Reducing subscription churn
Common causes of subscription churn in eCommerce and the levers retailers use to reduce it.
Churn is the share of subscribers who cancel over a given period. Physical-product subscriptions are especially exposed to it, because a bad fit shows up as a cupboard full of unused product or an empty shelf.
Common causes
- The products or frequency don't match the customer's actual usage.
- The customer can't easily skip, pause or make changes, so cancelling becomes the easiest option.
- Managing several separate subscriptions with one retailer is a hassle.
- Payment failures that nobody follows up.
Levers
- Control: let customers add products, skip, pause and edit their details themselves. The original Subundl product page listed "add additional products or one offs", "pause & skip" and "edit personal info".
- Fit: let customers set per-product frequencies.
- Simplicity: keep everything in one subscription.
- Insight: track why customers skip or cancel, and act on it.