I enjoyed my time with the Recharge team and other partners in San Diego this week for ChargeX24. See my recap on LinkedIn here.
Recharge has spent a decade powering subscriptions for 20,000+ brands, boasting over 100 million subscribers on their platform, which means they have access to a plethora of data. I'm happy to see them leverage their unique position to build products that better serve merchants through access to data insights, enriched customer experiences, robust analytics, and tools to guide strategic planning.
One of the highlights at ChargeX was Recharge’s announcement of Retain, a suite of products that, "work together to keep customers coming back at each stage of their subscription journeys—and, when they choose not to, to gather data on why and inform business decisions upstream." (Source)
Features include:
- Personalized cancellation prevention, like unique product suggestions tailored to customer profiles, subscription preferences, number of orders, etc.
- Flexible rewards and incentives (like credits, progressive discounts, and milestone gifts) to build long-term customer loyalty and repeat purchases.
- Failed payment recovery using AI to proactively detect, diagnose, and resolve failed payments, reducing financial losses from passive churn.
- Dynamic winbacks (coming soon) to re-engage churned subscribers with personalized offers and unique subscription perks on customized landing pages.
Beyond the announcements from Recharge, here are some additional takeaways:
- Recharge's new SVP of Marketing, Jen Gray, introduced the concept of brands that are bought vs. kept. I loved this—everyone is always so focused on conversion, but that's just the beginning of the story. Are we adding tangible value? Is the unboxing memorable? Are customers guided on how to use the products effectively? The most successful brands seamlessly integrate their products into the customer's daily routine.
- Author Erik Qualman pointed out that a lack of pushback often means you're not innovating. This was a powerful reminder to embrace risks and not shy away from potential failures.
- I picked up on a subtle theme around subscription skips among merchant speakers. For some, like scent brand, Pura, they found that allowing customers to skip shipments was healthy for their business, despite the short-term drop in sales. It allowed customers to lean into seasonal preferences and they subscribed longer as a result. For others, skips signal a need for better customer education. One brand is currently embarking on a survey to understand why customers are skipping.
- Love Wellness VP of Customer Experience, Amanda Kwasniewicz, talked through the journey of redesigning packaging for omnichannel success. It's interesting—brands who launch in DTC can control the full customer experience, but as soon as they enter other channels, the packaging has to work harder to tell the same story.
- Amazon continues to be a topic in the DTC conversation (and I don't see this changing). Kwasniewicz spoke about how effective Amazon has been for Love Wellness. Many customers treat Amazon as a search engine and discover the brand there. The good news is most find the website later and subscribe.
- OPositiv CMO, Martin Ye, shared how understanding customer behavior early on can be predictive of long-term engagement patterns. This is a great mindset for marketers—analyze cohorts, identify behavioral trends, and make more proactive, strategic decisions about your customer experience.
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This post originally appeared in #78 of The E-Commerce Corner. Subscribe here.
Friday, May 3, 2024
