell a subscription product

Subscriptions in SellStein are a property of the product, not a separate object. Switch a product to recurring and the storefront, checkout, and customer dashboard all adapt.

Make a product recurring

Edit a product → Pricing → switch the toggle from One-time to Recurring. You get four fields: interval (day/week/month/year), interval count (1 = every month, 3 = every 3 months), trial days, and a billing-anchor option (anniversary of signup vs first-of-month).

Save. The product page now shows "$29 / month" instead of "$29" and the checkout button reads "Subscribe" instead of "Buy".

Free trials

Trial days delays the first charge by N days. The customer enters their card at signup, but the charge happens at day N+1. They can cancel during the trial and never get billed. Most stores get the best conversion at 7 or 14 days; longer trials reduce intent and drive more cancellations.

Upgrades and downgrades

A customer on Plan A wanting Plan B has two paths in the customer portal: change at next renewal (no proration, takes effect on cycle date) or change immediately (proration credit applied to next invoice). The default is "next renewal". Flip Settings → Subscriptions → Allow mid-cycle changes if you want to expose the immediate option.

Failed renewals

When a renewal charge fails, we run smart retries: day +1, day +3, day +5, day +7. The subscription stays active during retries. After the fourth failure we mark it past_due and email the customer to update their card. They can update via a one-click link with no login required.

Cancellation

Customers cancel from the Account portal at any time. By default cancellation takes effect at end-of-cycle. They keep access through what they've paid for. Settings → Subscriptions → Cancel immediately changes this if you want them gone instantly (rare).

What it doesn't do

Subscriptions don't bundle. If you want "buy product A and get product B free for the first month", that's a discount + bundle workflow, not a subscription field. Same for usage-based metering. That's the API SDK and your own meter, not a built-in field.