Subscriptions 101 With ReCharge Payments

For years consumers have taken advantage of subscriptions- starting with monthly magazines, to streaming tv shows and music- to today, taking the subscription model by storm - eCommerce businesses. From boxes to household items conveniently showing up on shoppers’ doorsteps, businesses were already starting to see their group of loyal customers grow. And as the world entered into lockdown in March 2020 and the thought of going into the store to pick up items became intimidating, or often unavailable, consumers leaned further into retail subscriptions boosting them by up to 145%.

The growth of subscriptions is not stopping there and neither are expectations from your shoppers to meet their needs. They will not only bank on having the option to get your products on a recurring basis but also the ability to customize their experience like adding one-time products when they want to try new ones or pause when the need arises.

But before we get into the benefits that your customers will get from using a subscription platform like ReCharge, let’s dive into why you should be implementing this type of business model and how it will turn your business into a recurring revenue machine.

Why Subscriptions? 

Recurring revenue

Implementing a subscriptions first business model allows for you to predict revenue as well as have a consistent and level income coming into your business. Imagine accurately forecasting upcoming revenue month-to-month, so you can more appropriately plan investments and opportunities for growth.

Drive customer loyalty

Repeat customers are 50% more likely to make another purchase than new customers. Starting and scaling a subscription brand brings those repeat customers together into a loyal community around your brand. With a symbiotic experience, these customers are likely to be advocates of your products and will refer future customers month over month. This loyalty only amplifies when customizable options like, skipping or swapping products, come into the mix during checkout.

Increase lifetime value

One of the most important metrics for any ecommerce business, customer lifetime value (LTV) allows you to understand how much revenue you can expect to get from the average customer. Repeat customers spend 33% more money compared to new customers. Subscribers directly affect this metric and can help drive your predictable revenue through the roof. 

Reduce Churn

You’ve heard it time and time again - acquiring new customers is more expensive than sustaining your current ones which means reducing churn is key when it comes to the health of your business. Subscriptions allow you to put the power back in the hands of your shoppers. They can customize their subscriptions offering based on their lifestyle and preferences all while staying engaged with your brand and being a loyal current customer.
 

Now that you understand how your business could benefit from implementing a subscription model. Let’s dive into the three most popular types of subscriptions along with the industries and customer examples that match with each.

The Types of Subscription Models

Curation

One of the most popular subscriptions types that sparked the movement of ecommerce subscriptions, curated boxes. These boxes are filled with various goods picked by the retailer and sent to the customer on a regular basis. Customers love receiving these boxes because it gives them the surprise and delight feeling. They enjoy receiving a special ‘gift’ and also discovering new and interesting products that they otherwise might not have been able to try.

A great example of this is one of ReCharge's customers, Craft Gin Club. They tease their customers with the types of products that will be in the boxes but they delight by gifting them a different Gin and mix to try each time.

Replenishment

Making up 32% of the subscription economy, the Replenishment model. This subscription type is often chosen by companies who offer consumables - laundry detergent, deodorant, & supplements. This gives shoppers the ability to ‘subscribe & save’ by receiving a discount for having the same product sent to them on a consistent basis.

Billie Razor disrupted the shaving industry and launched an affordable and quality experience for women. They created a replenishment program that allowed their loyal customers to set how often they wanted to receive new blades, add new one-time products as the company grew, and skip when they felt they needed to. 

Access

Gaining traction and currently leading as the fastest-growing subscription type, Access. Also known as the membership model, merchants can give their community access to an array of benefits like discounts, early peaks into releases, free shipping, or learning different ways to use their product.

Pela, an eco-friendly company focusing on phone cases among other technology accessories, put together a membership model that cost $4.95 per month. This membership unlocked 30% off all orders, free return shipping, priority access to new products and members-only products, in addition to a $5 credit to a subscriber’s account that can be saved and spent at will.

How Can ReCharge Jumpstart Your Subscriptions??

Launching subscriptions for your ecommerce store should be reliable and seamless from start to finish. ReCharge removes the complexity from setting up subscriptions, so you can focus on building relationships with your customers. The ReCharge platform was built to help you simplify the subscription process, easily manage your customers orders and build a reliable revenue stream.

Scalable & Easy-To-Launch Platform

Leverage ReCharge’s powerful API to scale your subscriptions whether you’re at 1 or 100 thousand subscribers.

• Enable headless and microservice-led builds 
• Integrate your tech stack to allow for a consistent customer experience   
• Build automated workflows to grow your business 

Intuitive Customer Experience

Meet your customers where they are by using ReCharge’s innovative Customer Portal. Deploy with ReCharge API or from a selection of pre-built templates to ensure brand consistency. No matter the device, allow your customers to:

• Customize their subscription service 
• Add one-time products and grow your average order value  
• Swap products 
• Skip or re-schedule deliveries on the portal or by text message 
• Automatic notifications on their upcoming order and shipment 

Analyze and Grow Your Business 

The Enhanced Analytics Suite will give you a snapshot of the health of your business. It will allow you to understand your customers, areas that you could improve upon and where you should focus next. 

• Study average order value, churn rates, refunds and more. 
• Recognize why your customers are skipping shipments, cancelled deliveries or which products they are swapping for 

Subscriptions are like long-term relationships with your customers. And subscriptions are what ReCharge does best. We want to help you scale your business and create a recurring revenue stream, so you can effectively meet the needs of your customers and increase overall LTV, while reducing churn.

Why efelle Loves ReCharge

At efelle, we’ve worked with a number of applications for subscriptions and are happy to finally have found ReCharge. Here’s a few of our favorite reasons why: 

1. Allows for Customizations

One way that ReCharge majorly nails it is by letting shoppers customize their subscriptions! From skipping or rescheduling deliveries to swapping out products, they make it easy for customers to be happy. This ultimately reduces churns and makes for happy customers!

2. Easy to Measure Performance

The ReCharge dashboard is an awesome tool that helps merchants gain actionable insights around their customers. You can see what products are most popular, AOVs, refunds, and more. This can help you serve your customers better!

3. Quickly Start Subscriptions

ReCharge makes it super easy to be able to enable subscriptions. There’s no heavy customization required and it’s supported by all the major processors and methods! That makes it easy to get set-up and selling, whether it's with BigCommerce or ShopifyPlus.

Interested in Implementing a Subscription System Like ReCharge On Your eCommerce Website? 

We can help! Contact efelle and we can help you set up a demo with the amazing folks at ReCharge.