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
Fashion &
Apparel
Food &
Beverage
Health &
Wellness
Home
Goods
Pets &
Animals
Other
0–999
subscribers
1,000–9,999
subscribers
10,000–49,999
subscribers
50,000+
subscribers
Beauty &
Personal Care
Beauty & Personal Care
January 2022
Churn
8.2%
Beauty & Personal Care
February 2022
Churn
7.0%
Beauty & Personal Care
March 2022
Churn
8.0%
Beauty & Personal Care
April 2022
Churn
7.3%
Beauty & Personal Care
May 2022
Churn
7.4%
Beauty & Personal Care
June 2022
Churn
7.4%
Beauty & Personal Care
July 2022
Churn
7.0%
Beauty & Personal Care
August 2022
Churn
7.0%
Beauty & Personal Care
September 2022
Churn
6.5%
Beauty & Personal Care
October 2022
Churn
6.6%
Beauty & Personal Care
November 2022
Churn
6.6%
Beauty & Personal Care
December 2022
Churn
6.3%
Fashion &
Apparel
Fashion & Apparel
January 2022
Churn
9.0%
Fashion & Apparel
February 2022
Churn
7.4%
Fashion & Apparel
March 2022
Churn
8.5%
Fashion & Apparel
April 2022
Churn
7.6%
Fashion & Apparel
May 2022
Churn
7.5%
Fashion & Apparel
June 2022
Churn
7.8%
Fashion & Apparel
July 2022
Churn
7.2%