Stonewall Kitchen’s secret recipe for cross-channel subscription growth serves up 122% more orders year-over-year

Stonewall Kitchen was a small family business when they got their start at local farmer’s markets in 1991. Fast forward to today, and Stonewall Kitchen is one of the most awarded specialty food producers in the country and home to a growing roster of lifestyle brands. 

Stonewall Kitchen’s team was determined to provide customers with more purchasing options and create a unique online shopping experience to set their brand apart from competitors. They recognized early on that offering subscriptions would be key to ensuring the long-term success of their expanding business.

“We started offering subscriptions in 2022, but we had wanted to do so for nearly a decade,” said Monica Gorycki, eCommerce Platform Manager at Stonewall Kitchen. “It took us this long because we wanted to find the right partner for our customer-first vision for the online experience, and we found that in Ordergroove.”

At the time, Stonewall Kitchen offered far more products than they do today. To avoid overwhelming customers with too many options within the subscriber experience, they took a more passive approach to their subscription offering. But as their marketing strategy evolved, it became clear that there was one focus area in particular that could help them reach all of their business goals: subscription growth.

Building a foundation for subscription growth with Ordergroove

With strategic support from Ordergroove, the team at Stonewall Kitchen set out to transform their subscription offering into an engine for business growth. The first step was ensuring that the foundational elements of the subscriber experience were solid, so they began by filtering out disengaged subscriptions and preventing revenue leaks from declined credit card payments.

“We were looking for a solution that didn’t require upfront creative or development work,” Monica said. “Ordergroove’s Recovery Optimizer was perfect because we were able to turn it on in just one click, and it generated results almost immediately.” 

Year-over-year, Stonewall Kitchen has seen 31% more recovered revenue since toggling on Ordergroove’s Recovery Optimizer.

Minimizing unnecessary costs from credit card payment retries was crucial for driving profitable growth and improving the financial efficiency of their subscription offering. To take that efficiency a step further, Stonewall Kitchen strategically introduced Ordergroove’s one-click upsell offers right on subscribers’ account page to boost average order value — and ultimately offset their shipping costs to protect their profit margins. 

“We started putting upsell offers on the subscription management dashboard to make it as easy as possible for subscribers to add onto their order and reach our free shipping threshold,” said Monica. “We want to keep our subscribers satisfied first and foremost, and the upsell feature gives them flexibility — while preventing churn, and allowing us to focus on our profit margin.”

Stonewall Kitchen’s strategic upsell offer drove a 44% decrease in subscriber churn, a 6% increase in average order value (AOV) — and even reduced the number of subscriber complaints and support tickets.

Bringing subscriptions to the forefront of the online shopping experience

With the foundations in place for steady revenue growth, the next order of business for Stonewall Kitchen was making subscriptions the star of their eCommerce channel to turn more customers into subscribers and maximize lifetime value (LTV).

The team at Stonewall Kitchen already had some best practices in place since launch — like Ordergroove widgets on product pages and the shopping cart, a dedicated landing page, and FAQs to address common concerns. 

To make their subscription offering even more visible and accessible, Stonewall Kitchen implemented strategic recommendations from their Ordergroove Customer Success Manager to add a subscription callout in their side navigation bar — as well as a “Subscription Eligible” filter on category pages to ensure subscriptions stay top of mind for shoppers.

“Because of our specific industry and the gourmet specialty items we offer, it wasn’t easy to get customers to shop with us consistently or outside of certain holidays,” said Monica. “Highlighting the benefits of our subscriber experience throughout the shopping journey has helped us engage with that type of customer on a more regular basis and ensure they’re aware of all we have to offer.”

Putting the spotlight on subscriptions across their online store has skyrocketed Stonewall Kitchen’s number of active subscriptions by a whopping 96% — in turn, creating a positive ripple effect of growth: 

• 91% total revenue growth year-over-year

• 99% increase in average LTV 

• 122% growth in order volume 

Supercharging cross-channel subscription growth with Ordergroove’s Attentive integration

With their on-site strategy reliably driving more subscription orders, LTV, and recurring revenue, Stonewall Kitchen turned their attention to cross-channel promotions to take their growth even further. 

From social media to email campaigns and transactional communications, their recipe for success comes down to ensuring every shopper sees a consistent message about Stonewall Kitchen’s subscriber experience, regardless of their entry point. 

But where Stonewall Kitchen’s cross-channel strategy really shines is how they tailor that message based on audience segments. With Ordergroove powering their subscriber experience, Stonewall Kitchen can seamlessly integrate their subscription data with Attentive to craft personalized campaigns to keep subscribers engaged and buying. 

While active subscribers receive frequent emails about new products and promotions, Stonewall Kitchen takes a more selective approach with their less engaged customer segments. 

“We use Ordergroove’s Attentive integration to keep our active subscribers engaged,” Monica said. “But perhaps more importantly, we use it to promote the benefits of our subscriber experience among disengaged customers and those who haven’t purchased via subscriptions yet — this fits perfectly into our overall promotional strategy because we’re always trying to grow our subscriber base.”

Thanks to Ordergroove’s integration with Attentive, Stonewall Kitchen can leverage up to 22 real-time subscription data points and events to trigger the right message for the right subscribers — whether they’re promoting upsells in upcoming order reminders or targeting repeat buyers with enrollment offers — and make sure they get it at the right time to maximize customer engagement around their subscription offering. 

An upgraded tech stack unlocks innovation and flexibility

By integrating Attentive into their tech stack and receiving strategic guidance as the leader in SMS and email marketing, Stonewall Kitchen has all the tools necessary to enhance their subscriber experience through multi-channel orchestration. They can also take advantage of Attentive’s personalized messaging approach to increase average order value and overall subscription growth.

But perhaps most importantly, their new-and-improved tech stack provides the flexibility Stonewall Kitchen needs to continuously improve their subscriber experience. While their first email provider limited innovation with significant time and resources required for customization, Stonewall Kitchen was able to scale their marketing program and reduce costs right out of the gate with Attentive.  

“We didn’t receive much support from our previous provider, so it was refreshing to say the least”, said Monica. Attentive even helped Stonewall Kitchen set up their Ordergroove integration so they could start driving subscription growth with personalized emails as quickly and easily as possible. 

The combined power of Ordergroove and Attentive ensures that Stonewall Kitchen can innovate free of tech limitations, make the most of new capabilities in Attentive AI™ Pro products to layer AI into their messaging and segmentation strategies, and continuously iterate on their subscriber experience to deliver the best possible experience for their customers. 

Ordergroove and Attentive are key ingredients in Stonewall Kitchen’s recipe for long-term subscription growth 

The results of Stonewall Kitchen’s foundational optimizations, on-site, and cross-promotional strategies speak for themselves — and in a competitive food and beverage industry, the implications are even bigger than they seem on the surface.

With eCommerce acquisition costs surging 60% over the last five years, considerations like recurring revenue, LTV, and retention have become non-negotiables for offsetting costs and achieving profitable growth. 

Stonewall Kitchen has found the secret recipe for all three: An Ordergroove-powered subscriber experience, paired with targeted communications from Attentive to engage current and future subscribers. 

“Together, Ordergroove and Attentive have made it super easy for us to promote our subscriber experience and target the right audience with our messaging,” said Monica. “The holiday season is always a big time for us, and we’re looking forward to using these tools to double down on subscriptions this year.” 

It’s safe to say that Stonewall Kitchen’s strong subscription foundations not only put them ahead of the Black Friday Cyber Monday — but empower them to make subscriptions the gift that keeps on giving through the winter holidays, and beyond.