Subscriptions that ship on a different schedule to billing e.g. pay annually, ship monthly.

It is very common for companies to allow a customer to pay up front for a subscription and still receive the product monthly. It would be great to have this option in the subscription plug-in. Payment settings and how often the product ships should be separate settings.

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Last updated: August 10, 2013

206 comments

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  1. sassastatusportal says:

    Certainly! Aligning billing and shipping schedules is a critical aspect of subscription models, but sometimes, businesses find it advantageous to decouple these schedules. This can be seen in scenarios where customers pay for their subscription annually but receive shipments on a monthly basis.

    This strategy offers several benefits:

    Convenient Billing Options: Annual billing provides customers with the convenience of making a single payment for an extended period, reducing the hassle of frequent transactions.

    Steady Delivery Frequency: Despite the annual billing cycle, providing shipments on a monthly basis ensures customers receive products regularly, maintaining engagement and satisfaction.

    Cash Flow Management: By receiving payments annually while fulfilling orders monthly, businesses can better manage their cash flow. This model ensures a consistent influx of revenue throughout the year, which can be particularly beneficial for planning and budgeting.

    Predictable Customer Experience: Offering a predictable delivery frequency helps in managing customer expectations and provides a consistent experience, which is crucial for retaining subscribers.

    Flexibility: This model offers flexibility for both businesses and customers. Customers can choose billing cycles that suit their preferences, while businesses can tailor shipping schedules to optimize operations.

    In essence, decoupling billing and shipping schedules in subscription models allows businesses to strike a balance between cash flow management and maintaining a satisfactory customer experience. It’s a strategy that prioritizes convenience, predictability, and flexibility for both parties involved.

  2. infocentraltexasfarmerscom says:

    This functionality is critical to my business. We sell subscriptions for a CSA, and customers pay for the full 16-week season in advance, then receive weekly veggie shares throughout the season. Separating the billing and shipping components is a baseline requirement for any software to support our business. It’s mind-boggling that this feature was first raised 10 years ago, and still no movement?

  3. smartproductnet says:

    Can’t believe this is still not available. Ironically, Woo has it on their own shop! https://ibb.co/GnrZcFk

  4. farajiluan says:

    In some subscription models, the billing and shipping schedules may differ. For instance, customers might pay for their subscription annually but receive shipments on a monthly basis. This approach allows businesses to offer convenient billing options while providing a steady and predictable delivery frequency for customers. It’s a strategy often employed to balance cash flow and maintain a consistent customer experience.

  5. Alexander Minakov says:

    Wow I can’t believe Woocommerce took this much requested feature and actually turned it into a separate product for subscription! How stingy is that?! I already pay $239 a year and now I have to pay an extra $79 to get what should be a basic function. Terrible.

  6. julianfamilyfarm says:

    yes I need this….monthly payment with weekly order delivered

  7. henkdegraaf01 says:

    We need this one fast!!!

  8. henkdegraaf01 says:

    Is there such a plugin already?

  9. Michael Sammer says:

    Is this being worked on yet? I understand that this feature needs to be implemented very thoroughly as there are a few things to consider like cancelling a prepaid subscription with outstanding paid shipments, etc. but it is overdue to be implemented! I saw this plugin is offering what the feature request is asking for: https://woo.com/products/prepaid-for-woocommerce-subscriptions/ however, with such a core subscriptions feature, I would only trust a plugin developed by WooCommcerce. It has become such a key feature that we are considering switching platform to a provider that can customise and manage such a feature…

  10. filevidmate says:

    This is super, super basic functionality for a subscription service. If I knew this couldn’t be done, I would’ve never purchased. We want to start 3-month, 6-month, and yealry subscription options vidmate.icu

  11. mwatson1690 says:

    I want to convert my website: https://remotecodesportal.com/ into an ecommerce store using woocommerce and I need guidance on that. Thank you

  12. Gabriel Reguly says:

    Hi,

    I have coded this solution for a customer and can code it again for any person that needs it.

    Cheers,
    Gabriel

  13. brinkdeveloper says:

    Really hoping this is a feature that’s added soon. We are currently trying to find feasible ways to work around the frustration, as it’s such an essential feature that’s lacking right now.

  14. erwan4dc34b80f2 says:

    Need this so much….

  15. greatballs1 says:

    Having read all of the other comments I am genuinely surprised this hasn’t been built in already.

  16. Erica Kuschel says:

    As a heads up, we have something in our marketplace just for this: Prepaid for WooCommerce Subscriptions: https://woo.com/products/prepaid-for-woocommerce-subscriptions/

  17. aqualunawaters says:

    NEED THIS FEATURE

  18. Brian Simpson says:

    I hope this will happen soon. I’d like to be able to bill customers a monthly subscription fee but ship the goods quarterly. This helps the customer spread the cost of the sub and reduces the shipping cost and carbon footprint. Also, there will need to be a way to differentiate whether the order is a new subscription customer, a monthly recurring sub/fee collection, or a quarterly physical order that needs to be dispatched.
    We run this on a spreadsheet atm but as we grow this will become unmanageable.

  19. Meow Crew says:

    Here is the plugin for this purpose – https://woo.com/products/prepaid-for-woocommerce-subscriptions. You can make prepaid plans and let your users get deliveries on different schedule to payments (eg: pay yearly, ship monthly).

  20. Alternity Marketing says:

    Definitely need this. I have a client that has a monthly pdf magazine, and so far setting it up through WooCommerce has been a bit of a nightmare. All we need is to be able to have the new issue available to all subscribers each month on release, without all previous issues that were part of the sub being available to new subscribers too. I can’t do that with Woo Subscriptions or even AutomateWoo it seems, which is shocking as this is one of the most common and basic setups for an ongoing subscription. I just need to be able to change the associated PDF each month without either removing the past issues from all existing subscribers accounts and without giving new subscribers access to all previous months issues.

  21. Simon Gondeck says:

    Here is a video tutorial I created that shows how to set up a subscription that ships on a different schedule: https://youtu.be/AYistm0IB8c.

    The tutorial goes over how to bill for a subscription product yearly ($120/year) but still ship monthly. This logic can be applied to a bunch of different scenarios.

    Disclaimer: I am the one who created the tutorial 🙂

    PS: is there a way to remove all the spam on these ideas boards? Lol it’s getting out of hand

  22. FantasticPlugins says:

    This is available in Enhancer for WooCommerce Subscriptions https://woo.com/products/enhancer-for-woocommerce-subscriptions.

    Thank you.

  23. Simon Gondeck says:

    Here is a video tutorial I created that shows how to set up a subscription that ships on a different schedule: https://youtu.be/AYistm0IB8c.

    The tutorial goes over how to bill for a subscription product yearly ($120/year) but still ship monthly. This logic can be applied to a bunch of different scenarios.

    Disclaimer: I am the one who created the tutorial 🙂

    PS: is there a way to remove all the spam on these ideas boards? Lol it’s getting out of hand

  24. Caio Pereira Lobato says:

    For customers, it is a win situation – less fuzz about constantly managing payments. They might also have acess to discounts, since they are upfronting the money for several orders at once.
    For companies, it is great also – we have an advancement of income, sometimes months ahead of actually shipping products. It does wonders for cash flow

  25. Anonymous says:

    Seriously.. this is more important than many other things you are currently working on. Please consider implementing this in 2021. Thanks!