Trouble with Subscriptions on Squarespace Store

I am struggling to set up a Subscription Store for our patients who want monthly Resolute™ Bar delievery.  I find that Squarespace says they offer a functionality which is not really there.

My Situation: 

I am in the middle of Squarespace set up of a subscription store for our Chocolate company.  I have had headache after headache setting this up and have spent hours online with tech support.  They get me part of the way but not enough to actually launch the store.

We need our clients to be able to populate their own Monthly Subscription with the varieties (we have 12 flavors) and the quantity of each variety.  We can basically get it done but then there are lots of problems like: controlling the number of bars chosen to the package chosen.  For instance: they can choose a package of 12 bars per month on the Product Page but then after clicking "Subscribe" they are taken to the product page.  Here we want them to choose the bar flavors and the quantity of each flavor they want in their subscription.  But, there is no way to limit the number of bars they choose to the subscription package size.  Nor does there seem to be a way to show them a count down as they choose flavors of how many they have left to choose.

Can anyone give me some advice on this?  I have the system set up to discount properly based on subscription size and I can generate a Subscription I just cannot control the process professionally.  Is this a place for paying someone to generate some custom code?

Has anyone else struggled with this and have found solutions or custom developers who can help.

Hi @Drew Robbins - I believe this setup is very doable but you may need to just change up the way you're going about it. Check out this demo site where I have something similar set up: https://passero-ecommerce-demo.squarespace.com/shop/subscribe-save?password=Passero

As you can see, there are two "Subscribe & Save" options -- one allows you to pick 3 items shipped monthly and the other 5 items shipped monthly.

The trick here is that they all can't be one product because, as you mention, there's no way for the price to vary depending on how many items are chose. (The price can vary based on which items are chosen, just not the quantity.) 

Would something like this work for you? 

Hi Kristine, I really like what you have done.  I think I see some ways we could use this.  The only addition I would need is to select the quantity of each product as well as the varietal.  For instance the customer may desire a 6 bar per month subscription and in this subscription they may want 4 - 70% Plain, 1 - 70% Coconut Macadamia and 1 - 80% Plain.  I am thinking I need to implement something like what you have done with Quantities.  But create each Subscription size as a separate product.  Such that I have a 6 bar subscription, an 8 bar subscription and onward. This way we will see when they select too many or too few bars for their subscription...which Squarespace support has told me is not possible to track or warn them of at the point of ordering. 

Thanks, Perhaps I need some custom code injected into the Product Form and the Checkout to fix this.  What do you think?  Is this a service you offer?

@Drew Robbins - The way to make this work is to set up a unique product for each size package. So in your case you might have the following main products: 

• 6 Bars / Month
• 8 Bars / Month
• 10 Bars / Month 

Then, for each product, you'll set up the number of bars as product variations. Each product variation will have all possible options available so that people can mix-n-match but can only select from the number of options you've defined, no more and no less. They may choose to select all of the same flavor for each of the choices or do a different choice for each option. 

To better visualize this, see the image below for how my 3-product option in the demo shop is set up. (The variant names are called: 

• Select Shape 1
• Select Shape 2
• Select Shape 3

And each variant allows the customer to select the same three options which for you would be the different bar types/flavors. 

I would go with a setup like this that utilizes all of the built-in capabilities of Squarespace Commerce without any additional code just to future-proof things. This would be stable and do exactly what you're needing it to do without any code. 

Let me know if this helps explain the set up or if you'd like me to take a look at your site specifically. 

Great suggestion.  I started to implement and I was wondering if there is a way to duplicate variants within a product.  Otherwise, I am typing our 12 bar flavors for ever.  Thanks for the help.

@Drew Robbins I would check out how to add or update products in bulk. I have a couple YouTube videos on this if you'd like to check them out: 

• Squarespace eCommerce Life Hack: CSV Import Tutorial
• How to Update Squarespace Product Pricing & Inventory in Bulk

Thanks Kristine, I will check out your videos.  I found out how to export to .cvs and that I can edit there.  I think this will greatly speed up the process of populating everything.  I appreciate your help and will see if your videos give me added insight.

Drew

Kristine, I have run into a limitation in that there are only 6 Options you can choose in Edit Variants - Manage Options.

Also, I have entered 3 bar choices as options with 12 bars each but the system is showing that I have 144 options (12X12).  Is this because I have 12 options per bar inside the bar product?

I may be misinterpreting what you have suggested?

Also, I am a Metabolic Health Practitioner who would be more comfortable if this were a description of advanced cell biology...LOL.  Is there any way I could hire you to dive in and create what I need for this subscription store?

Thanks,

Drew

Hi @Drew Robbins - I'm so sorry that I overlooked the important thing here which is the max number of product variations & variant combos! A product can have up to six options, with a max of 250 possible variant combinations. An easy work around in your case would just be to double up on everything so that every choice = 2 bars. For example: 

• Select Flavor (2 Bars) 
• Select Flavor (2 Bars) 
• Select Flavor (2 Bars) 
• Select Flavor (2 Bars) 

... would yield 8 bars total. 

Happy to continue the conversation if you'd like to email me at hello @ kristineneil.com 

I like how you are a problem solver Kristine.  I will email you. 

I am currently doing a Product Form for each subscription level (24, 20, 18, 16, 12, 10, 8 & 6).  It is so annoying because you cannot copy and change the Product Forms and have to build each one from scratch with however many variants you have and each bar flavor (12) flavors.

I will think about your suggestion of only doing even numbers of bars.  That is quite clever and would seem to allow for a better build process.

@Drew Robbins I agree that the best set up here favors usability over anything else! You want to make it as simple as possible for people to check out.

The other thing I would keep in mind is that while it might seem tempting to offer a lot of options that people actually do better when they have fewer choices. There's quite a bit of buyer psychology at play here but the long story short is that decision fatigue really gets people down and offering too many choices can lead to people not buying anything at all which is the opposite of what you want!

I would just keep this in mind and aim for launching a simple version of things first and foremost. You can always build in more options if it seems like there's a niche that's underserved but buyers do really well with pre-made bundles (no decisions required) and simple mix-n-match customizable products where they only have to make a few selections. 

Hope this helps!