Rotating Subscriptions enable merchants to automatically deliver different predetermined items to subscribers on a regular schedule; you curate a collection of products that will rotate through your subscribers' deliveries.
Understanding Rotating Subscriptions
Rotating Subscriptions allow you to offer subscription boxes that feature a changing selection of items. There are two main components:
- Rotating Product: This is the overarching product your customers see and purchase. It represents the overall concept of the subscription. For example a Surprise Snack Box or Seasonal Skincare Essentials
- Delivery Products: These are the individual items that are actually shipped to customers within each rotating box. Think of them as the specific products that make up each "rotation" of the subscription
For Example, a Mystery Sock Club:
- Rotating Product: Mystery Sock Club - This is the subscription products customers see on the product page and enroll with
- Delivery Products: Each month, customers receive a different pair of socks within their Mystery Sock Club subscription. These individual pairs of socks are the Delivery Products, and listed as different products in your eCommerce platform and Ordergroove
Types of Rotating Subscriptions
Ordergroove offers two different options to tailor your Rotating Subscriptions:
Time-Window Subscriptions
Time-Window Subscriptions allows your customers to subscribe to a pre-determined series of products, based on time frames (windows). Each order sent for placement will be checked against the start and end dates you set, and the customer will be sent the appropriate item.
Example Time-Window Subscription
Let's take a look at an example subscription program. You run a seasonal sock service, and have the following Time-Window based products:
- Halloween Socks, Shipped from 10/1/25 to 10/31/25
- Thanksgiving Socks, Shipped from 11/1/25 to 11/30/25
- Holiday Socks, Shipped from 12/1/25 to Ongoing
In Ordergroove, it'll look like this:
Customer Monthly Subscription
If a customer signs up for a monthly subscription, starting on 10/1, they will receive the following products:
- Initial Checkout 10/1: Halloween Socks
- Recurring Order 11/1: Thanksgiving Socks
- Recurring Order 12/1 and ongoing: Holiday Socks
If that same customer signs up for a bi-weekly subscription starting on 10/1, their shipments will look different:
- Initial Checkout 10/1: Halloween Socks
- Recurring Order 10/15: Halloween Socks
- Recurring Order 10/29: Halloween Socks
- Recurring Order 11/12: Thanksgiving Socks
- Recurring Order 11/26: Thanksgiving Socks
- Recurring Order 12/10 and beyond: Holiday Socks
Ordinal Subscriptions
Your customers will receive a product determined by where that order falls within a predefined list of order delivery products.
Example Ordinal Subscription
You run a Mystery Sock Box that sends a box of colored socks to your customers each month. With Ordinal Subscriptions, you can set up a subscription that sends out different colors based on what shipment # is going out:
- Initial Checkout: The customer checks out with the Mystery Sock Club product, then they are shipped Pack of Red Socks
- 1st Recurring Order: Customer is shipped Pack of Yellow Socks
- 2nd Recurring Order: Customer is shipped Pack of Yellow Socks again
- 3rd Recurring Order and beyond: Customer is shipped Pack of Blue Socks
Configuring Rotating Products
You can add, remove, and configure rotating products in the Ordergroove Admin.
1. Set up the Rotating Product
The first step is to set up the subscription:
- Log in to Ordergroove, and go to Subscriptions > Rotating Products
- Click + Add New
- Select one of the two Rotation Types
- Ordinal: Follows a set order of products
- Date Based: Determines products based on date ranges
- Search for and select the Rotating Product, this is the product that customers will subscribe to on the product page
- Select when you want to reveal the rotation products to your customers:
- Reveal upcoming product right after the order is created
- Reveal the next upcoming product when you send an order reminder email a few days before renewal
- Reveal the next product after successfully charging the customer
- Next up is Pricing:
- Always use the Rotating Product’s price
- Always use the Delivery Item’s price
- Dynamically choose the best price between the Rotating Product and Delivery Product
- Optional for Ordinal Subscriptions - By default the subscription remains on the last product in the rotation until it's canceled. Cycle Restart will restart the cycle back to the first product once it’s finished
- With the settings complete, it's time to add products. Note: Nothing has been saved yet.
2. Add Delivery Products
With the subscription settings good to go, we just need to add the delivery products to it:
- Search for the products you want to add to the rotating subscription
- You can re-arrange the order with the dropdown menus next to each product
- When you’re all set, click Save Changes
Additional Flexibility
Rotating Subscriptions can be set up and configured with the Ordergroove API. Take a look at our developer documentation for more information.