Initial Subbly Setup and Review

Learn about Subby’s all-in-one subscription first commerce platform and decide if you should consider it for your subscription box business.

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Figuring out all the tech is one of the most challenging parts of starting a subscription box business. Inside Launch Your Box, we answer questions about tech, provide training about tech, and even have “tech fairies” on the team - super smart tech experts who specialize in some of our most used platforms. 

We’re dedicated to helping subscription box owners and subscription box hopefuls figure out the tech. It shouldn’t be the reason you stop making progress toward your subscription box dreams. 

One of the first tech questions a subscription box owner needs to answer is which subscription platform to use. Many of our members use Shopify or WooCommerce. Another platform that is gaining popularity is Subbly.   

After talking with the team at Subbly and learning more about its capabilities, our team decided to try it out with one of our subscriptions. Today I’m sharing our experience with setting up Subbly. It might help you decide if Subby is the right solution for your subscription box business.

Subbly is a subscription-first platform. 

Subbly describes itself as “an all-in-one subscription-first commerce platform.” The biggest difference between Subbly and other popular platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce is that Subbly doesn’t require additional plug-ins or apps to perform all the functions needed to get your site up and running. 

Subbly features: 

• drag & drop website builder
• customer login area
• email marketing
• automations & integrations
• subscription products & memberships
• one-time products 
• shipping
• customer support
• and so much more!

Subscription box owners who are intimidated by tech will be happy to know setting up Subbly doesn’t require any coding. This makes it easy to get your site up and running quickly.

If you already have a website (Wix, Squarespace, etc.), you can keep that website and just use Subbly’s back end for your recurring subscription checkout by embedding it on your website. 

Subbly is cost-effective. 

Try Subbly’s platform free for 14 days! Then choose to pay monthly or annually. Subbly offers four tiers at payment levels starting at only $14/month. 

The monthly or annual fee includes your online store, free migration from your current platform if you have one, 24/7 email and chat support, an embeddable customer portal, unlimited subscribers, and unlimited products. 

If you choose the Basic Plan or higher, you can customize your website domain and step up your options for email sequences, local pickup, churn analytics, subscription funnels and so much more. Visit Subby’s website for more details. 

Subbly is easy to set up. 

Subbly makes it easy to get set up on their platform. The easy-to-navigate dashboard takes you through the setup step by step. It even has a meter that shows you how far you’ve made it in the set-up process. 

Setup includes connecting your payment gateway, adding team members, creating products, setting up your shipping, loading in your branding colors and logos, and creating your website. 

Our team found it to be super easy to follow. Everything was set up and ready to go in just a couple of days. This is definitely a good weekend project!

Subbly provides instructions at every level. 

Subbly’s focus on user experience is obvious throughout the setup process. They even provide step-by-step video instructions inside Subbly University. 

These videos are organized by the user’s level of knowledge and are perfect whether you are just starting out or looking to uplevel your website. We found them to be super helpful and easy to follow! 

Subbly makes it easy to create subscription products. 

Once you get through the initial setup, it’s time to add your products.  We decided to choose two of our subscriptions, Framed! T-Shirt Club & Framed! T-Shirt Club & More. 

Subbly makes setting up products simple by asking you what you want to do. 

Since we were setting up recurring shipments of the T-Shirt Club, we chose “Subscription.” 

If we wanted to add a cute kimono that matched the t-shirt and would only be sold as a one-time product, we would choose “One-Time.”  

Subbly also allows you to set up a membership at this screen. We get a lot of questions inside Launch Your Box about how to set up a membership as opposed to a subscription. Subbly has you covered!

We were able to add our T-Shirt Club information and description, pictures of the T-Shirt Club tees, billing and shipment dates, and inventory - all on the same page. There’s even a “gifting” option for a customer to give our subscription as a gift for a set number of months.   

You’ll see a “checkout URL” on this page. This is the link you would use if you are only using Subbly for your checkout on another platform (Wix, Squarespace, etc). 

Subbly handles variants with ease. 

In order to collect a size or other information you need from your customer (aka variants), you’ll need to set up a “survey.” This is where they will choose their size or input other info you need for their subscription. For our T-Shirt Club, we need to know their shirt size (Small - 3X).

This is set up in this same screen in the Billing & Shipping Terms section on the Subscription Product Page. The survey will pop up before they get to the checkout, prompting them to give you their info.

NOTE:  If you want to keep track of inventory of your subscription products, you will have to set up an “Inventory Item” for each Product that ties to the Subscription Product. Subbly makes this easy to do through the Inventory tab on the Dashboard Menu.  

From here, you are ready to build your website! Subbly offers over 50 pre-made templates that are super easy to customize to fit your brand. You can add your fonts and your brand colors, add new pages, rearrange the text and photo blocks on each template, and so many other things to fit your business’s needs.

Subbly is a wonderful platform for any subscription box owner. They offer great customer service through 24/7 email and chat and their support documents and step-by-step videos are super helpful if you get stuck or if you like to be able to follow along on your desktop while you watch.  

You don’t need extra plug-ins or add-ons - just get started on their dashboard and by the time you get to the end, you’ll have a fully-functioning website! 

Subby is also a great option for subscription box owners who started on a basic platform like Wix or Squarespace and want to add in a recurring payment option without having to completely migrate or re-do their site.