Selling subscriptions is a great gig. Once a buyer becomes a subscriber you have the hope of creating a long-term customer along with monthly subscription revenue. This brings us to ask the question. After someone has become a subscriber is it possible to increase the subscription value with upsells?
To some it may seem like the window of opportunity has closed. That it’s now time to hunker down and focus your energy on customer retention. Surprisingly upsells are a strategic way to increase both customer retention and the monthly subscription amount post-purchase.
In this article, we’ll cover some tips on how you can use upsells to increase your monthly subscription revenue.
Product Upsells
Before you get started creating an upsell offer for every item in your store it’s important to invest time in analyzing your customer’s needs. Not every product will make a great upsell. It’s best to choose an item that will be the next logical purchase or works well with the products they’ve subscribed to.
Upsells tailored to the needs of your customer keep the experience fresh and exciting while reducing customer churn.
It’s said that the best subscription businesses retain 65% of their revenue after one year. Imagine what your business revenue would look like if each month you retained 65% of new subscribers for a one-year period. That’s an amazing amount of recurring revenue for your eCommerce business.
Clearly making it a goal to use upsells post-purchase is well worth the time investment.
Use Store Notices
Use store notices to create upsell offers to existing subscribers. In this example, we are using the WooCommerce Advanced Messages plugin to create custom store notices. The notices will appear only to existing subscribers.
For meal service companies encourage customers to add new items to their subscription when they log in to edit their weekly preferences.
Post Checkout Thank You Page Upsell
Don’t overlook the power of an upsell on a thank you page. If you’re not redirecting customers, post-purchase to a thank you page you’re wasting a valuable opportunity to increase subscription revenue.
The customer has already expressed their interest in your product. Build the relationship even further by tailoring the thank you page based on their purchase.
In the example below we created a thank you page using the WooCommerce Redirect Thank You extension. This plugin allows you to show a specific thank you page based on what products were purchased.
Here our dog food company offers subscribers to the senior dog food line a discount on all dog supplements.
Email Offerings
Ecommerce businesses that engage regularly with their customers have a higher customer retention rate. The higher the engagement rate the longer the relationship.
Use creative email offerings to increase engagement.
Take for example a group of restaurants that recently offered a subscription for a supper club. Subscribers received a home-delivered gourmet meal for 6 weeks costing them $360. The offer sold out in 6 days!
Research shows that consumers often cancel a subscription due to the lack of fun or new experiences.
Keep your subscribers on edge by using email promotions to offer new and exciting upsells.
Upsell with Free Trials
If you watched any TV throughout the pandemic it’s likely you started with a free trial of some streaming service. Before you knew it your free trial was over and you had officially become a paying customer. That’s because free trials work. One study showed that 66% of trials convert into a customer.
Your existing customer base already believes in your company and products. Offer free trials to increase sales and the lifetime value of your customers.
Conclusion
The UBS financial services predict the subscription economy will grow 1.5 trillion by 2025. Double where it’s at now.
Investing time into building subscription offerings in your WooCommerce shop is not in vain. There’s no doubt as the industry continues to grow the competition will increase. Take the time now to understand your customers and what they need.
In the long run, you will retain more subscribers and encourage and increase your monthly subscription revenue.
Subscriber Retention Checklist
Download the free checklist.
