How to create a WooCommerce meal subscription service

If you’re thinking of starting your own WooCommerce meal subscription service then now’s a good time as any.

More and more people all over the world are signing up for meal subscription services during the COVID-19 pandemic to have food delivered straight to their doorstep.

WooCommerce meal subscription service

It would work something like this: you let customers select meals, pick a delivery day, and specify any additional information such as allergies or special requirements. Once they place their order, the meals are delivered to them each week.

In this tutorial, we’ll explain how you can create a WooCommerce meal subscription product and start selling meals to customers on a subscription basis.

You can see the demo product here.

What are meal subscription services?

Meal subscription services are all the rage these days. Some of the most popular ones include Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Sun Basket.

Did you know that the meal-kit industry is worth over $1.5 billion? In fact, according to eMarketer, more consumers are relying on meal subscription services amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Similar to typical subscription services, meal subscription services fall into three categories:

• Access subscriptions. Access subscriptions are generally bundled with memberships. In other words, only paying members can subscribe to the meal service.
• Curation subscription. This is when you offer customers more than one type of product. For example, you can bundle your meal subscriptions with exotic teas or coffees.
• Replenishment subscription. These are subscription products that customers need to replace regularly. Meals, food items, and groceries are all replenishment subscription products.

Unlike most e-commerce platforms, WooCommerce is incredibly flexible when it comes to creating a meal subscription service. The best part is that it integrates with plugins that you can use to create and sell subscription products in a few simple steps.

How to create a WooCommerce meal subscription service using WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate

To create and sell a WooCommerce meal subscription service product, the first thing you need to do is get the Pro version of WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate plugin.

Using WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate, you’ll be able to create a subscription product with multiple meals added as child products. This way, customers can choose the meals they’d like to include in their subscription and place their orders.

Step #1: Set up the meals as standard products

To get started, set up the meals you’d like to sell as standard WooCommerce products.

For example, let’s say you want to create a weekly meal plan where customers can pick out up to seven meals to add to their subscription. In this case, you could create ten different meals and let them choose the ones they’d like to add to their subscription.

Simply create a new WooCommerce product, give it a title, and upload an image. Set the price of the meal product to $0. This is because we’ll charge customers a flat rate for the subscription rather than a per-meal rate – more on this in the next step.

Step #2: Create a WooCommerce product for the service

Create a new WooCommerce product for the meal subscription service. Enter a title for the product and set its price.

For example, if you want to create a 7-day meal plan, you might call it 7-Day Meal Plan and sell it for $35.

Step #3: Create fields for placing the meal subscription order

Now that we’ve created a WooCommerce meal subscription product, the next step is to create add-on fields to let customers place their meal subscription orders.

For this, we’ll need to create three add-on fields so that customers can choose their meals, select a delivery day, and specify any additional details (such as allergies or special requirements).

Here’s what you need to do:

The meals

WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate lets you create product fields that allow you to use other WooCommerce products as extra fields in your main product. This means that you can create separate WooCommerce products for individual meals and add them to your 7-Day Meal Plan product.

1. Go to the ‘Product Add-Ons’ tab from the ‘Product data’ section
2. Click the ‘Add Group’ button and then the ‘Add Field’ button
3. Set the ‘Field Type’ to ‘Products’
4. Use the ‘Child Products’ option to select the individuals meals
5. Set ‘Products Layout’ to ‘Checkboxes’ and ‘Product Quantities’ to ‘Independent’
6. Set the ‘Min Child Products’ and ‘Max Child Products’ to ‘1’ and ‘7’ respectively
7. Tick the checkbox next to the ‘Required Field?’ option

This way, customers will be prompted to select meals for their meal subscription. Since it’s a required field, they will not be able to place their order without selecting at least one meal. We’ve set the ‘Min Child Products’ value to ‘1’ so that customers select at least one meal. Similarly, we’ve set the ‘Max Child Products’ value to ‘7’ so that customers don’t select more than 7 meals for their 7-day meal plan.

Delivery day

Here’s what you need to do to create a new product field to let customers select the day of week for delivery:

1. Go to the ‘Product Add-Ons’ tab from the ‘Product data’ section
2. Click the ‘Add Group’ button and then the ‘Add Field’ button
3. Set the ‘Field Type’ to ‘Select’
4. Add in the days of the week that you can offer delivery as options
5. Tick the checkbox next to the ‘Required Field?’ option

Allergies and/or special requirements

When offering meal subscription services, it’s a good idea to let customers provide additional information such as allergies or special requirements.

1. Go to the ‘Product Add-Ons’ tab from the ‘Product data’ section
2. Click the ‘Add Group’ button and then the ‘Add Field’ button
3. Set the ‘Field Type’ to ‘Textarea’

Step #4: View the finished product

The finished WooCommerce meal subscription service product should look something like this on the front-end:

Customers start by selecting the meals they’d like to include in their meal subscription plan. They can do this either by clicking on the image of the meal (to add one meal to their plan) or by using the quantity selectors (to add multiples of the same meal to their plan).

Once that’s done, they can scroll down and select the day of the week for delivery. Finally, they can add any additional information (such as allergies, notes, or special requirements) in the textbox.

Once their order is complete, they’ll see the order details and their total bill. They can then click the ‘Add to cart’ button to subscribe to the meal plan and proceed to checkout.

WooCommerce Subscriptions

The WooCommerce plugin will handle the rest. The WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate plugin is compatible with WooCommerce Subscriptions so you can create recurring payments for your meal service.

Set up your WooCommerce meal subscription service today

Using the WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate plugin, you can create and sell a WooCommerce meal subscription service today. Customers can choose the meals they’d like to add to their subscription, select a delivery day, and enter information about allergies and/or special requirements directly on the product page.

And, if you’re looking to create a different type of subscription box, check out our tutorials on fruit and vegetable boxes, mixed case of wine, and mix and match products for inspiration and in-depth instructions.

Ready to create your own WooCommerce meal subscription service? Get the WooCommerce Product Add-Ons Ultimate plugin today!