Maggie Johnson

Cross-selling is hands down one of the best strategies that ecommerce brands can use to increase average order value (AOV) and customer lifetime value (LTV). To further optimize the cross-sell experience—and simplify the backend work for your team—online stores can use a variety of technological tools that will transform their efforts. 

Kicking off season four of our Hit Subscribe podcast, we chatted with David McQueen Johnston, Head of Ecommerce Technology Development at Symprove. He’s been in the ecommerce industry for decades and shared with us his takeaways on the industry’s growth and change in the last several years. 

Strong marketing strategies can help your subscription business stand out in a crowded market. As more brands add recurring revenue to their roster, stores that offer subscriptions need to get creative with their marketing strategies to stay competitive, attract new customers, and retain their current subscribers.

Has your brand gone viral? If you’re not on TikTok, then the answer is probably “no.” 

Customer lifetime value (LTV) is one of the most crucial metrics that ecommerce businesses should measure. It shows the average amount a shopper spends with your store throughout their lifespan as a customer—or the amount of revenue a business can expect from the average customer.

Those in the ecommerce industry know and understand the importance of personalization in the customer journey. A personalized shopping experience can help you engage better with customers and increase retention by customizing the shopping journey to their specific needs. 

One key ecommerce metric that all merchants should be measuring is average order value, or AOV. There are all kinds of ways to boost AOV, many of which we’ve covered on our blog in the past. One crucial mode is by focusing on customer loyalty—which is what we’ll talk about in this post. 

In this series, we’re talking all about how ecommerce merchants can create valuable content for their customers—in turn optimizing their customer experience and naturally retaining more customers. 

So, you’ve made moves to optimize your ecommerce business and implemented bundles. But how do you know if you’re seeing the results you’d like? We’re going to dive into exactly that in this post—so your business can reap the benefits of product bundling. 

As the ecommerce landscape continues to change, businesses need to reevaluate their offerings to ensure they’re giving customers the best experience and the right level of access to their brand. 

Communicating with your customers happens through a number of channels. It may take some experimentation to see what your customers respond to, depending on their demographic and how they like to consume information. 

Migrating your subscribers from one platform to another might seem like a daunting task. Maybe it’s held you back from even considering migrating, if you’re dissatisfied with the current subscription management software you’re using now. But, selecting the right subscription management platform for your business is an integral part of achieving success with subscriptions. 

Social platforms are constantly changing and evolving, but Instagram has continued to have a stronghold among a wide variety of audiences since it launched over a decade ago. However, creating content that will resonate with your customers and satisfy the algorithm can sometimes feel like Goldilocks looking for the chair that’s just right for her. 

In the second post of our new content series, we’re sharing the best strategies to focus on when it comes to creating content for YouTube for subscription brands. Any direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand should be curious about how they can utilize YouTube to create content that adds value to their customer experience. Whether you sell vitamins or blenders or snack boxes, there’s probably a place within the world of YouTube for your content—and the information below can help you determine if creating video content is right for your brand. 

Have you ever put something back because it cost too much? Or removed an item from your online shopping cart because it put your order total over what you were hoping to spend? Chances are, every consumer has had more than a few experiences like this. 

Are you looking to start the year with a website refresh? Or just curious how you can make some small changes that will go a long way in improving your customer experience? We’ve pulled together some of the best ways you can make your website pop, while providing all the information necessary for your subscribers to make purchases. Plus, we’ve included merchant examples so you can see how these ideas are already functioning out in the world. 

In this first post of our new content series, we’re sharing all the tips and inspiration you need to create a blog that not only serves your subscribers, but can also help you bring in new customers. Throughout this series, we’ll be exploring the various types of content that merchants should create, depending on their business goals and target audience. 

We’ve talked about ecommerce holiday planning strategies and how subscriptions can help eliminate holiday stress for merchants—but what about making subscriptions an appealing gift? This strategy can not only give your subscribers the opportunity to gift their favorite products (on repeat), but can also help you capture new customers during the busy holiday season.

So many products exist today that are best used when combined with other products. Take skincare, for example. Influencers boast their multi-step skincare routines because glowing skin isn’t usually the result of just soap and water. Beauty products are often bundled together so that consumers can take care of all aspects of their skincare, without missing a step.

It’s no surprise that connection is a core value for Keap Candles—a candle company that strives to create beautiful moments in their customers' lives while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability and their relationship with the earth.  

Striking a balance between customer acquisition costs and customer retention efforts is a delicate dance that all ecommerce merchants have to play. 

Everyone is talking about Gen Z (rightfully so, as we’re the best generation). Jokes aside, direct-to-consumer brands need to have a clear understanding of this up-and-coming generation in order to successfully market their products and services. The way Gen Z consumes content and interacts with brands is vastly different than the way their parents did, or even the way their closest generation—millennials—do. 

Subscription merchants looking to set themselves apart from the crowd might already be considering memberships, an effective way to create community and excitement around a brand. While some businesses operate solely under the membership model, there is also the possibility for subscription businesses to take advantage of memberships. 

In season three of our Hit Subscribe podcast, we talked with Pratik Rijal, COO at Nepal Tea Collective. Pratik shared with us the story of his family and their community in Nepal, and how producing tea empowered them to improve life in their village. Not only that, but Nepal Tea Collective now provides educational scholarships and COVID help for farmers and their families, among other initiatives, through their foundation. 

So, you’ve decided to start a subscription business. Or maybe you’re adding subscription options to your thriving online business. But, you need a way to handle the recurring payments and customer support requests that you know will come in with these new offerings.

Offering subscriptions in addition to one-time purchases is one of the best ways to set up recurring revenue—and therefore passive income—for your online business. With the subscribe-and-save model, you give customers the chance to sign up for a relationship with your brand, not just a transaction of money and goods or services. 

Are you ready to start a subscription business, but looking for some inspiration to get the ideas rolling? 

If you’re a merchant who has always dreamed about starting your own subscription business but aren’t sure where to begin, then you’re in the right place. This post will explore what the subscription business model is and give you a better understanding of the steps you’ll need to take to start offering subscriptions, like choosing the right subscription management platform, building a website, and launching a marketing strategy. 

Online stores looking to increase their customer lifetime value (LTV) and grow customer loyalty should consider developing a subscription business model. It’s no secret that subscription businesses form stronger relationships with their customers, leading to reliable recurring revenue and lower customer acquisition costs (CAC). 

Launching a subscription business, but not sure where to start? Or maybe you’re not sure how to manage all subscriptions offered by your online store? Selecting the right subscription ecommerce platform is an essential part of creating a successful subscription business, laying the foundation for stores to support their subscribers throughout the customer journey. 

The subscription business model is growing in popularity, and for good reason. Recurring revenue gives businesses reliability that they don’t have with traditional one-time purchases. It also gives brands a chance to cultivate a strong long-term relationship with their shoppers, meaning increased customer loyalty and better retention.

So, you want to offer subscriptions to your customers. You know these offerings will likely help you increase average order value (AOV) and reduce churn, but you are unsure how to make everything come together. 

Are you tired of centering so much effort and relying on big numbers around just one period of the year? What if there was a better approach that allowed you to capture customers and ensure they continue making purchases with your online store? 

Headless is a term that is gaining traction in the ecommerce industry, but one that many find hard to understand. We sat down with Scott Knight, Founder and CEO at Alpha Omega Agency (AOA), on season three of our Hit Subscribe podcast to learn more about what headless means and the impact it will have on the future of ecommerce. 

In season three of our Hit Subscribe podcast, we talked with Justine and Rebecca Woods, CEO and Head of Logistics at The Bookish Box. We learned all about how Bookish has naturally built a community around their brand as they’ve grown, and how they are enjoying the benefits of this strong community today.  

Are you looking for a simple way to increase average order value (AOV) for your business? Trying to get more products off your shelves? Cross-selling might be the solution for you. By showing your customers additional items to buy, you can encourage them to spend more money while clearing inventory—perhaps on items you’ve had a hard time selling previously. 

Do you like receiving gifts with a purchase? What about when you get free shipping on an online order? Or earn points when you take a flight with your preferred airline? All of these benefits are actually loyalty program tactics that businesses use to retain you as a customer—and get you to spend more money with them. 

Choosing to offer subscriptions is an excellent way to provide your customers with a personalized customer journey. One merchant that has taken a very custom approach to their customer experience—with close attention to what information is shared with customers depending on their point in the customer journey—is Kettle & Fire. 

Anyone that works in the ecommerce industry knows that there are a million terms and acronyms used on a daily basis. Learning those terms—and their significance when it comes to running an ecommerce business—is crucial. But what separates gross merchandise value or gross merchandise volume (GMV) from the pack? And why is it such an important ecommerce term to learn?

This Earth Month, we are diving into the different ways that merchants are considering the environment as they do business. Subscription services lend themselves to ethical and sustainable practices since they allow merchants to predict future demand and give customers the chance to bundle their products and reduce shipping needs. 

Understanding direct-to-consumer (DTC) commerce is simple: Businesses sell their products or services directly to their end customers. In other words, the middleman is cut out of the chain, allowing merchants to reach their customers directly. Many businesses choose this particular business model so they have more control over the customer relationship. 

Two key members of the BIOHM Health team sat down on our Hit Subscribe podcast to chat all about the different ways they’ve created success within subscriptions and achieved high customer satisfaction. Through education efforts, a customer portal overhaul, and building a social media presence, BIOHM has seen big subscriber growth and steady retention rates. 

Business owners in the ecommerce industry recognize the importance of ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs). Succeeding in business is dependent on consumers being able to find your online store, which means successful ecommerce SEO is vital to your bottom line.

What happens when two brothers combine forces to take on conversion rate optimization (CRO) for some of the biggest names in ecommerce? In the case of Prismfly, really great things. 

When starting and optimizing your subscription business, there are a few mistakes you’ll want to avoid. Identifying what will make for a bad user experience and pinpointing where customers will churn can help you determine what needs to be done in order to increase your customer retention rates and lifetime value (LTV). 

As someone born in 1996, I’m stuck on the generational border between millennials and Gen Z, constantly in the middle of culture wars and defending controversial jean styles. Though I don’t always relate to either generation as a so-called “Zillenial,” I tend to lean more towards Gen Z, especially when it comes to my shopping habits. 

We talked to Ben Knox, SVP of Digital at Super Coffee, on our Hit Subscribe podcast all about how the company got started and their shift to subscriptions, including tips they’ve learned along the way to reduce churn. 

After a freak accident left Ryan Pamplin on medical leave for a year, health became his top priority. As a former tech innovator in Silicon Valley, he no longer cared about making money or becoming successful in business. Trying not to die was his baseline every day, and he relied on smoothies and protein shakes to help him survive this challenging time. 

For ecommerce brands, it's crucial to build a base of engaged and loyal customers. LOLA, makers of period and sexual wellness products, has done just this. Not only do they give amazing perks to their subscription members, but they also rally around their mission of giving back—which is something their customers appreciate too, creating a sense of greater purpose around their products. 

Before you even begin selling your products, customer retention—the art of keeping your customers with your business—should be a major part of your success plan. The stability offered by subscriptions and recurring customers often allows merchants to expand their businesses. But growth is hard to achieve if your store is dealing with high churn or unhappy customers that don’t plan to return.

In the world of ecommerce, a strong brand community is created when people have an emotional connection to your brand. It allows them to feel closer to your company and each other, and can even mean the difference between success and failure. When consumers are committed to your brand, they become your best marketing tool and will often stay loyal to your products.