Subscription Ecommerce Live

What's your delay retention rate?  It's the percentage of subscription customers who delay a subscription then go on to have a successful charge. This metric helps sellers understand how powerful offering easy delays can be.  Subscribers want the flexibility to delay, either because they have too much, need a little break, or will be away during the next scheduled delivery. It's easier to keep them as a subscriber if they can simply delay (vs cancelling then needing to be won back).  At ARPU, we're obsessed with delivering subscriber experiences that extend LTV. Easy peasy delays are a big part of that.  During this session, Ashley Guttuso from ARPU unpacked How Delay Retention Rate is calculated Industry benchmarks from our merchant data (in 2021, ARPU merchants saw an average DRR of 63%)  How one company added delays and saw a 50% drop in "too much product" churn  If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/   This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce)).  Timestamps 0:00 Intro 2:04 Why you should offer your subscribers the option to delay their order 4:42 How offering a delay option can influence your subscribers’ LTV 6:35 How to calculate Delay Retention Rate (?) 9:33 How Jimmy Joy used delays to cut “too much product” churn in half 13:29 Sneak peak of what’s coming to the Merchant dashboard in ARPU 21:12 Why ARPU is invested in Delay Retention Rate 23:47 The future of Subscription Ecommerce Live

In this episode, Brandon Amoroso, founder and president of Electriq, delved into his years of experience in subscription ecommerce and discussed how to improve retention and increase LTV in your subscription program. What he covered: Why it's critical to audit your subscription experience Actions you can take to improve that experience that directly impact retention and LTV What brands get wrong with loyalty programs  About Brandon:  Brandon is the Founder & President of Electriq, a 40+ person Shopify Retention-as-a-Service Agency acquired in April, 2022 by DRINKS. As a Klaviyo Elite, Attentive Pioneer, and Recharge Innovation Partner of the year, Electriq is at the forefront of creating best-in-class retention experiences. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce)). Timestamps  0:00 Subscription Ecommerce Live Intro 1:52 Brandon’s journey to founding to Electriq 4:47 3 Reasons why the need for retention services have increased 6:27 Subscription Ecommerce Live is brought to you by ARPU 7:51 Why it's critical to audit your subscription experience 10:09 Should you hire outside your company to audit your subscription experience? 14:14 Actions you can take to improve that experience that directly impact retention and LTV 24:33 Common problems found in subscription sellers' subscription experience 31:30 Low-hanging fruit for increasing retention and LTV: post-purchase offers 34:41 What brands get wrong with loyalty programs 39:09 What to include on a loyalty page 42:15 How to stagger SMS and email messaging for your subscribers 49:06 Where to find Brandon

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, VP of Communications and Public Relations Lauren Nolan talked to us about how an engaged community can drive results for subscription businesses. We discussed: How subscription brands can cultivate an engaging community How community impacts a number of other marketing and sales areas for the business The evolution of DTC from "Direct to Consumer" to "Direct to Community"   About Lauren:   Lauren is the VP of Communications and Public Relations at House of Wise, a luxury wellness and CBD brand that offers subscription services. There, she leads consumer marketing, brand strategy, and brand identity. Previously, she ran a freelance consulting business that focused on building strong brand identities, growing brand awareness, and driving community engagement.  If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/   This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce).  Timestamps  0:00 Subscription Ecommerce Live intro 2:14 Lauren’s journey to House of Wise 6:53 How the House of Wise community grew to where it is today 13:11 The evolution of DTC from "direct to consumer" to "direct to community" 15:10 The dynamics of House of Wise’s community 20:29 How to cultivate an engaged community 27:45 How community impacts a number of other marketing and sales areas for the business 37:54 How House of Wise rewards engaged community members and brand ambassadors 46:38 How to interact with your community 51:16 Where to find Lauren

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, co-founder of Churn Buster Joelle Goldman taught us why you need a subscription retention strategy and how to implement one that achieves results.   We discussed:    - What the lowest-churn companies do to extend subscriber lifetimes (and LTVs)  - Common misconceptions about passive churn, and a better way to think about retention - What's the lowest-hanging fruit in churn reduction (what you can do to immediately reduce churn)  - What you can do to optimize retention over time   About Joelle: Joelle is co-founder of Churn Buster, a SaaS company that helps subscription ecommerce brands reduce churn. Specifically, Churn Buster manages the retention process after a recurring payment fails to go through. After nearly 10 years and over $5 billion in subscription revenue under management, Joelle has seen a thing or two about what makes a solid subscription program, and the key differences between high-churn and low-churn companies.   If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/    This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce).   Timestamps   0:00 Subscription Ecommerce Live Intro  3:25 Joelle’s experience with retention at Churn Buster  6:06 What Churn Buster does  8:37 What the lowest-churn companies do to extend LTVs 11:40 The most photographed slide at ChargeX: Company A VS Company B  18:55 Why defaulting to Subscription isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution  23:05 Common misconceptions about passive churn, and a better way to think about retention  26:28 What's the lowest-hanging fruit in churn reduction? (Aka what you can do to immediately reduce churn) 28:35 Best practices for dunning  35:05 What you can do to optimize retention over time  41:05 What’s the biggest reason that your subscribers should stay?  44:41 Where to find Joelle (and start busting churn)

This week, Ashley from ARPU walked through our Top Performer research results and broke down what makes up a strong shipping soon email. We discussed: What makes an upcoming shipment notification good? Are there benchmarks for how these should perform? What should you include in these emails? If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce). Timestamps 0:00 Subscription Ecommerce Live Intro 0:05 Ashley Guttuso Intro 2:51 What makes a good upcoming shipment notification? 3:08 A good upcoming shipment notification delivers critical information first 3:55 A good upcoming notification is well-timed 6:15 A good upcoming shipment notification should offer subscriber flexibility 12:09 Your upcoming shipment notification should remove friction 13:56 Benchmarks from ARPU merchants 19:28 What to include in your upcoming shipment notifications based on Top ROI ARPU Merchants 36:38 Examples from Top Delay Retention Rate ARPU Merchants 43:05 Additional tactics to steal from top performing merchants 47:35 Outro

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked with Derric Haynie, Chief Ecommerce Technologist at EcommerceTech.io, about his favorite tactics and tech for subscription selling. We discussed:  One simple tactic that led to 15,000 new customers a month, every month, for BoxyCharm  Understanding on/off customers and temporary churn  Tools that help you better manage your customer relationships   About Derric:   Derric Haynie is the Chief Ecommerce Technologist at EcommerceTech.io, an invaluable resource for researching, discovering, and buying ecommerce tools. He and his team help merchants track and manage their tools, build their tech roadmap, and hold providers accountable for performance.   If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce). Timestamps 0:00 Intro 1:03 Derric Intro 5:34 Derric’s journey to launching EcommerceTech.io 10:46 The one simple tactic that led to 15,000 new customers a month, every month, for BoxyCharm 22:30 Why you should get your customers excited before offering your referral program 28:25 Understanding how referral products can affect your supply chain 34:25 Understanding temporary churn and on/off customers 45:10 Tools and best practices for managing customer relationships 49:05 EcommerceTech.io resources 53:37 Outro

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, email copywriting expert Nikki Elbaz taught us how to write emails that increase AOV, CLV, CTR, and all the other good acronyms. We discussed:  The #1 (really easy!) email opportunity every subscription business needs to take advantage of The difference between subscriptions and memberships – and how they’ll affect your email planning Promos, perks, and pauses – the emails to send within each of the 3 subscriber cycle stages Dos and don’ts of subscription emails – using examples from the wild About Nikki: Dubbed “the Queen of Emails” by too many people to count, Nikki is the copywriter behind emails for Shopify Plus, Resident Home, Four Sigmatic, and more. Previously the Head of Email for the Copyhackers Agency, her micro-agency helps SaaS and ecomm brands hit that elusive $1:$40 ROI. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce). Timestamps: 0:00 - ARPU Intro 4:16 - Nikki's journey to becoming email royalty 5:55 - Why subscription emails are so critical 8:04 - Why you shouldn’t reuse VIP email for subscription emails 12:41 - Emails to send your subscribers and when 15:02 - Emails to send to non-subscribers 18:34 - Types of one-off campaigns to send 22:17 - What to send to product subscribers 26:52 - What to send to churned subscribers 29:35 - Auditing emails you send to not yet subscribers 29:40 - Not yet subscriber: Post purchase nurture email audit 32:38 - Not yet subscriber: Replenishment email audit 36:21 - Not yet subscriber: One-off campaign email audit 40:25 - Auditing current subscriber emails 40:26 - Current subscriber: Initial order confirmation email audit 41:56 - Current subscriber: Upcoming orders email audit 50:34 - Tip: Don’t send an email with a dead-end 50:54 - Current subscriber: Shipping confirmation email audit 53:53 - Current subscriber: Delivery confirmation email audit 57:42 - Current subscriber: Perk email audit 59:25 - Churned subscribers: Cancellation email audit 1:02:45 - Churned subscribers: Feedback email audit 1:05:56 - Churned subscriber: Winback email audit 1:07:49 - Recap 1:10:24 - How to approach subscribers who continually delay subscription 1:13:04 - The difference between subscription and memberships and how that affects your email planning 1:15:20 - Audit your own email flows 1:22:24 - Where to find Nikki

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked with Brad Hoose, CEO of The Outloud Group, about the potential of using influencers to increase LTV. We discussed: How subscription brands are uniquely poised to benefit from influencer marketing How finding the right influencers can help drive long-term subscriptions What subscription brands really need to do to make the most of influencer marketing     Brad is CEO of The Outloud Group, a leading influencer marketing agency that has helped innovative consumer brands like Athletic Greens, Grubhub, and KiwiCo grow through partnerships with highly trusted influencers to deliver measurable results. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce). Timestamps  0:00 - Intro 1:31 - Brad's journey to founding The Outloud Group 3:20 - What does it mean to be an influencer? 8:37 - People trust people (and influencers) more than brands 11:35 - How subscription brands are uniquely poised to benefit from influencer marketing  16:24 - The potential result of influencers working with brands long-term 21:02 - Finding the right influencer 26:17 - Brand voice vs. brand advocacy 30:10 - Why you should look for influencers who are excited about what you sell 32:38 - How influencers can target segments 34:31 - What subscription brands really need to do to make the most of influencer marketing     40:58 - Different ad setups for influencers 44:41 - Potential ARPU project: Subscription Life of Pets... Can we leverage TikTok? Can you?

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked with Andrew Forman, CEO & Co-founder of Givz, about dumping discounts for donations to increase your social good and customer LTV.  We discussed:  How discounts on the first order can decrease overall LTV, and how to avoid this phenomenon Why customer agency is so important in today's landscape How social good can be woven in authentically overnight The math behind donation incentives and how they work in the real world  About Andrew:  Andrew is on a mission to help companies drive sales and avoid discounts while building their brand image. He is CEO & Co-Founder of Givz, an ecommerce marketing platform that helps Shopify sellers give shoppers the option to donate to charity with their purchase. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce). Timestamps 1:31 - Andrew's journey to founding Givz, the company's values, and how it helps ecommerce businesses stop running discounts, build goodwill with customers, and increase profits 9:41 - How social good can be woven into your company authentically  13:21 - How brands can leverage donations without coming across as opportunistic 18:02 - How discounts on the first order can decrease overall LTV 21:51 - Quick math breakdown of how the option to donate to a charity works 23:24 - Why customer agency is so important in today's landscape 30:03 - How a donation service can fit in to subscription selling 39:29 - The math you'll want to do if you’re considering adding donations  48:21 - Building customer segments based on what they’ve donated to previously 49:23 - How Recharge sellers can get setup with Givz (and possibly use both Givz and ARPU together) 52:21 - Where to find Andrew and Givz

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked with Gen Furukawa, Co-founder of Prehook.   We discussed:  - Why brands that prioritize zero party data collection have an advantage over those that don’t - How to create a high-quality, enjoyable quiz experience your customers will love - How to use quiz data to personalize a subscriber’s experience as you market to them across channels   About Gen:  Gen is Co-Founder of Prehook, a quiz platform that helps DTC brands accelerate list growth, improve sales, and capture zero party data. Brands like Brevitē, Spikeball, and Teelixir use Prehook quizzes to improve marketing and personalization across channels. Gen is also host of the weekly ecommerce marketing podcast, Cart Overflow.   If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps: 0:44 - Intro 2:53 - Gen's journey to founding Prehook, the company's values, and how it helps ecommerce businesses collect data and serve customers 6:46 - Defining data types (zero, first, third, etc.) 11:38 - What makes a quiz good   13:16 - Examples of brands with good quizzes 16:03 - Setting expectations for quizzes 17:03 - Number of questions to ask in a quiz 19:47 - The curiosity gap effect on quizzes 21:18 - What makes bad quizzes bad 22:50 - The results brands that do well with quizzes achieve 23:56 - Completion benchmarks and tips for building quizzes customers finish 29:04 - When to introduce a quiz 32:40 - Ways to use quiz data: building customer messaging and relationships 38:30 - Using quiz data to fuel info emails between renewals 44:25 - Prehook's mission and future plans 52:34 - Why you should reverse engineer quiz flows to the data you want to gather and use in serving customers 54:08 - Where to find Gen and Prehook if you have questions

Katharine McKee is founder of Morphology Consulting, a digital commerce consultancy that creates long term profitable growth for clients by helping them understand and adhere to algorithmic systems online. She helps ecommerce brands focus on building clean processes. In her career, she's built out digital commerce for companies in CPG, Luxury, Beauty and Apparel. To date, Katharine has overhauled the digital go-to-market for more than 50 brands (including Fortune 500s like Coty, Luxottica, and IPG Media Brands), and has sustainably increased client revenue up to 600% YoY. Topics we covered: Why creating the right environment can get you clean data and help you gain long-term subscriptions How subscription brands can improve margins with a strong go-to-market strategy Mistakes she sees almost everyone make with Shopify templates + how to fix them to build a profitability flywheel If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps   0:00 Intro 0:19 Katharine's journey to founding Morphology Consulting, and how she helps ecommerce businesses clean up systems to improve margins 4:28 Shopify template mistakes you might be making + how they impact your expenses and revenue 11:58 How do you fix these sorts of mistakes to help Google recognize you as credible, which should result in less expensive ads? 14:19 When you set up your template in Shopify, make it scrapeable and indexable (not necessarily "pretty") 19:52 When you buy Google ads, "you're buying up the difference between what you said you do and what Google confirmed you do" 21:36 Discount popups aren't worth the hit you take from Google  25:12 Common product page mistakes that decrease your quality score 30:58 Katharine's preferred subscription vs one-time purchase customer journey 33:49 How Morphology works with merchants to improve site performance and improve margins 41:44 Why recommending the best-fit products to subscription customers can be powerful 48:46 Advice on launching a new product line 59:12 Why you should stop trying to sell people things they don't want and get clean data that tells you what they would actually consider buying

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we spoke with Jon MacDonald, Founder and President of The Good. This episode is primarily a screenshare of Jon doing a conversion-focused teardown of Primal Kitchen, covering what they're doing well and what they might test/improve. Jon does a great job of describing what's on screen, but if you'd like to visually follow along with the teardown, you can check out the YouTube recording here: https://youtu.be/X0gp-FBBYtM During our conversation, we discussed: How to make a good first impression: build trust, crush objections, and set expectations How to present a subscription offering How to design a high performing onboarding and post-purchase experience (maximize retention) About Jon: Jon MacDonald, Founder and President of The Good, advises on ecommerce conversion rate optimization and customer experience. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:17 Jon's journey to The Good, and how he helps ecommerce businesses optimize conversion rates 4:55 Why he doesn't love discount email popups, and what you might consider instead (Start of Screenshare) 7:50 Why keeping the hero imagery simple by featuring a new product / category is better than trying to include a bunch of products or information 8:33 How to think like a shopper and create navigation that helps them buy, especially when it comes to the top navigation (including how to avoid sending them back up the sales funnel instead of down) 11:50 Why you should set really clear expectations of what filling out an email sign up form means, and what that should include 14:05 The case for clear calls to action 15:19 The pitfalls of carousels 17:20 The challenge with using Add To Cart on the homepage  18:56 Why you should consider creating visually consistent, clear CTAs 19:35 Don't bury subscriptions/memberships toward the bottom of the page 20:46 The optimal "Shop our Instagram" experience 21:31 How to make testimonials stronger 23:43 Consider adding a Need it Today section if the site visitor can buy local (+ language you can pair with this to encourage subscriptions) 24:13 How to arrange your site's footer 27:25 Consider beefing up category pages to do more than show just the products in that category 28:35 The danger of not offering a Learn More / View Details type CTA in addition to Add to Cart 30:40 Product page pointers, including images, product description, subscription expectation setting, reviews, and the optimal order of the content on this page 47:45 The value of A/B testing 51:46 What should happen after someone converts on a subscription (this includes the emails you should send and how to manage your brand's relationship with a subscriber) 56:40 When should you promote more products to subscribers? 58:50 How much email is too much email in addition to an upcoming shipment notification?

To kick off 2022, we spoke with Austin Gardner-Smith of Bainbridge. We discussed: Why it's important to dig into your financial data to forecast and make decisions Which metrics subscription ecommerce sellers should focus on Which levers you can pull to maximize value in a DTC ecommerce business How changes/improvements actually impact the bottom line and balance sheet About Austin: Austin is Co-Founder & President at Bainbridge, an integrated SaaS solution that combines data, analytics, and finance for DTC brands. They help ecommerce companies (including subscription brands like MUD\WTR, Geologie, and Wandering Bear Coffee) take control of data and finances. You might want to check out their Weekly DTC Benchmarks Newsletter. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps: 2:11 Austin's journey to Bainbridge, and how they help DTCs understand the Money Numbers 7:29 Why it's important to understand CAC AND LTV (Austin wants you to understand something he calls Contribution Margin) 9:46 Example: One DTC brand discovered how accessorial fees were hurting their contribution margin and negotiated better rates 18:47 Additional metrics subscription merchants should monitor (+ why LTV should be specific to a certain time period) 20:18 The value of understanding Delay Retention Rate (yes, that's an ARPU term we're in the process of creating) 24:10 Predictability in subscriptions is finicky. Cohort analysis can help keep you out of a cash trough 26:59 Should a 1:3 CAC:LTV ratio be the goal in DTC ecom? 29:05 Do you really have a subscription business if people subscribe and churn quickly? 35:37 Levers sellers can pull to impact the bottomline (including increasing prices!) 42:30 What Bainbridge actually does for DTC merchants

For the last episode of 2021, we talked with Jamie Levy of Shopify Plus.  We discussed:  How to build and foster connections with your biggest fans - Why your brand should create a mission that’s bigger than your product What community really means (broadly and in terms of subscription ecommerce) How to involve your subscribers in the decision-making process About Jamie:   Jamie is the Head of Engagement at Shopify Plus (North America). Her career has spanned both ecommerce and supply chain logistics. She is passionate about ecommerce strategy, storytelling, and relationship development. At Shopify Plus, she works to find ways to connect merchants with each other.  If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  We're taking a break for the Holidays, but we'll be back in January with more amazing guests and discussions. This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro: Jamie's journey to Shopify Plus 8:59 The value of providing ways for customers to connect 12:15 Why brands should have a mission that goes beyond selling products 16:08 Don't punctuate your sentences: How brands can be more human and open lines of communication 25:35 How Jamie connects customers and the product team to ensure roadmap decisions are made with them in mind (Great idea to borrow, y'all) 27:49 What happens when brands create reactions and connections 37:26 What community really means (spoiler: Jamie thinks it's a buzz word and I like her reasoning) 47:47 Connecting isn't for everyone, and that's ok! 53:26 Why brands should be generous  59:07 Reconsider how you reward subscribers: try letting them tell you what they'd like those rewards to be

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we sat down with Kelly Vaughn, Co-founder of Govalo and Founder and CEO of The Taproom. We discussed  How offering more powerful gift cards could be a Shopify seller’s ultimate solution to this holiday season’s supply chain issues Why you should make subscription management as convenient as possible The benefits of creating and communicating really compelling reasons to subscribe How gift cards can be used as a retention strategy  About Kelly:  Kelly has over a decade of experience in ecommerce.  About Kelly: She’s the Co-founder of Govalo, a brand new Shopify gift card solution that offers send scheduling and an out-of-stock integration.  She is also Founder and CEO of The Taproom, an agency that builds custom development solutions for ecommerce sellers on Shopify and Shopify+. Her team has worked with clients including All Girl Shave Club, Eat Your Coffee, and Mask Moments.   Kelly co-hosts both the Ladybug Podcast and Commerce Tea, and authored Start Freelancing Today. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/  We'll be back every other Wednesday.    This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify + BigCommerce) Timestamps 2:58 The story behind Govalo: a better Shopify gift card experience 5:16 How offering more powerful gift cards could help with supply chain woes 9:03 The benefits of giving and receiving gift cards to specific stores 12:26 Govalo's plans to integrate with Recharge 14:04 Why merchants should make subscription management as easy as possible 18:23 Why you should create compelling reasons for customers to subscribe 22:03 Taproom examples of how to build out subscription benefits on your website 25:43 Why Kelly prefers community-based subscriptions 29:14 Don't be afraid of having a small community 30:40 How to use gift cards as part of a retention strategy 47:38 How you can use ARPU and Govalo together right now

In this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked with Kristen LafFrance, Director of Community at Repeat. We discussed How to make the progression from one-time customer, to repeat customer, to subscription customer a human-to-human experience Why brands should prioritize buyers' real life goals Which emails you should (and shouldn't!) send to repeat customers and subscribers You can check out the video recording of this discussion here: https://youtu.be/Y6RkrpdNTNg About Kristen: She’s currently the Director of Community at Repeat (https://www.getrepeat.io/) and is on a mission to bring humanity back into ecommerce. Kristen has worked with hundreds of top companies (including ButcherBox, Box of Style, Four Sigmatic, and LOLA) to improve MRR and build deeper connections with their customers. Before joining Repeat, she served as Head of Resilient Retail at Shopify and Director of Growth & Community at Churn Buster. If you learn something from this discussion, we’d love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ We’ll be back every other Wednesday. Register for the live recording here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfu6pqz0jGNFoEIBB4LJvCW9jKwf8GjPG This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify)) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:14 Q&A with Kristen LaFrance of Repeat 4:17 A walk through the journey from one-time, to repeat, to subscription customer 7:04 The reality of subscriptions: they're like marriages and shouldn't be rushed 9:59 The danger of defaulting to subscription: It's a battle between a short-term win and a long-term customer 12:01 How to be a more human, empathetic brand: creating a customer experience in every touch point 17:29 How to test messaging to create amazing flows 21:13 Why you should teach your buyers to expect good email content from your brand 23:23 The value of building segments based on engagement  25:21 Why you should prioritize understanding your buyer's life goals and build something that is bigger than the product 33:14 Which messages you should (and shouldn't!) send buyers 53:25 Why you should run a retention audit (experience the product as the consumer)

For this episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we chatted with Matt Houlemard, Tech Partner Manager at Recharge. We discussed: How to introduce subscriptions  How to optimize your subscriber’s journey to increase core metrics How to scale up your subscription program You can check out the video recording of this Q&A here: https://youtu.be/KqFJUS-VwrQ About Matt: He’s a Tech Partner Manager at Recharge (former Account Manager) where he builds relationships across Recharge tech partners, merchants, and the ecommerce industry. Recharge is a subscription payments platform used by over 15,000 merchants to reduce churn and increase lifetime value. Matt offers a valuable perspective on subscription ecommerce strategy, selling, and customer journey optimization and experience. If you learn something from this discussion, we’d love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ We’ll be back every other Wednesday. Register for the live recording here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfu6pqz0jGNFoEIBB4LJvCW9jKwf8GjPG This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify)) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:05 Q&A Matt Houlemard of Recharge 2:53 Matt's background and role at Recharge 8:45 Why being human (instead of transactional) is important 10:20 Focus on the customer journey as you introduce subscriptions 12:48 Positioning the value of your subscription 15:26 Going beyond "we offer a subscription" 32:44 Why the post-purchase experience is important 37:15 The current data on subscription growth and what will be important for sellers 40:34 Scaling subscriptions 46:06 Why making it convenient to modify subscriptions is successful

On this week’s episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, Niccolò Gloazzo, director of ecommerce at Kettle & Fire and founder of Qbrico, joined us to talk about When to use a subscription model Critical subscription ecommerce metrics you should focus on How his team focuses on retaining customers and more You can check out the video recording of this Q&A here: https://youtu.be/EPdMpjEyg2w About Niccolò: He is the Director of Ecommerce at Kettle & Fire and the Founder of Qbrico. Niccolò is passionate about ecommerce growth and has first-hand experience in American and European markets. If you learn something from this discussion, we’d love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ We’ll be back every other Wednesday. Register for the live recording here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfu6pqz0jGNFoEIBB4LJvCW9jKwf8GjPG This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify)) 0:00 Intro 1:30 Q&A with Niccolò Gloazzo 02:58 When to offer a subscription 04:37 The value of offering a subscription service 06:00 Core metrics you should focus on: Opt-in rate 10:37 Leveraging benefits for your subscription 12:24 Core metrics: Churn rate 15:19 Which customer touchpoints are essential 18:09 How to make a fun cancellation flow that doesn't irritate customers 20:31 Delays as a core metric 22:27 Core metrics: Reactivation 26:49 The core metric that small businesses need to focus on 28:21 Core metrics: Upgrading/Downgrading 29:56 Alternatives to replenishment products in a subscription service 35:30 How to succeed in customer retention 38:25 Metrics to focus on during Q4

On this week’s episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, John Erck of Rebuy joined us to chat about Why smart product recommendations should feel like asking a good waiter what to order Why truly personalized retention strategies are effective Which tactics are critical for subscription brands to win in Q4 and more You can check out the video recording of this Q&A here: https://youtu.be/3Elpv_5cHkA About John: He’s the co-founder of Rebuy (https://rebuyengine.com/), an omni-channel personalization engine built to increases online sales and conversions by upselling, cross-selling, recommending products, and personalizing the online shopping experience. If you learn something from this discussion, we’d love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ We’ll be back every other Wednesday. Register for the live recording here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfu6pqz0jGNFoEIBB4LJvCW9jKwf8GjPG This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify)) 0:00 Intro 0:06 Q&A John Erck of Rebuy  2:04 John's background and what Rebuy does 2:44 Why we should look to the restaurant industry for cross-selling, upselling, and recommendations inspiration 5:19 It's up to brands to build trust so that recommendations work 11:07 The power of personalization when it comes to retention 14:17 How Kettle & Fire uses personalization to drive retention 17:17 Two major opportunities to promote subscriptions 21:41 How John set a Guinness World Record 26:26 What subscription sellers should plan for Q4 38:44 How brands sometimes overthink recommendations 41:09 When someone adds an extra item in checkout, they're 4x more likely to complete that checkout

On this week's episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, Eli Weiss of OLIPOP joined us to chat about Why he loves doing things that don’t scale How to learn what really appeals to subscription customers  Why an amazing customer experience is critical for subscription ecommerce and more You can check out the video recording of this Q&A here: https://youtu.be/fPZSYWlAIqA About Eli: He’s currently the Director of Customer Experience at OLIPOP. Eli has spent 7+ years building and operating early-stage startups. He’s particularly known for his work around Customer Experience and Retention at DTC brands. If you learn something from this discussion, we'd love to have you join us next time. Learn more about this series here: https://liveseries.getarpu.com/ We'll be back every other Wednesday. Register for the live recording here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApfu6pqz0jGNFoEIBB4LJvCW9jKwf8GjPG This series is brought to you by GetARPU.com, which helps subscription sellers make more money and retain more customers with upcoming shipment notifications that offer 2-click upsells and delays. Check us out if you want to provide an amazing experience for your subscription customers. (Syncs with ReCharge (Shopify)) Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:22 Q&A with Eli Weiss of OLIPOP 4:31 Listening to consumers is something that feels very simple, but brands don't do it 5:24 The most underutilized part of CPG and DTC is support 9:19 Most brands have a rigid approach to putting out fires but you win when you get human 13:30 How to build an experience team that gets it 17:03 How to learn what subscription members really want 20:14 Why you shouldn't shift blame. Just own mistakes. 23:48 Why setting clear expectations is critical 33:35 An interesting approach to loyalty and subscription: create a journey 38:33 How OLIPOP customizes messaging to offer subscriptions on the 2nd order