Article · Tea

How does a tea shop sell 3, 6 and 12 month prepaid plans on Shopify?

By Super Simple Co · Updated 2026-10-30

A tea shop sells pay upfront plans by adding Prepaid subscription (the app's name for paying once for several deliveries) to a monthly subscription option and setting Orders covered with each payment to 3, 6 or 12. The delivery stays monthly, the customer is charged once for the whole batch, and the price is simply the price of one delivery times the number of deliveries, minus whatever discount you give for paying early.

Who this is for: For shops that want customers to pay for 3, 6 or 12 months upfront and get a delivery each month.

The example used here

A tea shop sells an $18 tin of loose-leaf tea. Customers can pay for 3, 6 or 12 months in one go, and a tin arrives every month. The longer the plan, the bigger the saving: 5%, 10% and 15%. The numbers are only an illustration.

Plan	Deliveries	Discount	Charged once	Per tin
3 months	3	5%	$51.30	$17.10
6 months	6	10%	$97.20	$16.20
12 months	12	15%	$183.60	$15.30

Set up the three plans

In Shopify, open Supr Bundle & Subscription App > Offers and open the tea offer. Click Add subscription option for each plan.
On each option set Repeat order every to 1 and Order intervals to Month. Always set this to how often you ship, not how often you bill.
Click Prepaid subscription and turn it on. Set Orders covered with each payment to 3, 6 or 12.
Turn on Discount, choose Percentage and enter 5, 10 or 15. Name each option clearly, for example "6 months, paid today".
Click Save, place a test order and check the amount against your table.

Orders covered with each payment must be at least 2. A prepaid option covers a batch, so one delivery per payment is a normal subscription instead.

How the price is worked out

Every discount is worked out per delivery, then multiplied by the number of deliveries. A percentage scales the whole payment, an amount off comes off each product for each delivery, and a Fixed price is the price of one delivery, not of the whole payment.

Everything built into the price of one delivery is multiplied too. If a variant carries an extra $5 (a gift tin, say), a 12 month plan charges it 12 times. There is no setting to charge an extra once per payment, so price a gift variant separately.

The cart and checkout show the full amount the customer pays today. To show the per tin price on the product page, turn on Subscription price details under Design > Add-on settings.

Shipping each delivery

Each delivery in the batch ships on its own date. The shipping for all of them is collected in the single upfront payment.
The purchase is one Shopify order. Each future delivery is a scheduled fulfillment inside it and only becomes ready to ship on its date. If your shipping app lists every delivery as due today, ask its support whether it reads Shopify's scheduled fulfillments.
On the subscription, the Prepaid schedule card lists every paid delivery. Use Reschedule to move one, and leave Reschedule the deliveries after this one too ticked to move the rest of the batch with it.

One batch, or renewing batches

By default a prepaid plan renews: when the 3 deliveries are used up, the customer is charged for the next 3. If you want a plan that simply ends, tick One-off (single prepaid, no auto-renew). The subscription then shows Completed after the last delivery and is never charged again. A one-off is also the type that can be sent as a gift, see the gift subscription option.

What happens when a customer cancels mid-term

The help center confirms two things. Cancelling the subscription stops the next prepaid charge, and refunding is done by you in Shopify admin > Orders: refund the deliveries the customer no longer wants, or cancel the whole order, which also cancels the deliveries not yet sent. The subscription itself continues until someone cancels or pauses it.

What it does not confirm is how a portal cancel treats deliveries already paid for. Test it before you promise anything: buy a plan on a test order, cancel it in the portal, and look at the Prepaid schedule and the order. Then write your refund rule on the product page.

Questions

Can I charge yearly and ship monthly?

Yes. Set Repeat order every to 1 Month, turn on Prepaid subscription and set Orders covered with each payment to 12. The customer pays once a year and gets a delivery each month.

Does a fixed price set the price of the whole payment?

No. A fixed price is the price of each product for one delivery. The payment is that price times the number of deliveries.

Can customers see the monthly price?

Yes, on the product page. Turn on Subscription price details under Design > Add-on settings. The cart and checkout always show the full amount paid today.

Can I add a free extra month to a plan?

Not inside the subscription. Create a draft order in Shopify admin with a 100% discount and send the extra delivery that way.

Every setting is covered in the help center: Prepaid Subscriptions.

Choosing an app for a coffee or tea store? See the best Shopify subscription app for a coffee or tea store.

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