How to Enable the Force Subscriptions Widget on Shopify (Step-by-Step)

A subscription plan alone isn't enough to display subscription options on your Shopify storefront. After creating your plans in Force Subscriptions, you also need to enable and publish the subscription widget so customers can see and select recurring purchase options on your product pages. Since the widget isn't activated automatically, many merchants miss this important step during setup. In this guide, you'll learn how to choose a widget layout, add the Force Subscriptions widget to your Shopify theme and confirm that your "Subscribe and Save" option is live and ready for customers.

Step 1: Choose a Subscription Widget Layout in Force Subscriptions

To customize how subscription options appear on your product pages, open Force Subscriptions from your Shopify admin and navigate to the Widget section from the left-hand menu. This section allows you to choose the design and layout of your subscription widget without requiring any coding.

Force Subscriptions provides four pre-designed widget templates:

• Purchase Options (Classic): Displays all available subscription plans clearly in a list format, allowing customers to view and select their preferred option easily.
• Two Cards (Compact): Uses a compact card-style layout with a brief list of benefits to create a cleaner and space-saving design.
• Classic Dropdown: Shows both one-time purchase and subscription options, with a dropdown menu where customers can select their preferred subscription frequency.
• Split Cards + Benefits: Displays one-time purchase and subscription choices side-by-side while highlighting key benefits such as free shipping or easy cancellation.

You can select the layout that best matches your store’s design and provides the best shopping experience for your customers.

Tip: Choosing a layout here only prepares the widget, it does not push it live on your storefront yet. That happens in the theme editor, covered next.

1. Preview each layout against your product page design, then click "Use this layout" under the one you want.
2. If a layout is already active, it will be marked Selected and you can click Edit template to tweak labels, colors and which features are displayed.

Themes Tab: Pick a Starting Color Palette

The Themes tab is the fastest way to restyle the entire widget in one click. Instead of setting colors one by one, you pick a pre-built color theme and every card, badge, and accent updates to match. Force Subscriptions ships with ten themes, ranging from soft and neutral to bold and vibrant, so most brand palettes have a close starting match.

The available themes include:
• Lavender Classic: soft purple accents with balanced card spacing (12px radius, 10px spacing).
• Ocean Breeze — cool blues with crisp corners and airy spacing (10px radius, 12px spacing).
• Forest Fresh — natural greens with a compact, grounded feel (8px radius, 8px spacing).
• Warm Sunset — bold coral tones with rounded purchase cards (16px radius, 14px spacing).
• Royal Voltage — high-impact violet for premium subscription brands (14px radius, 10px spacing).
• Coral Crush — punchy rose and peach tones that pop on product pages (18px radius, 12px spacing).
• Midnight Neon — dark, dramatic ink with electric cyan accents (10px radius, 8px spacing).
• Golden Luxe — rich amber tones for a luxury unboxing feel (12px radius, 10px spacing).
• Neon Lime — electric chartreuse on deep ink for a look that's impossible to ignore (8px radius, 14px spacing).
• Tropical Punch — teal meets hot pink for a playful, summer-ready look (20px radius, 12px spacing).

Step 2: Enable the Widget in the Shopify Theme Editor

With a layout selected, head over to your theme editor to actually place the widget on your product page.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
2. On your active theme, click Customize.
3. You'll land in the theme editor with your product page template open (or you can select it from the page dropdown at the top).
4. In the left-hand panel, expand Product information.
5. Click Add block.
6. From the list of available blocks, select Force Subscription Widget.
7. The block will be added to your product page layout. You can drag it up or down to position it exactly where you want it, typically just below the price.
8. Click Save in the top-right corner of the theme editor to publish the change.

Step 3: Confirm the Widget Is Live on Your Product Page

Open your product page on the storefront (or use the theme editor's preview) and check that the subscription option appears correctly.
For example, a "Subscribe and save" box showing your plan's billing frequency, like "Invoice recurring - 2 week," in a dropdown.

Summary

Enabling the Force Subscriptions widget is a two-step process: first, choose a subscription widget layout inside the Force Subscriptions app, then add the Force Subscription Widget block to your product page through the Shopify Theme Editor. After saving your changes, verify that the subscription option appears correctly on your storefront. Remember that selecting a layout alone does not make the widget visible, it must also be added to your active theme. If you use multiple product templates or switch themes, you'll need to add the widget block to each applicable template to ensure customers can see and purchase subscription plans.

Tip: When in doubt, open the theme editor, click on the Force Subscription Widget block and check the Product field in the right-hand panel, it should point to the exact product you're testing.

Updated on: 10/08/2026