Guide to Creating Ecommerce Subscriptions for Your Shopify Store (Includes Examples)
Not long ago, DTC brands struggled to retain customers that they acquired through their campaigns. Customers, who were spoilt for choice were quickly shifting from brand to brand, making retention difficult. There emerged an impactful solution that not just increased retention, but increased customer lifetime value, but also retention and AOV. The solution? eCommerce subscriptions.
There are multiple ways to implement subscriptions in your Shopify store. You can create subscription bundles, single-product subscriptions, curated subscription boxes, and more. In this guide we will walk you through the essentials of ecommerce subscriptions, from creating impactful subscription offers to tools you can use to create subscriptions. Also, everything in between. Let’s jump in.
What Are eCommerce Subscriptions?
Ecommerce subscription is a selling strategy that offers customers the option of product deliveries at frequent intervals for a discounted price. This approach is widely popular among beauty, wellness, food, and beverage DTC brands. It’s an effective method to lock in customers for months in a single transaction.
Benefits of Ecommerce Subscription Offers
There are multiple benefits to creating subscription offers for your DTC store. Here are the top ones:
Revenue Predictability: Ecommerce subscriptions provide consistent, predictable income, making it easier for DTC brands to plan inventory, allocate budgets, and scale operations. With a strong subscriber base, Shopify stores can forecast more effectively compared to one-time purchases.
Enhanced Customer Retention and Loyalty: Subscriptions naturally foster loyalty, as customers who subscribe, are used to the brand. Then they are likely to purchase more in the future. Further, if you are selling subscription bundles, you induced repeats for multiple products instead of just one.
Increased Average Order Value (AOV): Subscription bundles increase AOV by grouping multiple products in one subscription package, in a single purchase. This provides better value to customers while maximizing revenue for the business.
Data-Driven Personalization: Over time, eCommerce subscriptions generate valuable data on customer preferences, enabling brands to personalize future offers. This data-driven approach enhances the customer experience and encourages long-term loyalty.
Scalability: As the subscriber base grows, ecommerce subscriptions achieve economies of scale, allowing businesses to expand product offerings, reach new audiences, and optimize their customer acquisition costs.
Types of Ecommerce Subscriptions for DTC Brands
Before diving into ecommerce subscription types, let's explore the main models that form their foundation:
Replenishment Subscriptions: Ideal for consumables like skincare, food, or cleaning products that require regular restocking. Example: Dollar Shave Club delivers grooming products monthly.
Implementation: Single product subscriptions, subscription bundles
Curation Subscriptions: Customers receive curated items based on their preferences, often as a surprise. Popular for beauty, snacks, and lifestyle products. Example: Craft stores offering surprise subscription boxes with new supplies each month.
Implementation: Subscription boxes
Access Subscriptions: Provides exclusive content or services, commonly seen in digital products. Example: Netflix. For ecommerce, it can include access to exclusive brand content, offers, or communities.
Implementation: VIP list, product newsletter
Choosing the right model depends on your business goals. The following sections will better equip you to do it.
How to Implement eCommerce Subscriptions in Your Store
Now that we have understood the framework of ecommerce subscriptions, let's learn how to implement these practically.
1. Single Product Subscription
A single-product subscription allows customers to receive a specific item at a fixed interval. This type of subscription is ideal for essential or consumable products. It is commonly used for items with consistent demand, like skincare products, vitamins, or pet food.
Single-product subscriptions allow customers to choose the delivery frequency and enjoy the convenience of never running out of their monthly essentials.
They are perfect for increasing purchase frequency and improving customer retention
How to Implement Single Product Subscription
Select items that customers frequently reorder.
Provide flexible subscription terms, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly deliveries.
Highlight any savings or perks that subscribers get, like a 10% discount for subscribing.
2. Subscription Bundles
Subscription product bundles combine the subscription model with product bundling. Here, multiple products or services are grouped and sold as a bundle, giving customers the option to subscribe and receive the package regularly.
They are an excellent way to increase the average order value (AOV) by combining multiple related product into a single package.
It provides added convenience and value for customers who enjoy receiving a collection of products that complement each other, regularly. For instance, a beauty brand could offer a skincare bundle containing a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer in one subscription.
This type of ecommerce subscription helps boost product discovery.
Example: Companies like Hello Fresh (Canada) deliver pre-measured ingredients for curated recipes each week, saving customers time and introducing new flavors.
How to Implement Subscription Bundles
Research product demand: Identify popular product combinations or items that naturally pair well together.
Decide on Bundle Type: Your bundle could be a mix-and-match bundle or a pre-curated bundle. Explore different types of product bundles in our blog here.
Set Key Parameters: Fix your key parameters of bundle design such as maximum or minimum product quantity, duration of offer, and subscription frequency.
Decide Price and Discount: Next fix the pricing and discount. Take into account you cost of goods sold, marketing expenses, transportation, and other costs when finalizing this. For pricing, you can opt for a fixed price and change pricing as per the contents that a customer chooses for a bundle. Tiered pricing with incremental discounts works well when you have multiple subscription frequencies to offer.
Market Your Bundle: Spending marketing dollars on promoting bundles delivers a higher ROI compared to promoting a single product. Capitalize this and create a promotion around your subscription bundle. Give an appealing name. Remember to use urgency and scarcity cues on your website such as countdown timers.
Optimize Continuously: Consistently monitor your subscription bundles in terms of conversion rates and other key metrics. Keep tweaking and optimizing until you get it right.
PRO-TIP: You can create high-converting subscription bundles using the Easy Bundles. A Built for Shopify, 5-star rated app; it is the only app you need to create impactful bundles. Explore Easy Bundles Now.
3. Surprise Subscription Boxes
Subscription boxes are curated packages sent regularly to customers. This type of ecommerce subscriptions are typically sent monthly and contain a selection of items that may vary each time.
This type of ecommerce subscription is highly popular among customers who enjoy the element of surprise or discovering new products.
Subscription boxes work well for brands in beauty, snacks, and lifestyle segments, offering a unique experience with each delivery.
You can customize your subscription boxes using personalized product recommendation quizzes.
Subscription boxes give you better control of your inventory, helping you move slow-moving or new products.
Example 1: Surprise subscription boxes from FabFitFun combine beauty, wellness, and lifestyle items into seasonal deliveries.
Example 2: BarkBox and other pet subscription services deliver treats, toys, and pet care essentials to keep pets and their owners excited about each delivery.
How to ImplementSurpriseSubscription Boxes
Curation: Curate a new selection of products each month or quarter, based on themes or seasonal trends. For example, a ‘summer hobby kit’ for kids or a ‘winter care package’ of seasonal snacks like nuts for the last quarter.
Product Recommendation Quizzes: Start the subscription box journey for your customers with a product recommendation quiz. It helps you understand your customers and specific requirements, ensuring a higher probability of them liking the subscription boxes you send them.
PRO-TIP: You can create highly personalized product recommendation quizzes using the Byte App. It’s an AI-powered product quiz builder with an easy drag-and-drop editor. Leverage the output from Byte to create highly personalized subscription boxes.
Inventory-Based Box Creation: Includes a mix of best-sellers and new or limited-edition items to keep subscribers engaged. You can also add a couple of slow-moving products.
Marketing: Leverage social media and influencer marketing to create excitement around the ‘surprise element’ of your subscription box.
Product recommendation quiz by popular subscription box brand- FabFitFun
4. Access Subscriptions
Access subscriptions for DTC brands involve customers opting in and subscribing to a brand’s email list, sms list, or community. Bear in mind, that these types of ecommerce subscriptions do not usually generate revenue but are complementary to a DTC brand’s marketing efforts.
Example 1: A brand could create a VIP list campaign for Black Friday. Subscribing grants the customer access to exclusive discounts, flash sales, and early bird sales.
Example 2: A fitness supplement brand can create a community of like-minded customers and provide free diet consultations if they subscribe to the community.
Example 3: Create a weekly newsletter for your product category and encourage customers to subscribe to it. It is an organic, cost-effective way to engage with your customers.
How to ImplementAccess Subscriptions
Create campaigns to promote subscriptions. You can start with paid campaigns and checkout opt-ins to build your email lists. Once you have a significant list, use emails to build your SMS list.
If creating a VIP list, promote it as a members-only community, emphasizing the premium perks and access to exclusive offers.
If creating a newsletter, make sure your content is something a majority of your customer base wants to read. Use engaging copy to make customers want to come back.
Justfab’s VIP Membership
I found a powerful example of an access subscription that creates true business impact. Justfab is a clothing and shoe brand that has a unique VIP membership subscription. Subscribers to the membership can avail their first purchase for just $10. They further get 50% off on additional purchases. There are membership credits at play which work as loyalty points.
VIPs have exclusive access to certain brand collections. They get a 25% on purchases and benefit from easy returns.
Top eCommerce Subscription Apps - 2024
You can simplify the management of your ecommerce subscription with the right set of apps. From flexible billing, and personalized recommendations to the creation of immersive subscription bundles, these Shopify apps offer everything you need to create a seamless subscription experience tailored to your customers.
1. Easy Bundles- Subscription Bundle Builder
Easy Bundles is a Built-for-Shopify all-in-one bundle builder. The app is powered with a subscription bundles feature which empowers you to create high-converting subscription bundles quickly and easily.
You can create a wide variety of bundles such as mix-and-match bundles, fixed-price bundles, pre-curated bundles, gift bundles, and more.
The subscription bundle builder flow in Easy Bundles is immersive. Customers can toggle between subscription frequencies in real time. Any changes they make to their bundle content get saved immediately for their currently selected frequency.
You can set different discounts for different subscription frequencies, to encourage customers to opt for higher subscription frequencies.
Easy Bundles has a drag-and-drop editor that empowers you to create on-brand, aesthetically appealing bundles easily.
2. Bold Subscriptions- Subscription Management
Bold Subscriptions provides a highly customizable ecommerce subscription experience, allowing customers to manage their subscriptions with just a few clicks. Bold also offers subscription triggers during the customer journey, that help upsell subscriptions.
The app allows customers to skip, pause, or change their subscriptions with ease, enhancing customer satisfaction and retention. Bold Subscriptions also integrates with Shopify's native checkout, making the purchase process smooth and intuitive.
It’s great for businesses that need flexibility in their subscription offerings and want to build long-term customer loyalty.
Note: BOLD Subscription is pre-integrated with Skai Lama’s Easy Bundles
3. Recurpay – Subscription Management
Recurpay offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to simplify and enhance subscription management for Shopify merchants.
It supports flexible subscription options, including "pay-as-you-go" plans with customizable frequencies like weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly, as well as prepaid gift subscriptions for set delivery counts.
Automated debits ensure seamless payments without multiple checkouts, while mixed cart functionality allows customers to purchase both subscription and one-time items in a single Shopify checkout.
To help businesses make data-driven decisions, Recurpay provides robust analytics and insights, tracking key metrics like sales growth and customer retention.
The platform also enhances customer engagement with trial offers, allowing customers to sample products before subscribing.
4. Hulk’s Subscription App
Hulk App’s Shopify Subscription Plus simplifies subscription management, by creating a streamlined system for managing plans, payments, and billing concerning subscriptions.
The customer self-management feature lets subscribers control delivery schedules, order items, addresses, and payment details, promoting convenience and retention.
Hulk is enabled with features like subscription pausing, item updates, and delivery adjustments.
Subscription Plus also supports a mix of single and multiple subscription plans, maximizing revenue by catering to diverse customer needs.
The app has a user-friendly dashboard that gives insights into key business metrics.
Byte is an all-in-one product recommendation quiz builder. It allows merchants to create interactive product recommendation quizzes that guide customers to the ideal subscription options based on their preferences.
By offering a personalized experience right from the start, Byte helps improve the accuracy of product recommendations, leading to higher subscription conversions.
Quizzes can be tailored to each customer segment, making this a powerful tool for segmentation and personalization.
Byte is ideal for brands in the beauty, fitness, and lifestyle sectors where personalization plays a major role in customer satisfaction.
Examples of Single Product Subscriptions
Let’s dive into some examples of single-product subscriptions in order to understand this form of ecommerce subscriptions better.
Bite - Dental Hygeine
Bite is a dental hygiene brand that has a unique toothpaste tablet to offer. The tablets form makes the toothpaste eco-friendly, eliminating the need for tubes.
Bite offers a single-product subscription where customers can select a 4-month subscription to save 33%.
The subscription button is present on their product page and can be selected with a radial button.
It's a clean and crisp design that doesn’t distract.
Goli- Wellness Gummies
Goli is a DTC brand that needs no introduction. The brand offers an extensive range of health & wellness gummies that solve a range of problems.
Goli’s ‘single-product’ subscription has an interesting layout. Customers can choose to subscribe to not just one but even 3 or 5 bottles monthly.
This helps when you have customers purchasing for their families too. It’s an effective method to increase AOV exponentially with a single transaction.
Customers can switch between one-time and subscriptions with just a click. This layout works well for the many returning customers that Goli has, who are well-versed in their products. It's a convenient layout.
Examples of Subscription Bundles
Let’s dive into some examples of subscription bundles and explore this ecommerce subscription in depth.
Lilac St- Beauty Accessories
Lilac St is an eyelash & press-on nail brand. It offers a wide variety of options on these frequently purchased beauty products. Eyelashes are frequently replaced and hence purchased. So it's a perfect fit for an ecommerce subscription bundle.
Lilac St’s subscription bundle has a vertical layout for the bundled guide, located on the right-hand side.
Customers are let step-by-step through the bundle-building process. They have the option of selecting their purchase quantity and then selecting their eyelash design.
There is a progress bar that encourages them to purchase more once they cross a quantity threshold.
There is a convenient quantity modifier for their selected products at the right-hand bottom.
Sea Moss Jungle - Wellness Supplements
Sea Moss Jungle is a niche supplement brand centered around the superfood with the same name. The brand offers the product in gel and capsule form.
Sea Moss has a build-your-own-box subscription bundle builder. Customers can add their favorite products to create a subscription box.
They can then choose the purchase frequency i.e. every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, or monthly.
A progress bar at the bottom guides them to pick more products for additional discounts.
This subscription bundle and its dynamic flow was created using Easy Bundles.
Cravory Cookies
Cravory Cookies is a San Diego based online cookie brand. The brand has an eclectic cookie collection with unique flavors.
Cravory has created a box builder bundle where customers can select the cookie flavors that go into their boxes.
Customers have to preselect their subscription period and then enter the flow to create their box.
Once selected, the customers are guided to checkout.
Ideally, Cravory should have allowed customers to switch subscriptions in the later stages, as have seen in the case of the Sea Moss Jungle example.
They have a ‘build-your-own-bundle’ subscription where customers can choose the number of items they want to add to their bundle.
Customers can also select the frequency of their delivery.
What we love about this subscription bundle is the easy navigation between product categories.
This flow works well for them since there is no limit per product category.
Examples of Subscription Boxes
Cratejoy - Subscription Box Marketplace
Cratejoy is a store dedicated to subscription boxes. Users can pick boxes for a wide variety of activities and occasions. The brand also lets customers select their subscriptions based on gender and age. For example, the brand has an introvert’s box, care packages for women, activity kits for kids, and more.
Cratejoy’s subscription box layout is simple. Customers can select their box theme, and then their subscription frequency.
They also have the option to give the box subscription as a gift.
Every month, Cratejoy will send customers a fresh selection of items in their given box.
Tokyo Treat - Japanese Snacks Subscription Box
Tokyo Treat delivers a taste of Japan straight to customers’ doorstep through monthly subscription boxes filled with authentic Japanese snacks and candies.
Each box is curated to showcase popular treats, seasonal flavors, and exclusive items that are hard to find outside of Japan, offering subscribers a unique snacking experience.
Customers can select from different box sizes and subscription lengths, making it easy to customize their experience.
As per their subscription frequency, subscribers receive a fresh assortment of treats, from savory snacks and sweet candies to limited-edition flavors and popular drinks.
Conclusion
Ecommerce subscription is an impactful strategy that helps you create a predictable revenue stream while also increasing you AOV. There are multiple models and execution methods to creating subscription for your Shopify store. Choosing the right strategy as per your product catalogue, business goals and customer preferences is important. So the next time, you are stuck with high potential, low sale inventory or unpredictable sales pattern, think of subscriptions.
FAQs
1. How to start an ecommerce subscription business?
Starting an ecommerce subscription business involves several key steps:
Identify Your Niche: Choose a product category with consistent demand, like beauty, health, or entertainment.
Select a Subscription Model: Decide between replenishment (e.g., consumables), curation (e.g., personalized collections), or access (e.g., exclusive content).
Choose a Platform and Tools: Set up your online store on an ecommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, and integrate subscription tools like Recharge or Bold Subscriptions.
2. What is the most popular online subscription?
The most popular online subscription varies by industry, but a few types consistently stand out:
Streaming Services: Platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify dominate in the entertainment category, offering content subscriptions.
Beauty Boxes: Subscriptions like Ipsy and Birchbox are popular for curated beauty products.
Meal Kits: Companies like HelloFresh and Blue Apron provide meal planning and ingredients, catering to convenience and home cooking trends.
Health and Wellness: Vitamins, fitness services, and wellness products, like Care/of and Peloton, are also highly popular. These services lead in subscriber counts and have set the standard for convenience and personalization in ecommerce subscriptions.
Hurrify customers to buy within a given timeframe with a sales countdown timer & improve conversions
Another popular Shopify checkout app is Checkout Promotions. The app comes with the ability to leverage a collection of highly robust visibility rules that help show customers one-click post purchase upsell promotions after an order payment has been made. Some of its key features include:
Features
AI recommended and manual recommendations for upselling.
Complete branding control.
Checkout Upsell for increasing AOV.
AI recommended and manual recommendations for upselling.
Pricing
Development
Free
Monthly Plan
$99/ month
Plus Plan
$99/ month
Plus Plan
$99/ month
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Neetika M
Neetika is the founder of Skai Lama. Passionate about building SaaS, Product Development, and Marketing, she talks about eCommerce Growth, Product Bundling, Gifting, Retention, and Shopify.
Boost AOV with Easy Bundles
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Boost AOV with Build your own Bundles and Gift Boxes!
Boost AOV with Build your own Bundles and Gift Boxes!
Easy Bundles is a seamless Bundle Builder, Build Your Own Bundle, Gift Box Builder app that offers Fixed Price Bundles, Discounted Bundles, & Mix & match Bundles.
Easy Bundles is a seamless Bundle Builder, Build Your Own Bundle, Gift Box Builder app that offers Fixed Price Bundles, Discounted Bundles, & Mix & match Bundles.
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