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You’re selling something today as single-use codes — Steam keys, activation tokens, month-long access codes you generate manually. You want to switch the same product line to a recurring subscription that auto-renews on the buyer’s gateway. This playbook walks through the safest migration path: keep the old product running, launch the new one, move customers over the renewal cycle.

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Why not just edit the existing product?

Technically Shoppex allows changing a product’s type (the type field is mutable on update). But changing SERIALS to SUBSCRIPTION on a live product doesn’t carry over what you actually need: there’s no automatic Stripe-plan creation, no migration of past buyers to the new billing terms, no handling of pending serial deliveries. The clean path is to create a new subscription product alongside the old one, then deactivate the old one once customers have moved.

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Step 1 — Create the subscription product

Open Products → New product:
  • Type: Subscription
  • Title: the new name (e.g. “Pro Access — Monthly”)
  • Price: monthly amount
  • Billing interval: Day / Week / Month / Year (and a count, e.g. interval=Month, count=1 for monthly)
  • Trial period: optional, up to 60 days
In the Discord section (if applicable), bind a supporter role with Assign Role so subscribers get access automatically. See Discord supporter tier for the full Discord setup. If your old product delivered files or serials on each purchase, set the subscription product’s delivery type to match — subscriptions can deliver SERIALS, FILE, SERVICE, or DYNAMIC content on each renewal. Save. The subscription is live on your storefront.

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Step 2 — Announce the change to existing buyers

Email or message your existing customer list. Be explicit:
  • The old product (one-time codes) is staying available through a specific date.
  • The new subscription product is now live with [whatever benefits — lower per-month price, better access, automatic renewal].
  • After the cutover date, only the subscription product will be sold.
Tools you have at your disposal: the built-in email marketing (Marketing → Email), Telegram broadcasts if you have a bot, Discord announcements.

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Step 3 — Move the old buyers

There’s no automated way to convert a buyer’s past one-time purchase into a subscription — the payment method changed (one-off vs. recurring), the gateway agreement is different. The buyer has to actively subscribe. The most reliable way to nudge them: offer a discount coupon on first month of subscription, restricted to existing customers. Create the coupon at Discounts (/coupons):
  • Type: PERCENTAGE (or FIXED)
  • Value: whatever feels right (20-50% on first month is typical for migration)
  • validUntil: a hard cutoff
  • maxUses: total count to cap exposure
Share the code in the same announcement.

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Step 4 — Wind down the old product

When the cutover date arrives, archive the old product (don’t delete — that breaks historical order references). From the old product’s settings, toggle it inactive. It disappears from your storefront but the past orders, delivered codes, and customer records all stay intact.

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What about Discord roles already granted?

If the old product granted a Discord role, those grants stay. The buyer keeps the role until you remove it manually. Most merchants either:
  • Let the old grants stand as a goodwill gesture (existing customers keep access forever).
  • Set a date and bulk-revoke from the Discord side, with a clear announcement.
Subscription-bound roles are auto-revoked on cancel (when Remove role on cancel is on for the subscription product), so going forward the role lifecycle is managed.

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Common questions

“Will the new subscription auto-charge buyers who had recurring billing somewhere else?” No. Recurring billing is per-product per-buyer per-gateway. The new subscription is a fresh authorization — the buyer goes through checkout once to set it up. “Can I keep both running indefinitely?” Yes. Some merchants keep a one-off purchase option for buyers who hate subscriptions, alongside the subscription as the default. Just make sure the pricing makes the subscription the clearly better deal.