Though the eCommerce subscription market has grown over 100% in the past six years, 72% of customers fail to make a second purchase within six months of the initial transaction. With the dramatic impact of customer churn on subscription box business, it’s imperative to understand how to retain this type of customer. Here are five reasons subscribers churn, and some tips on how you can retain them.
More from PostFunnel on subscription-based services:
Analyzing Retention Rate for Subscription-Based Businesses
Retention Lessons From Subscription Box Services
How to Build a Successful Subscription Model
1. Your Curated Box is Boring
Receiving the same exact product every month isn’t exciting and lead to cancellations. To keep customers engaged and interested in their subscription, it’s important to keep things fresh.
Deploy the element of surprise with subscribers. 21% of consumers like the idea of sample products without actually purchasing them. In addition to full-sized curated products, offer surprise free samples to renew interest and boost purchases. Just use this strategy sparingly to avoid eating into your profits.
In addition, add new products to your already curated product selection. Choose new products that appeal to your audience’s needs, lifestyles, interests, and aspirations. Expand into other categories to make your box more exciting. Beyond razors, Dollar Shave Club offers subscribers a variety of grooming products.
Discover where to expand your offerings by digging into your customer data to find out how, when, and how often your product is being used. Launch trial kits to gauge how subscribers will receive your additions.
2. Flexibility Issues
Customers want to control their subscriptions. Nearly 19% of consumers didn’t renew their subscription due to a lack of flexibility. A flexible mindset can increase customer retention and trust.
One way to increase flexibility is through delivery options. 19.5% of consumers have canceled their subscription because deliveries were too regular. Prevent customers from feeling locked into regular deliveries by allowing them to skip a shipment here and there. Take a cue from Bespoke Post subscription box, which lets subscribers skip deliveries as often as they wish. Allow subscribers to customize their shipping options and order volume.
Provide the option for customers to pause or deactivate their subscription at any time. This will not only help you to avoid the costs of win-back campaigns, but also bypass the need for customers to recreate a new account if they decide to re-subscribe.
3. Your Subscription Box Needs a Value Boost
Your subscription should be more valuable than one-off transactions, providing extra value to show shoppers that your service adds to their life. Provide value by giving customers access to an exclusive community, high-value content, or special pricing.
If your box isn’t worth the money, your customers will unsubscribe. Help customers save money by ensuring your box is worth more than what it costs. FabFitFun subscribers are guaranteed to receive at least $200 worth of products for $49.99.
Offer subscription tiers so subscribers can pick a price that works for them, and shave off some dollars for those who sign up in advance.
Or, use content as a value proposition. Appeal to your customers’ desire for knowledge by teaching them a new skill or improving an existing one. Educate them on the benefits of your products and how to use them, and make learning a two-way conversation.
4. Declined Payment: Involuntary Churn
Declined payments detract from the convenience of the subscription model and result in involuntary churn. Accounting for 34% of subscriber churn, involuntary churn occurs when recurring payments fail due to insufficient funds, credit card limits, and credit card changes. To tackle this silent profit killer, offer alternative payment methods such as digital wallets. Research these alternative methods well before implementing, making sure you understand the advantages and disadvantages of each. Above all, the payment method must be secure, seamless, and easy to use.
Prevent declines related to insufficient funds by aligning your billing with payday cycles or by asking customers when they prefer to be billed.
5. Customer Experience
To deliver the personalized experiences that keep subscribers coming back, collect relevant first-party customer data and augment it with other data sources to understand customer preferences, relying on them to assemble tailored boxes. Use this data to gauge how and when customers prefer to receive communications.
Any billing messages should focus on the value of your service and give customers an idea of what they’ll miss if they don’t renew their subscription.
Stop Losing Subscribers
While subscription churn is inevitable, you can decrease the number of unhappy customers. Proactively collect customer feedback on how you can improve your services and offer live help on your website. Not all subscribers who churn are lost. And if valuable customers unsubscribe, a win-back strategy will get you both on the right track again.