Subscription commerce, defined.
Plain-language definitions of the terms behind Shopify subscriptions — how the billing works, what the box formats mean, and the metrics that decide whether a recurring business grows. Every definition stands on its own.
Showing all 22 terms.
Shopify mechanics
2 termsHow Shopify itself models a subscription — the objects an app creates and manages.
- Subscription Contract
A Subscription Contract is Shopify's native record of a recurring agreement between a store and a customer — it stores what is being sold, how often it renews, the price, and the vaulted payment method, and Shopify uses it to create each recurring charge.
- Selling Plan
Also called Selling plan group
A selling plan is Shopify's definition of how a product can be purchased on a recurring basis — the frequency, any subscription discount, and billing terms — and a selling plan group bundles related plans and attaches them to specific products, variants, or collections.
Storefront
1 termsWhat a shopper sees and interacts with before they subscribe.
- Subscription Widget
Also called Purchase options, Product-page widget
A subscription widget is the on-page control that lets a shopper choose between buying a product once or subscribing to it, rendered directly on the Shopify product page so there's no separate checkout or redirect.
Box formats
7 termsThe ways a recurring box can be assembled, chosen and sold.
- Build-Your-Own Box
Also called BYOB
A build-your-own box (BYOB) is a subscription in which the customer assembles their own recurring box from a set of eligible products each cycle — for example choosing which coffee bags go in this month's shipment — usually within a per-item limit and before a billing cutoff.
- Curated Box
Also called Merchant-curated box
A curated box is a subscription box whose contents the merchant selects and rotates on a schedule — the customer subscribes to the experience and the merchant decides what ships each cycle, such as a monthly coffee sampler that changes every month.
- Mix & Match
Mix & match is a bundling model that lets a customer combine several products of their choice into one purchase or subscription at a set bundle price or discount, rather than being limited to a single fixed product or a pre-set bundle.
- Product Bundle
A product bundle is a fixed set of products sold together as a single unit — often at a discount versus buying each separately — which can be offered as a one-time purchase or on a recurring subscription.
- Subscription Box
A subscription box is a recurring package of physical products delivered on a schedule — weekly, monthly, or another cadence — which the merchant either curates or lets the customer build, and which the customer pays for automatically each cycle.
- Billing Cutoff
Also called Cutoff date, Lock date
A billing cutoff is the point before a subscription renewal after which the contents of the next box are locked and can no longer be edited — it exists so the merchant can finalise picking, packing, and stock while still giving subscribers as long as possible to change their mind.
- One-Time Box
Also called Single box, Gift box
A one-time box is a box sold as a single purchase rather than a recurring subscription — bought once, shipped once, with no contract and no renewal — typically used for gifting, seasonal editions, and letting a hesitant customer try the box before committing to a subscription.
Billing
2 termsHow and when subscribers actually get charged.
- Prepaid Subscription
A prepaid subscription is a recurring plan where the customer pays upfront for a fixed number of deliveries — such as a 3-month or 6-month term billed in one charge — instead of being billed each cycle as products ship.
- Smart Retries
Also called Intelligent retries, Retry logic
Smart retries are the scheduled re-attempts a subscription system makes on a failed recurring charge, timed and spaced deliberately rather than fired immediately, so that the retry lands when the underlying reason for the failure is most likely to have resolved.
Retention
3 termsKeeping subscribers past the first renewal — and recovering the ones you'd otherwise lose.
- Dunning
Also called Failed-payment recovery
Dunning is the automated process of recovering a failed subscription payment — retrying the declined charge on a schedule and prompting the customer to update their payment method — so a recoverable card failure doesn't silently cancel the subscriber.
- Cancellation Save Flow
Also called Save flow, Retention offer
A cancellation save flow is the sequence a subscriber sees when they try to cancel — presenting an alternative such as pausing, skipping a delivery, changing frequency, or a retention offer — designed to keep customers who would otherwise leave over a fixable, temporary reason.
- Skip vs Pause
Also called Skip a delivery, Pause a subscription
Skipping omits one scheduled delivery and its charge while leaving the subscription and its cadence intact, whereas pausing suspends the subscription indefinitely or until a chosen date — skip answers "not this month", pause answers "not for a while".
Metrics
6 termsThe numbers that tell you whether a recurring business is compounding.
- Churn
Also called Subscription churn, Churn rate
Churn is the rate at which subscribers cancel or lapse over a given period — the share of recurring customers a business loses — and it is the single most important number in a subscription business because retained revenue compounds while churned revenue must be re-acquired.
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
Also called MRR
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable revenue a subscription business expects to collect each month from its active subscriptions, normalized to a monthly figure — the core measure of the size and growth of recurring revenue.
- Voluntary Churn
Also called Active churn
Voluntary churn is subscription cancellation caused by a customer decision — they click cancel — as opposed to a failed payment, and it is usually a response to price, to product piling up between deliveries, or to the box becoming repetitive.
- Involuntary Churn
Also called Passive churn, Payment churn
Involuntary churn is subscription cancellation caused by a failed payment rather than a customer decision — typically an expired, blocked, or insufficient-funds card at renewal — which means the subscriber is lost while still wanting the product.
- Customer Lifetime Value
Also called LTV, CLV, Lifetime value
Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the total revenue — or, more usefully, gross profit — a business expects from a single customer across the whole of their relationship, which for a subscription is driven by order value, order frequency, and how long the subscriber stays.
- Average Order Value
Also called AOV
Average order value (AOV) is the mean value of a single order — total revenue divided by number of orders — and in a subscription business it is measured per recurring charge, which makes it one of the three inputs to lifetime value alongside frequency and retention.
Migration
1 termsMoving an existing subscriber base from one app to another.
- Subscription Migration
Also called Subscriber migration, Switching subscription apps
Subscription migration is the process of moving existing subscribers, their plans, and their next billing dates from one subscription app to another without cancelling their subscriptions or asking them to re-enter payment details.
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Every term, A–Z
The complete index — 22 definitions, one link each.
- Average Order Value
- Billing Cutoff
- Build-Your-Own Box
- Cancellation Save Flow
- Churn
- Curated Box
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Dunning
- Involuntary Churn
- Mix & Match
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
- One-Time Box
- Prepaid Subscription
- Product Bundle
- Selling Plan
- Skip vs Pause
- Smart Retries
- Subscription Box
- Subscription Contract
- Subscription Migration
- Subscription Widget
- Voluntary Churn