How Ancient + Brave built subscriptions into 90% of their DTC revenue

Ancient + Brave is a British wellness brand that combines ancient wisdom and modern science to provide high quality nutritional supplements such as collagen, creatine, hydration, gut health and sleep remedies, that are designed primarily for women. Founded in 2018 as a UK DTC brand, they’ve grown to $90M in revenue across DTC, Amazon, retail, and international markets in Europe and the US.

Challenge

Ancient + Brave built a loyal early following around their flagship collagen, and grew rapidly through word of mouth and its successful ambassador partnerships.  While customers loved the look, taste and quality of the product,  it takes 8–12 weeks of consistent daily use for customers to experience the full benefits. That’s the window where around 40% of churn happens – customers buy, don’t see immediate change, and stop before the product ever gets to prove itself.  So a key challenge was to make it as easy as possible for customers to establish an enjoyable daily ritual and to understand how the product works. 

Equally, as the brand expanded its audience and range of wellness products it began to broaden its subscriber base and the use cases that it served.  From women in their late twenties and thirties who were more focused on energy levels and performance, to women in their forties and fifties managing perimenopause, and those in their sixties and seventies looking to maintain strength and manage joint pain.  A one-size fits all approach to subscriptions doesn’t work for a larger more complex business – so it was important to be able to tailor the customer experience more closely to each customer’s needs, and provide more choice on how they interacted with the business.

“

As you grow, retention becomes more and more important. We really started focusing on it mid-2024 — making sure every customer we acquired had an experience as good as their first purchase.”

Alison SagarCustomer Director, Ancient + Brave

Solution

Ancient + Brave restructured their CRM and subscription management program around customer lifecycle stages, and health goals.

The first 90 days is a key focus area, because this is where the routine and results are building. The team created a streak-based Rewards program: subscribers receive milestone gifts tied to their order sequence, timed to keep them engaged through their journey. CRM sequences reinforce the science and showcase how to establish enjoyable daily rituals collagen in a morning coffee, a sleep supplement in an evening routine. For subscribers looking to edit their subscription, the Affinity customer portal captures the reason for change so the team can offer the most helpful response — a frequency adjustment, a reschedule, or more information  — to deflect a future cancel.

After those first 90 days, cross-sell becomes a greater priority. Customers with an established collagen habit are the natural audience for additional products such as creatine or hydration. Recharge workflows sequence product introductions around what a customer is already taking, where they are in their journey and their health goals.

The cancellation flow was built to deliver specific offers based on cancellation reasoning: subscribers with too much product get a skip or pause nudge, cost-sensitive subscribers may get an offer or credit applied through Recharge Rewards, and those with any product-related are offered the opportunity to speak with customer services and/or try an alternative product.  .

If a subscriber does cancel, win-back flows are in place to keep the door open. A subscriber who cancelled one product may benefit from another from the Ancient + Brave range in the future.

Across all four stages, the same logic holds: the CRM program and subscription management experience are aligned to customer needs based on the product(s) they’ve chosen and where they are on their journey , treating customers differently in each interaction rather than treating retention as a single lever to pull.

“

Recharge has been an amazing partner in two ways: the day-to-day support has been really helpful in allowing us to take full advantage of everything available. And they’ve taken onboard our feedback and incorporated it into product development, which has really helped us grow.”

Alison SagarCustomer Director, Ancient + Brave

Results

Even as subscriber volume grew nearly 6x over two years, monthly churn rate has fallen during that period. A brand scaling that fast while keeping churn flat isn’t just proof of a strong acquisition funnel, it’s also proof the product and customer experience are doing their job.

The result: DTC revenue up 150% year over year, with subscriptions now accounting for 90% of it. Growth that compounds because subscribers stay.

“

LTV is probably our most important metric. Driving that conversation to make sure we’re investing in retention — and showing the business impact of that work — is the most important thing to get across as you scale.”

Alison SagarCustomer Director, Ancient + Brave