How to Start a WooCommerce Subscription Box Service?

Want to launch a subscription box business using WooCommerce but don’t know where to begin? This guide shows you how to create and manage your own WooCommerce subscription box service right from scratch.

With the rise of monthly subscription boxes across every eCommerce niche, from beauty and books to snacks and hobbies, more store owners are turning to WordPress as a flexible and affordable subscription box website builder.

Did you know? Food and beauty make up over 80% of the subscription box market—but niche boxes continue to grow, attracting loyal, high-LTV customers with ultra-specific interests.

A WooCommerce subscription box model lets you offer curated, replenishment, or access-based products on a recurring basis. It’s not just convenient for customers but also builds predictable income for your store.

Be it to create a custom subscription box, manage recurring billing through Stripe or PayPal, or explore popular subscription-based services, WooCommerce paired with the right WooCommerce Subscription plugin can make it all possible.

Ready to launch your WooCommerce subscription box service? Let’s jump in!

A WooCommerce subscription box is a recurring product package sold through a WordPress-powered online store. Customers sign up to receive curated or customizable boxes at regular intervals, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly, for a fixed subscription fee.

Selling subscription boxes in WooCommerce provides a reliable source of recurring revenue, simplifies inventory forecasting, and encourages long-term customer retention. Once a customer subscribes, the system automatically handles recurring payments, renewals, and order generation, which means less effort.

Types of WooCommerce Subscription Boxes

When creating a WooCommerce subscription box, there are different types of subscription models you can offer. Most subscription-based services fall into one of these three categories:

Replenishment Subscriptions 🔁

These are perfect for products that need to be replaced frequently such as toiletries, grooming kits, or cosmetics. With this subscription model, customers receive essential items on a recurring basis, saving time and ensuring they never run out.

Curation Subscriptions 🎁

This subscription box service offers customers personalized or themed boxes with a surprise element. Think jewelry boxes, curated toy sets, or monthly coffee blends. These subscription boxes model are great for niches that thrive on brand discovery and customer delight.

Access Subscriptions 🔓

Other than shipping physical products, access subscriptions focus on offering exclusive perks for a fee. These may include member-only pricing, gated content, early access to product drops, or special event invites. It’s a popular model for memberships and subscriptions-based services.

Now, if you already own a WooCommerce store and want to start your own subscription box service, the WebTofee’s Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin is a beginner-friendly solution. It lets you set up and manage all three types of WooCommerce subscription boxes with a simple setup process.

Now that you have a clear idea of what a WooCommerce subscription box is, next, let’s walk through the steps to start your own subscription box service with WooCommerce.

Creating a WooCommerce subscription box is easier than you might think! With the help of a reliable plugin like Subscriptions for WooCommerce by WebToffee, you can easily set it up.

Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin

The Subscriptions for WooCommerce plugin is a premium solution that lets you create both simple and variable subscription products, configure recurring payments, and manage subscriptions from upgrades to cancellations with ease.

• Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin
• Upload the plugin zip folder and click Install Now
• Once installed, activate the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin.

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Choosing the right WordPress theme

This step is for beginners who do not have a website. There are many themes available for your WordPress website. Choose a theme that has a responsive design, WooCommerce and other plugin compatibility, adequate layout and color customization options, a simple interface, and loads quickly.

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Step 2: Create a WooCommerce Subscription Product

To create a subscription service box, first, create the subscription products that you want to add to the box. Once you install and activate the plugin extension look for the option Products on the left side menu. Click Add New to add a new product.

• This will take you to a window titled Add new product, where you can fill out the product name and its description. Below the description area on the product data panel, you will find more options for the product.
• From a drop-down list, choose the product type. Here, in our case, we are creating simple subscription products. Whether the product is virtual or downloadable can also be set. Next, add the price of the product, sale price, tax, and subscription settings. The subscription can be scheduled on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

• After adding an image, categories, and tags to the product if you wish to (optional), you can save the subscription product, which will now be available in the store for purchase.

• Once you are done creating all subscription products, proceed to create a grouped product named, let’s say, “subscription box.”

Step 3: Creating a WooCommerce Subscription Box

• Go to Products, then click on the Add New. Add the name of the products as ‘Subscription Box’ and adding a description would be helpful. Select the grouped product from the drop-down list on the product data panel.  

• Now to convert this grouped product into a subscription box, add all the subscription products that you created earlier to this grouped product. Enter all the details required in the product data panel and hit Publish. Voila! The WooCommerce subscription box is ready. 

• The “Subscription box” can now be seen in the store, ready to be subscribed.

A customer can visit the store section of your website and subscribe to this box. Customers can also request store owners to create a subscription for them. Store owners can go to WooCommerce > Subscriptions > Add Subscription to add a customer to the subscriber list.

• Their billing schedule, along with the total recurring price, can be calculated. Once this is done, the subscription status is set to active, and it is saved.

Step 4: Configuring Payment Gateways

There are a lot of WooCommerce plugins that properly functioning store needs. When you are implementing a subscription model in your WooCommerce store, you need to have a payment gateway plugin that supports automatic recurring payments.

There are many payment methods available with this plugin depending on the payment gateway. Some examples are cash on delivery, cheque, bank transfer, and Paypal. Other than these, payment gateway plugins can be installed as per user convenience. The users can choose any of the methods made available to them according to their convenience to pay for their subscription.

Step 5: Managing Subscription Renewals and Customer Accounts

In order to cancel, pause, reactivate, or suspend a WooCommerce subscription, the store owner can click on that subscription order, go to the subscription management page, and change the status from active to whichever action needs to be performed.

Synchronize WooCommerce Subscriptions

There is an option for subscription synchronization in the settings. This helps the store owner as this aligns or synchronizes all subscription renewals to occur on the same day. This feature is very useful in the case of subscription boxes as they consist of different products and also ensures timely delivery of them to all the subscribers.

However, this feature is of no use when it comes to products with different subscription periods.

Giving Free Trials

Subscriptions for WooCommerce allows you to provide free trials to the users for a subscription service. To provide free trials to customers for a week or a month by store owners. The customers can use the product for that assigned period before signing up and paying for the product.

Free trials are a great way to let your customers get to know about your products test it out. They help them to make a decision whether or not to subscribe to a product. Adding a free trial to your subscription service will also increase the chances of more people subscribing to your service.

That’s it, folks! That’s how you create a WooCommerce subscription box.

The customers after subscribing to the subscription box and after confirmation of payment will be directed to a confirmation page. Here they will be able to view their next payment date, the status of their subscriptions, and can take actions like cancel, suspend or change the payment method.

The store owners, on the other hand, can view the customer’s order by clicking on Orders and it’s status.

Since the plugin has an automated email system, it sends the subscribers emails regarding their subscription. These emails are sent mainly on occasions when the subscription is about to be expired, when the subscription is canceled or renewed or when the subscription is upgraded.

• A subscription model will provide you with a recurring revenue system.
• Easy to predict your gain and loss. You will have a better idea of the stock you need, the requirements of the warehouse staff, an approximation of your future income, how much will shipping cost, etc.
• You don’t need to bring the customers back in, they will be automatically buying from you. Making your cash flow easier.
• It will help build a better customer relationship. Since they remain a frequent buyer with the store, they will appreciate your store more and their feedbacks will help the store improve.

• Cancellation is the biggest con of such a business. If a customer cancels their subscription, the recurring income stops there. It is highly important to keep the customers hooked to the website by providing interesting offers.
• The initial hesitation of customers is a hurdle to cross. Subscribing to a product is like signing a contract. On cannot be too sure if they would possess that amount of money to buy it again next time too. This reason can make customers averse and subscription products hard to sell.
• Small delays can become a problem. When subscribing to a box of products, even the delay of one product or sudden product change can irk the customers, who have been waiting for a long time for them.
• Constant change and updating of products are needed, as buying the same product every time can be boring.

Subscriptions are a convenient way to sell products and services on a recurring basis. If you own a WooCommerce store creating a subscription model is very easy, you just have to decide what you want to sell and then get the right plugins. Adding a subscription service among the products/services you also sell would be a great way to earn a recurring predictable income. It would be worth it to give it a try.