The State of Subscription Commerce 2023 The State of Subscription Commerce 2023

Looking beyond transactions with Recharge

From June 2021 to June 2022, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers saw its largest increase in over 40 years.1 Prices rose to new heights across the board, requiring merchants to adapt to consumers’ changing budgets and needs.

Despite the challenging economic circumstances, subscription growth continued. While some customers decreased their discretionary spending, a substantial percentage invested in maintaining their relationships specifically with subscription merchants.

But why? We know that subscriptions provide stability for both those who sell them and those who purchase them.2 But stability can’t maintain itself—it must be carefully cultivated by thinking beyond the present and anticipating future desires and challenges.

In this report, we dig into the what, why, and how behind 2022’s subscription growth. Over a twelve-month period, we analyzed over 15,000 merchantsLooking for more detailed information on how we made this report? Read our methodology. and their customers to uncover how businesses performed over the course of the year, and how customers were interacting with their subscriptions in new ways.

Through these trends, discover how merchants of all sizes and verticals performed in 2022, as well as the tactics they used to create deeper, more valuable customer relationships.

Verticals

Seven categories based on product type

Beauty & Personal Care

Fashion & Apparel

Food & Beverage

Health & Wellness

Home Goods

Pets & Animals

OtherOther includes merchants with offerings like curated boxes of hobby items, lawn care products, items for outdoor activities, and more.

Subscriber count

Four groups based on
active subscriber numbers

0–999 subscribers

1,000–9,999 subscribers

10,000–49,999 subscribers

50,000+ subscribers

Key performance indicators

In 2022, we observed year-over-year improvements in five KPIs for subscription merchants: AOV, LTV, MRR, customer churn, and customer retention. Use these metricsIn order to simplify data visualizations, data calculations have been rounded to the nearest whole number or decimal. to benchmark your business by both vertical and subscriber count.

Beauty &
Personal Care

Beauty & Personal Care

2021 AOV

$33

2022 AOV

$40

YoY growth

+21%

Fashion &
Apparel

Fashion & Apparel

2021 AOV

$33

2022 AOV

$35

YoY growth

+6%

Food &
Beverage

Food & Beverage

2021 AOV

$53

2022 AOV

$59

YoY growth

+11%

Health &
Wellness

Health & Wellness

2021 AOV

$48

2022 AOV

$56

YoY growth

+17%

Home
Goods

Home Goods

2021 AOV

$29

2022 AOV

$28

YoY growth

-3%

Pets &
Animals

Pets & Animals

2021 AOV

$49

2022 AOV

$53

YoY growth

+8%

Other

Other

2021 AOV

$47