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What Is The Setup For Subscription Businesses?

What Is The Setup For Subscription Businesses?

16th March 2022
9 Minute Read

As more subscription businesses turn to the likes of ecommerce to grow their ventures, creativity and innovation are becoming vital strategies.

Madeleine

Written by Madeleine

16th March 2022
9 Minute Read

As more subscription businesses turn to the likes of ecommerce to grow their ventures, creativity and innovation are becoming vital strategies to set one brand apart from the next.

An increasing number of online retailers are enthusiastically adopting a more modular strategy through the use of subscription based business model connectors and applications in 2022 to design a bespoke and seamless consumer experience for their customers.

So, if you've decided that incorporating a subscription based business model into the core of your brand would be beneficial to your organisation, the next step is to determine which applications and tools your store requires.

The simplest place to begin is by determining your store’s current stage of development, whether you're just getting started, scaling up, or maturing your brand. Many merchants will manage a subscription based business model at some point along the way.

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Quick Answer

Klaviyo is a terrific option for integrating email marketing into a subscription based business model, whereas Gorgias is a fantastic customer support integration to work with.

However, it’s important to consider that there are many more options and routes to follow, including analytics and SMS marketing solutions, which have been included within today’s guide.

So, be sure to take notes as we walk you through the best solutions for Shopify stores that operate on a subscription model basis:

Integrations for New Subscription Businesses 🔌

The key focus for subscription businesses that are just getting started with their new setup will usually focus on the subscription management tools that can aid customer acquisition and ensure a smooth launch.

Then, once a program has been optimised and set up for success pre-launch, management applications for subscription businesses would benefit a merchant greatly, as these tools often are centred around communications and marketing.

So, how can brands increase awareness and the adoption of their store’s new subscription based business model, whilst engaging customers in a long-term relationship and increasing the average customer lifetime value (LTV)?

These are the questions that we will address within today's guide by taking a look at some of the top subscription business setup integrations accessible in 2022:

Email Campaign Apps for Subscription Businesses

Third-party programmes such as Klaviyo can help subscription businesses on Shopify to market their brand to consumers via the likes of implementing strategic email campaigns that segment recipient lists, focusing on customers from the past, present and future.

Email marketing is also a very popular strategy when it comes to scaling and maturing a subscription based business model as a means of increasing retention and preventing churn.

Text Management Apps for Subscription Businesses

As consumer preferences have shifted to mobile-first in 2022, transactional SMS has become a growing method of communication for ecommerce subscription businesses to reach out to their customers.

It is thought that text messages have a 209% higher response rate than marketing communications offered via; phone, email and/ or social media channels such as Facebook.

For instance, RechargeSMS enables users to change their customer subscription plans from their phone via the Recharge Subscriptions application, which has been proven to raise the average customer lifetime value between 15% and 30% for stores on Shopify.

Furthermore, customers can also use text messaging to:

  • Access their account without logging in.
  • Keep track of recurring payments.
  • Learn more about subscription businesses.
  • Pay for their subscription plan.

In 2022, consumers like to be able to engage with subscription businesses via SMS and according to what we've heard, deploying advanced win-back strategies such as SMS marketing could prevent your customers from cancelling their subscription plans.

So, take it from us, providing this kind of flexibility is critical for companies with a subscription based business model.

Growth Apps for Subscription Businesses

As a company grows beyond its start-up phase, greater emphasis is placed on personalisation and customer connections as a business begins to scale.

At this point, merchants should be aiming to improve their store’s shopping experience even further to boost customer engagement, retention and sales conversions.

Upsell Apps for Subscription Businesses

Upsell apps like Rebuy work to modify the purchasing experience by implementing features such as; add-ons at the checkout, subscription upgrades in the cart and post-purchase upsells.

With automatic win-back campaigns and reactivation discounts, apps such as this can help subscription businesses to boost their average order value (AOV) in the pre-purchase phase whilst limiting churn rates, making all of the above purchasing experiences worth implementing.

Customer Loyalty Apps for Subscription Businesses

Loyalty and reward programmes, such as LoyaltyLion help stores on Shopify to reward their subscription based business model customers whilst encouraging them to stick around for longer.

With the Loyalty, Rewards and Referrals application, customers are rewarded for committing to recurring subscription plans and inviting others to subscribe via incentive marketing formats with these types of integrations.

Customer Support Apps for Subscription Businesses

Utilising a helpdesk system such as Gorgias for your customer support base can help stores on Shopify to boost their internal customer service productivity whilst providing a positive customer experience for their website visitors.

More specifically, applications such as Gorgias can even integrate directly with RechargeSMS to manage customer care tickets sent via SMS marketing campaigns to improve customer engagement.

Apps for Established Subscription Businesses 👥

The focus switches to operational efficacy and automation for mature subscription businesses with an established customer base.

Even with a regular stream of subscription orders, merchants can still improve their subscription based business model and the way to do so is to lower the workload required to operate at higher rates while continuing to analyse consumer behaviour.

Apps for Subscription Businesses to Analyse Customers

Analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Littledata are prevalent at this stage for merchants on Shopify to implement ecommerce monitoring and understand the consumer journey from marketing to subscription.

Therefore subscription businesses should be eager to discover where their customers are coming from and what motivates them to turn their browsing sessions into purchasing experiences.

Then, once the results are in, stores on Shopify can utilise this information to increase sales for their subscription based business model.

Automation Programmes for Subscription Businesses

Last but not least, automation programmes such as Zapier automate simple procedures by using triggers and actions to produce desired outcomes between apps, for instance by sending Slack channel alerts regarding new Recharge customers.

Recharge also features a native workflow feature that allows its users to automate specific operations, such as adjusting prices or exchanging products, from the first order onwards.

Take your Subscription Based Business Model Above and Beyond

There are a plethora of alternatives for subscription businesses to integrate repeat purchase services; yet, some retailers’ needs will go beyond what existing apps on the market can provide.

So, while existing apps make it easy for online stores to fill in the gaps, the Recharge API can be a useful tool for developing bespoke subscription based business models.

As a result, custom development via the API enables merchants to go above and beyond and offer extremely unique solutions.

Note: While any of these applications could serve a magnitude of subscription businesses at any time, today’s article functions as a starting point for those of you that are considering the best setup for a subscription based business model that will adapt a business and its customer experience in 2022.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get your subscription based business model off of the ground with the application and integrations listed throughout today’s article.

If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!

Get Started with Shopify

Looking to get started with Shopify? Take advantage of Shopify's 14-day free trial, no credit card is required.

If you're actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!

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