Subscribe Pro Blog

Minimizing churn should always top of mind any business selling products on a subscription model. Account Updater stands out as an indispensable tool to help reduce involuntary customer churn. Major card brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover each offer their own version of the Account Updater service. In this article, we’ll delve into… Read More »Reducing Churn with Account Updater

Merchants who have committed to a subscription program are looking to provide an exceptional customer experience and convert customers to subscribers. One of the most common questions we get asked during implementation is “what are the best practices for our new subscription program?” While there are a number of little things that can be done… Read More »Getting It Right: Subscription Best Practices

Calculating customer churn essential for any subscription business. For direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce brands, especially in the physical Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector where subscriptions often involve multiple items, it can be more complex. Unlike conventional e-commerce, where purchases might be sporadic, subscription models promise recurring revenue. However, this advantage is easily negated if a significant… Read More »Calculating Churn When Multiple Items Are Involved

As we all know, churn rate can be the bane of a subscription commerce business’ existence. That’s why it’s essential to keep customers engaged once they subscribe. It’s important to remind them of the value they get by subscribing because the longer you can keep them as customers, the more valuable they will be to… Read More »Five Ways to Keep Customers Engaged Once They Subscribe

  Hurray Apple Pay! We are pleased to announce that Subscribe Pro now supports Apple Pay on Magento 2 in addition to Magento 1 and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.  Read below for more information on why your team should enable Apple Pay and how to do so. Why Now Our product roadmap is driven by client… Read More »Now Supporting Apple Pay on Magento 2

A case study on US Water Systems showing how adding a subscription option increases revenue and improves the user experience for your most loyal customers. A good subscription program has tons of benefits.  At a high level, loyal customers have a convenient way to automatically reorder products they need and eCommerce merchants gain a more… Read More »US Water Systems – Reaching the first 1000 Subscribers on Magento 2

In our recent Linkedin video, Rob Holthause, our Director of Sales, shares three best practice ideas that are key for running a successful subscription program.  Let’s jump right into it. Tip #1: Make it clear how your program works No program is the same and your customers shouldn’t have to guess how yours works.  Most likely,… Read More »Top Level Subscription Program Tips

Subscription Tips Today we are starting a new series!  In “Subscription Tips”, we are going to share some creative ideas to improve your subscription program.  Let us know your experience with trial programs by sending us a tweet!   Trial Set –> Replenishment Subscription  Let me introduce you to Every Man Jack.  They are a… Read More »Subscription Tips: How to Turn Trials into Replenishment Subscriptions

If you were to ask anyone who works in eCommerce when the right time for a business to start selling online would be, they’d almost universally answer “years ago.” Yet you might be surprised to learn that almost half of US small businesses do not have a website. That article linked in the previous sentence was written… Read More »E-commerce & The “New Normal”

When it comes to subscriptions, few product categories are as well-suited to the model as vitamins and nutritional supplements. Case in point: Utah-based nutritional and well-being brand The Synergy Company, whose subscription program has been powered by Subscribe Pro for the last two years. We recently spoke with David White, Director of Customer Experience Marketing,… Read More »Subscription Spotlight: The Synergy Company

Quick question: when was the last time you changed your water filter? Or the air filter in your home’s HVAC system? The engine air filter in your car? Do you know what the recommended replacement intervals on those products are? It’s no surprise if you don’t know, I’d wager that most of us don’t. These products… Read More »Subscriptions and Long Delivery Intervals

Subscribe Pro isn’t new to the Salesforce ecosystem. In fact, we’ve had a SiteGenesis cartridge for over two years now. But we wanted to be able to support clients moving to SFRA (storefront reference architecture.) This framework supports beautiful websites with a strong focus on UX, and allows merchants a ton of flexibility when it… Read More »Salesforce SFRA and SiteGenesis Certification

According to this McKinsey report from last year, nearly one in six Americans had signed up for a subscription service at some point. The average consumer spends $465 per year on subscription services. Most of us can no longer remember a time before streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. As the subscription market has exploded… Read More »Co-curation: Innovating the Subscriber Experience

I recently had a very poor eCommerce experience with a large and well-established brand. The website and checkout experience were all fine, but the problems arose around communication, fulfillment, and shipping. Let’s break these down, and understand how they affect customer experience. Communication After placing the order in question, I received only one email, a… Read More »Anatomy Of An Order Gone Wrong

Earlier this year, Spotify broke 100 million paid subscribers. Apple Music isn’t far behind, with 60 million. We are in the midst of a massive paradigm shift in the way that the average listener gets their music. What’s pushing people from an ownership model to an access model? Let’s take a look at the rise… Read More »The Value of Music Streaming Services

In our ever more connected world, consumers increasingly turn to eCommerce to purchase their favorite products. eCommerce sales were up about 15% in 2018, accounting for just over 14% of all retail sales. Online sales of consumer packaged goods (CPG) were up 35% in the same period, with gross revenues of $60 billion. Not as… Read More »How Legacy CPG Brands Can Adapt To eCommerce

Implementing a subscription program means making a long-term investment in your business – one that should pay substantial dividends. How you market and sell subscriptions to your customers makes all the difference in the success of your subscription program. In this post, we’ll take a look at a few strategies for successfully selling your customers… Read More »Selling A Subscription Program

Subscriptions provide a ton of value for businesses. Lifetime customer value increases, overall revenue is lifted, and subscriptions create a consistent revenue stream which can be relied on. Considering that subscriptions also help brands cement relationships with their customers, it’s plain to see why subscriptions are a slam dunk for many merchants. More importantly, though,… Read More »Subscription Programs Add Value For Customers

Welcome to the first in a series of posts I will be publishing on the theme of “What is Headless E-commerce?”. I will start here with some basic definitions. As the series develops, I plan to elaborate on particular use cases and flavors of headless e-commerce. And to help shed some light on how the term… Read More »What is Headless E-commerce? — A Definition

Packaging has always been one of the most important facets of marketing. As you drive past a car dealership, will you be more drawn to the practical blue sedan, or the bright red sports car? As our senses are bombarded by an ever-increasing barrage of ads vying for our attention, the way a product is… Read More »Packaging In The Age Of Social Media

In a recent blog post I discussed the benefits of selling direct to consumer (DTC) and why large legacy brands would want to explore their own sales channels outside of traditional retailers. There is, of course, a counterpoint to this: Digitally Native Vertical Brands (DNVB’s) that have exclusively sold DTC are now looking to sell… Read More »DTC Brands Are Looking To Sell In Retail Stores

There has been a lot of talk about implementing PWA (Progressive Web Application) features in e-commerce for several years now, but adoption has been slow. I’m seeing some signs though, that today, at the beginning of 2019, real-world adoption is starting to accelerate and we may be at a tipping point. What is PWA? Simply… Read More »PWA for E-Commerce

A shift has been quietly happening in eCommerce, and it’s poised to be the next big trend: Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies that have historically sold through retailers are increasingly looking to sell direct-to-consumer (DTC.) While this can represent a challenge in terms of supply chain and logistics for companies that are used to fulfilling… Read More »CPG Companies Increasingly Focusing on DTC

Popular athleisure brand Lululemon has begun testing a membership program in its home country of Canada. For an annual fee of $96, customers get a pair of yoga pants, a monthly pass for a yoga class, and other perks. Once the program has been tested in Edmonton, it will be rolled out in other markets.… Read More »Lululemon Tests a New Membership Program

Sephora is the largest beauty retailer in the world, and the company has embraced digital since the early days of the internet. Their forward-thinking eCommerce strategies have given them a big leg up among young consumers, and resulted in tremendous international growth. Sephora gets a lot of things right- customers are made to feel like… Read More »Sephora’s Subscription Success: Examining What Works

There has been an explosion of subscription programs over the past few years, and the trend isn’t slowing down at all. Companies large and small are turning to subscriptions to increase revenue while providing unique and pleasing customer journeys. With all the added value for customers, as well as increased lifetime customer value and ease… Read More »The Three Types of Subscription Programs

Subscriptions are great! Well, usually. It’s important that you’re honest with your subscription terms. If you add value for your customers, don’t mislead them, and are fully transparent about terms, they will love you and happily subscribe to your products. If you try to trick them with dishonest or misleading language, you will get tons… Read More »Being Clear and Honest With Subscription Terms

Seltzer? Delivered? Yes please. That’s the premise behind London’s new player in the sparkling beverages game, Ugly Drinks. The expansion of subscriptions throughout so many different verticals goes to show what savvy marketers have known for years now: that the relationship between customers and their favorite brands is changing. Read the full article below! https://qz.com/quartzy/1371992/lacroix-has-a-new-british-competitor-in-the-seltzer-wars-called-ugly-drinks/

Subscription commerce has been growing dramatically in the US over the past few years, but it’s also been experiencing growth all around the world. In her article for the Retail Gazette, Ava Szajna-Hopgood describes this growth in the UK: “While it may not be the first major trend in retail to come to mind in… Read More »Subscription Commerce On The Rise In The UK

When it comes to curated subscription experiences, Birchbox is the biggest player in the game- and with good reason. Founded in 2010, the brand can be credited with setting off the boom in popularity of subscriptions. That trend has only gained steam in the eCommerce world in the eight years since their founding. In order… Read More »Birchbox Debuts Revamped Site Design

Subscription commerce is suitable for such a wide variety of verticals. Any regularly-purchased CPG products work well, and auto-delivery provides a major value for customers. Check out the article on Athena Club below: https://www.xconomy.com/new-york/2018/07/31/for-women-only-e-retail-subscription-firm-athena-club-raises-3-6m/

Subscribe Pro today announced that it has launched a new integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the fastest path to unified commerce. Commerce Cloud enables brands to provide personalized experiences for shoppers that span web, mobile, social and in-store. And now, as part of the world’s #1 CRM platform – Salesforce – brands can deliver completely… Read More »Subscribe Pro Announces a New Integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Subscribe Pro is pleased to announce support for Apple Pay payments in our Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud integrations! We’re pretty excited about this development since Apple Pay drastically improves the end-customer experience and means better conversion rates and higher retention for our brands and merchants. Did you know Apple Pay can raise mobile conversion… Read More »Apple Pay for Subscriptions & Recurring Payments Now Available

If you run a subscription commerce business, you know that customers don’t just show up out of nowhere to subscribe. Instead, they’re cultivated. Like any other type of business, it’s important to know what your sales funnel looks like. That is, you need to know the steps it takes for a customer to become a… Read More »How to map your subscription commerce conversion funnel

It’s nearly time for the Super Bowl of retail: the holiday shopping season. What better time to bolster your subscriber base? Online holiday shopping doesn’t have to be about one-off purchases exclusively. According to Price Waterhouse Cooper’s 2016 Holiday Outlook, holiday spending is expected to climb by 10 percent in total, and 25 percent just… Read More »Four Ways to get the Best Bang from the Holiday Shopping Season

When developing a business plan, it’s common to do enough research to justify the business, work out the costs and forecast revenues and profits. Even a conservative forecast, though, may not prepare a business manager for the possibility of a part of a business falling flat. This is as true of subscription commerce businesses as… Read More »What to do if Your Subscription Offering Fails

This is Part 2 of our series exploring important KPIs for subscription commerce businesses to pay attention to. Be sure to check out Part 1 to learn about customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and inactive subscribers. In our previous post about KPIs, we described three of the most important metrics to pay attention to in… Read More »Keep Your Eyes on These KPIs – Part 2

We all know that when it comes to subscription commerce, churn rate is an extremely important indicator of a business’ success. However, it is not the only key performance indicator (KPI) that you need to regularly measure. Here are three other KPIs that you should keep an eye on and pro-actively work to improve. Customer… Read More »Keep Your Eyes on These KPIs – Part 1

You may have done a great job marketing and selling subscriptions, but if your subscribers don’t get their orders in a timely manner on a regular basis, all that work will be wasted and you’ll likely see your churn rates sky rocket. Fulfillment is the “last mile” for subscription commerce businesses, and like any other… Read More »Three Best Practices for Flawless Subscription Fulfillment

As any ecommerce or subscription commerce merchant will tell you, keeping customers happy is a central challenge. As a Harvard Business School study found, transparency can raise customer satisfaction by as much as 17 percent. Today’s businesses are embracing transparent approaches to customer service, and we’re proud to say that Subscribe Pro’s customer self-management features… Read More »How Subscribe Pro Creates More Transparency for Your Customers

We are pleased to announce the official release of our new Magento 2 integration extension for Subscribe Pro!  We’ve been busy packing our last three years of experience with subscription commerce into the new extension.  We love Magento 1 and have been working with it for many years.  We’re looking forward to many years and many successful subscription… Read More »Subscribe Pro Announces Magento 2 Extension

There are a lot of advantages to starting a monthly box subscription business, or adding one to your existing ecommerce business. We put together this list of things you’ll need to consider for launching a successful subscription business. Determine what you want to sell. If you already have an ecommerce business, building a bundle of… Read More »How to Start a Monthly Subscription Business

Mage Titans USA – Austin, Texas We have a lot of great customers who sell a lot of great stuff using Subscribe Pro.  We wanted to showcase a few of them here and offer you some coupon codes and other ways to save so you can try some of this great stuff for yourself!   Duke Cannon… Read More »Mage Titans USA – Austin, Texas

Multi-channel retailers typically stock a diversified product offering, with the strategy of selling enough higher margin products quickly and more niche products over time. In today’s multimedia world, multichannel retailing simply makes sense, even for smaller retailers. The key is picking the right channel strategy that provides a good ROI over a long period of… Read More »Is Subscription Commerce Right for Multi-Channel Retailers?

While there are some businesses out there that are solely subscription-based, many companies decide to add subscription commerce to an already successful ecommerce business. This enables them to develop another revenue channel, deepen their relationships with existing customers, and ultimately increase their top line revenue. Once implemented, how do these companies market their subscriptions in… Read More »Five Tips for Integrating Subscription Commerce Into Your Marketing Strategy

Most ecommerce merchants are familiar with the concept of discounting. After all, who doesn’t love a good sale? But when an online retailer starts offering product subscriptions through their subscription management system, it’s not always as simple as putting a product on sale once in a while. Here’s a list of pros and cons to… Read More »To Discount or Not to Discount? Pros and Cons for Subscription Businesses

When you’re running a subscription commerce business, your churn rate is one of the top metrics that you need to keep an eye on. Churn can be caused by a variety of factors, which we explore in this two-part series.  In this second part, our focus is on how to identify common problems that lead to a… Read More »Why You Need to Keep an Eye on Churn Rates – Part 2

When you’re running a subscription commerce business, your attrition rate is one of the top metrics that you need to keep an eye on. Churn can be caused by a variety of factors, which we’re going to explore in this two-part series.  In this first part, our focus is on explaining why this is important. In… Read More »Why You Need to Keep an Eye on Churn Rates – Part 1

Payment gateways, the software that allows your eCommerce to do business securely, is an essential component for any eCommerce business. Unfortunately, not all payment gateways are built equally. Here are four things to consider when exploring a relationship with a payment gateway. Speed: Time is a resource, and on the internet, the speed at which… Read More »Why choosing the right payment gateway matters

The trend in curated subscription boxes continues to grow.  Large brands are starting to use this model as well.  For example Starbucks is now offering a curated subscription for products in their Reserve Roastery line. With a curated subscription program like this, it’s essential to consistently delight and impress your customers.  The experience itself is the… Read More »Starbucks is Now Offering a Reserve Roastery Subscription Box

Why your eCommerce business needs subscription commerce If you work in eCommerce, or are considering launching an eCommerce business, then one revenue model that can’t be ignored is subscription commerce (sometimes also referred to as subscription eCommerce). Why? Because the subscription business model is highly scalable and can provide recurring revenue that is often more… Read More »What is Subscription Commerce?