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Subscription box cut-off, packing lists and labels

Subscription box cut-off automation builds each cycle’s shipping list from the subscribers who have paid in Stripe, applying skips, pauses and address changes. It produces packing lists by box type and sends the orders to Royal Mail Click & Drop so the labels can be printed in one batch.

An example of how the studio would build it. No live services are connected.

From the monthly cut-off to packing lists and labels ready to go.

  1. Step 01

    Cut-off passes

    On the agreed date, read active subscriptions and this cycle’s paid invoices from Stripe.

  2. Step 02

    Changes applied

    Apply skips, pauses, plan changes and address updates made before the cut-off, and set aside unpaid subscriptions.

  3. Step 03

    List frozen

    Write the final list to Airtable with each box type, preferences and gift notes, locked for this cycle.

  4. Step 04

    Packing lists

    Produce a packing summary by box type and variant, plus a slip for each parcel.

  5. Step 05

    Labels batched

    After a person checks the totals, send the orders to Royal Mail Click & Drop so labels print in one batch.

The result

Packing day starts with a list everyone can trust.

Each subscriber appears once per cycle, keyed to their Stripe invoice, and anyone whose payment hasn’t succeeded is held rather than shipped. Labels are only created after a person has checked the frozen list.

Before we connect it.

Where this is useful

Useful for coffee, snack, pet treat and craft subscription boxes that rebuild the shipping list from exports and emails every month. A sensible first version freezes the list and produces packing summaries, with labels added once the list has proved reliable for a few cycles.

What we need to connect

  1. 01Stripe access to subscriptions, invoices and customer addresses, with box type and preferences stored on each subscription.
  2. 02An Airtable base for each cycle’s list, preferences, gift notes and any one-off extras.
  3. 03A Royal Mail Click & Drop account with API access, your parcel formats and the cut-off and dispatch dates.

What needs careful handling

A payment that fails at renewal may succeed on a retry after the cut-off, so those subscribers join a late batch rather than being dropped. Address changes made after the list is frozen are flagged to the packer, because a label may already exist. Gift subscriptions often ship to someone other than the payer, so the delivery address and gift note come from the subscription rather than the billing details.

Questions people ask.

We sell subscriptions through Shopify, not Stripe. Does this still work?

The same approach works with Shopify or another subscription tool, where its API shows each subscription and its payment status. Stripe is shown here as a common choice for boxes sold through their own website.

What happens to people who subscribe after the cut-off?

They join the next cycle by default, or a late batch if you choose to send one. Either way, they get a clear message about when their first box ships, using wording you approve.

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