How to unlock more recurring revenue year-round with a subscription strategy for BFCM
With 12.8 million more consumers choosing to shop online instead of in-store during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) in 2023, it’s safe to say that eCommerce merchants are uniquely positioned to reap the benefits of the holiday shopping rush this year.
Most brands are already plotting how to make the most of this valuable promotion period, but what’s less frequently talked about is how a subscription strategy for BFCM can turn recurring revenue into the gift that keeps on giving back to merchants all year long.
Considering that outside of peak shopping season, subscriptions have the potential to drive a 2.5x lift in customer lifetime value (LTV), the winter holidays are a golden opportunity to boost subscription revenue and offset customer acquisition costs (CAC) to take profits to the next level.
That said, there are a few best practices brands should keep in mind to maximize this time for peak subscriber enrollment and sales — and avoid common pitfalls, like undermining the value of the subscriber experience with competing holiday promotions.
Here are five ways to make subscriptions the secret weapon behind your BFCM strategy, grow average order value (AOV) among your most profitable customer segment, and retain them long-term with an exceptional subscriber experience.
1. Give subscribers early access to holiday promotions to entice early bird deal shoppers
There’s a good reason why sales and shopping events are starting earlier and earlier each year — in 2023, 55% of consumers took advantage of early holiday sales and promotions.
To make sure your subscription offer is at the top of shoppers’ wish lists this year, now is the time to roll out exclusive BFCM promotions just for subscribers.
The secret to success is using targeted messaging to activate subscribers at the very beginning of the holiday shopping rush between October and December, while offering them more value for their money.
One powerful way to do this is through subscriber-exclusive upsell and cross-sell offers that provide higher discounts for adding additional items onto their upcoming subscription orders. Merchants can create a sense of urgency and exclusivity by emphasizing that their offer only applies to subscribers — and for a limited time only — in their messaging.
Transactional and marketing emails and SMS are the best place to drive traffic and attention to these subscriber-exclusive emails. And because most brands already have these types of subscriber communication flows in place, all they have to do is tweak a CTA or add a callout in the copy encouraging subscribers to take advantage of the increased limited time discount, like in the example of an Order Reminder email below.
Do you use Klaviyo or Attentive for subscriber communications?
Learn how to boost AOV with Ordergroove’s 1-click cross-sell functionality in our Ordergroove Academy lesson.
2. Promote subscriptions in BFCM campaigns and communications to turn one-time purchasers into loyal subscribers
Integrating your subscription offer with your broader BFCM campaign plans is a great way to turn one-time purchasers into subscribers. It’s as simple as touting subscriber-specific perks and discounts alongside the rest of your BFCM offers.
Brands have plenty of opportunities to leverage onsite promotional opportunities like sticky banners, PLPs, and homepage carousels — as well as campaign channels like email, SMS, and social media — to promote the subscriber experience.
In practice, this might look like positioning a BFCM promotion as an onramp or secondary alternative to a lifetime subscriber discount, like in the example below:
3. Make subscription offers as good as (if not better than) sitewide BFCM discounts to incentivize subscribers
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Subscribers really are your most valuable customers. The holiday shopping rush is the best time to treat them that way — and the worst time to inadvertently penalize them for subscribing by offering better deals elsewhere onsite.
Even if it means temporarily adjusting your subscription offer, the key is to match, if not top, BFCM sitewide promotions. Merchants can go about this a few different ways:
If matching or exceeding your sitewide BFCM promotion with your subscription discount, you should communicate this with your subscribers via email or SMS. Here’s a stellar example of an email Lily’s Kitchen shared with customers when using this approach:
Brands can also take the opportunity to blast these promotions across their social channels, too. In practice, this can look like Ubeauty’s social media promotion of a generous lifetime subscriber perk to increase visibility and subscriber acquisition throughout BFCM:
4. Leverage giftable subscriptions to expand your reach and recurring revenue through the holidays and beyond
70% of all 2023 BFCM capital was spent on gifting, and psychological research shows that humans are actually prone to spending more on gifts for others than on ourselves. That’s good news for brands selling subscriptions during the holidays.
By their very nature, subscriptions appeal to shoppers looking to add some longevity to the gift-giving experience. You could say that subscription gifting can strengthen relationships with every recurring delivery — but they can also create a whole new lasting relationship between the subscription-recipient and your brand.
In other words, when someone gives the gift of a subscription from your brand, you have a chance to win over the recipient and keep them as a subscriber — so it’s worthwhile to encourage subscription gifting throughout BFCM.
On that front, prepaid subscriptions are the most popular subscription gifting option because they allow shoppers to pay upfront for a set number of shipments, which the recipient will be sent over time depending on the chosen delivery frequency.
As far as inspiration for a giftable subscription offering, look no further than Flaviar, who uses Ordergroove to offer three tiers of prepaid whiskey subscriptions designed for gifting occasions.
Did you know prepaid subscriptions can supercharge LTV all year-round?
Discover how integrating 1-click actions in order reminder emails can boost AOV and customer retention by simplifying the checkout process, offering personalized cross-sell recommendations, and driving urgency and conversion.
5. Optimize the subscriber experience for mobile to win over next-gen holiday shoppers
While 44 million consumers used their home desktop or laptop to shop online on Cyber Monday 2023, an additional 40.5 million used their mobile devices. With more shopping taking place on mobile devices each year, it’s in merchants’ best interest to optimize the subscriber experience for on-the-go shopping in general — but especially leading up to the holiday shopping rush.
If your team is already optimizing the rest of your site for mobile ahead of BFCM, make sure all subscription components — from the product page to the subscription management experience — are also on their radar for improvements.
If your brand uses a different page layout or purchase journey for giftable subscriptions like Peet’s Coffee or The Honest Company, keep in mind that those experiences should be optimized for mobile, too.
Make BFCM the start of evergreen customer relationships with subscriptions
In 2023, merchants sent more than 2.5 billion promotional campaign emails in the month of November. That’s a lot of BFCM noise for brands to cut through. But merchants offering a subscriber experience will have a captive audience to cross-sell and upsell during the holiday shopping goldrush.
With the many upsides for merchants, subscribers, and subscription recipients alike, there’s little downside for brands to integrate the subscriber experience with the rest of their BFCM strategy — but there’s plenty of recurring revenue to gain.
And if your brand already offers subscriptions, you’re halfway there. All you need is our complete BFCM subscription best practices checklist from Ordergroove Academy:
- Start your BFCM campaigns early and offer exclusive discounts and offers to subscribers.
- Leverage wishlists to generate excitement and mailing leads.
- Use 1-click cross-sell and targeted subscriber messaging to suggest complementary product combinations to subscribers ahead of your BFCM sales.
- Promote subscriptions everywhere you’re promoting your BFCM sales and ensure subscribers are offered the best deals.
- Leverage giftable subscriptions with prepaid and PAYG subscriptions that offer pre-determined cancellation terms.
- Optimize the subscriber experience for mobile shopping.
Does your subscription technology offer the flexibility and capabilities you need to make BFCM a success? Join the leading brands using Ordergroove to make BFCM the start of evergreen customer relationships with subscriptions.