The secret lives of subscribers
It's no secret: We love subscriptions.
A good subscription makes the difference between a customer for a day and a customer for life—and provides the stability that Recharge's 20,000 brands rely on to scale.
That's why we keep a finger on the pulse of subscriptions: how customers engage with them, how their behavior changes, and how valuable subscriptions really are to our brands (spoiler: pretty valuable).
What we're seeing
We watched how our brands' customers shopped over the last year, then compared their tendencies to the year before. Here's what we think you'll find interesting.
Subscribers are your best customers—and getting even better
Our top focus at all times is making subscriptions pivotal to business strategy.
Good news: They still are. The routine economy is thriving. Subscribers are several times as valuable to a brand as non-subscribers, and they're becoming even more valuable in many cases.
The opportunity
Focus on converting new customers to subscriptions (and existing subscribers to more subscriptions) to maximize value.
Flexible subscriptions are the name of the game
Gone are the days of basic set-and-forget, once-a-month shipments. Customers are editing and managing their subscription orders on the fly more freely than ever.
The opportunity
Want to hang on to subscribers? Make sure your subscriptions accommodate them instead of the reverse.
A single subscriber is worth over three non-subscribing customers to a Food & Beverage brand.
Subscriptions make success routine
Loyal subscribers drive the bulk of orders and revenue in virtually every industry Recharge's brands trade in.
Beauty & Personal Care
Food & Beverage
Health & Wellness
Home & Pet
Other
‘22–’23
‘23–’24
Making a list, checking it twice for seasonality
Don't worry, Beauty & Personal Care isn't shedding subscribers—it's just a supremely giftable segment that had an excellent holiday season.
The rest of the year? Prime subscriber time.
Subscribers are shopping more, spending bigger & staying longer
It's hard to overstate this: Subscribers are your best customers by any metric, and becoming more valuable by the year.
Order up
Here's something: Every single major industry saw subscribers placing more orders over the last year.
When a brand adds value to a subscriber's day every day, subscribers reward them by incorporating their products into their routines (and placing more orders).
Orders per subscriber
Beauty & Personal Care+13%
Food & Beverage+10.3%
Health & Wellness+21.8%
Home & Pet+17.5%
Other+15.7%
A typical brand's subscribers placed
4.4 orders
+15% over the year before
One-time customers spend more up front—but subscribers' longevity quickly makes them more valuable customers.
The opportunity
Double down on subscriptions
Recharge has always loved subscriptions because they promote customer loyalty, which boosts retention and helps our brands get more out of their acquisition spending.
That isn't changing. In fact, it's becoming even more true. To maximize your potential, focus on converting one-time shoppers to loyal subscribers.
Reward programs
Discounts for subscribing
Curated kits & starter sets
How customers are shopping
Variety is the spice of life
Some subscribers may get hooked by a single great product, but that's rarely where they stop. Many subscribe to 4 or 5, especially when there are lots of delicious flavors to try.
The opportunity
Diversify your catalog. A well-rounded selection means there's more to love—and more to stay subscribed for.
Products per subscriber
Beauty & Personal Care
3.49
Food & Beverage
6.42
Health & Wellness
4.75
Home & Pet
5.44
Other
4.83
Variety is the spice of life
Some subscribers may get hooked by a single great product, but that's rarely where they stop. Many subscribe to 4 or 5, especially when there are lots of delicious flavors to try.
The opportunity
Diversify your catalog. A well-rounded selection means there's more to love—and more to stay subscribed for.
Oats Overnight offers 25 flavors—enough to have a different one every day for almost a month before repeating. And by then, there's a new monthly flavor to try.
Customers are adjusting orders more freely
+3% from the year before
Some trends are universal...
Top actions in every industry...
...some are not
19% of Health & Wellness customers skipped at least one order...
...but just 8% of Home & Pet subscribers did.
Your body may wait for nutrients, but the cat won't wait for treats.
Adapt & educate
Onboarding is your best opportunity to help customers understand your products and avert misunderstandings.
A new customer may have no idea how many pounds of coffee beans they need each month. But they probably know how much coffee they drink, so ask them about that and you can guide them to the right quantity.
Different problems, different solutions
Sometimes it's easier to calibrate quantity than expectations. Products like supplements can take time to produce results, and they risk losing customers in the meantime.
Consider pairing up-front product education with gentle encouragement to stick with it, like a loyalty track that issues rewards at key phases of the product lifecycle.
PrettyLitter avoids uncertainty by asking new customers how many cats they're providing for, not how much product they need.
The takeaway
Flexibility is mandatory
Easy subscription management is table stakes, not a differentiator. There are too many options for a subscriber to stick with one that won't accommodate them.
Don't complicate customers' days, complement them.
No brand's an island
When a subscription brand thrives, they aren't just succeeding for themselves. They're also winning customers over on the very idea of subscriptions and making the industry stronger as a whole. We think that's pretty cool.
It also means that none of us is in this alone. Take a look at who your best friends are.
A customer who subscribes to
has a 21% chance of subscribing to
Lapsed subscriber reactivation
If you don't track how many former subscribers come back to your brand, you're not alone. Why look to the past with all these present and future subscribers to worry about?
But we're paying attention. A typical brand saw about 15% of subscribers renew after cancelling, same as last year.
That consistency means there's an opportunity out there most brands aren't taking advantage of—customers who already know your brand and products, at a fraction of the cost of acquiring all-new customers.
The opportunity
Use what you know about former subscribers to lure them back. Offer compelling deals on products they used to love, or new launches that line up with their old shopping habits.
Almost 1 in 5 subscribers returned after cancelling
The rest are untapped potential—lots of potential subscribers, low acquisition costs
About this report
Insights in the Subscriber Trends report are based on data collected from the brands that use Recharge to power their subscriptions. The timeframe reflected is July 2023-June 2024, plus the same period a year earlier for comparison.
To enable comparisons between subscribers and non-subscribers, our dataset also includes order data from Shopify.
Data excludes brands classified as Fashion & Apparel, which are numerous enough to skew the Other category heavily.
All metrics exclude brands who launched or adopted Recharge during the given timeframe and thus did not produce a full year of data.
Except where stated, metrics reflect the median brand within the given industry to make them directly applicable to our brands.
State of Subscriptions: Subscriber Trends•Copyright © 2014-2024
Santa Monica, CA