4 key benefits of offering subscriptions in your WooCommerce store
Published: February 20, 2023
“If you’re still selling your product off shelves to strangers in five years, there’s a good chance you’re not going to make it to ten.” Tien Tzuo tells us in his 2018 book Subscribed. Customers are becoming more sophisticated every day. They buy from companies they like, and avoid companies they dislike. They leave bad reviews on social media. And they praise companies that treat them well. If you want to stay in business, you have to focus on customer relationships—not only on selling products. Subscriptions are a great way to establish a relationship with your customers. You’ll go from being a faceless company selling just another product to being a trusted partner. In this article, you are going to learn the key benefits of offering a subscription to your customers.
Why You Should Offer Subscriptions in Your WooCommerce Store
Despite all the talk about the subscription economy, few e-commerce stores are offering subscriptions.
In 2021, 30% of e-commerce companies were “still evaluating” whether to introduce subscriptions in their business model, while 32% were against it. (Source: Statista)
Let that sink in for a moment — over half of the surveyed companies didn’t have a subscriptions system in place. You can seize this opportunity now and get ahead of the curve.
But why would you? You already have a million things to juggle as a WooCommerce store owner. Product fulfillment, customer service, inventory management, marketing. It’s a lot. Most people shiver at the thought of adding yet another thing to their never-ending to-do list.
Here’s four reasons why you should add subscriptions to your WooCommerce store.
1. Subscriptions Make Your Revenue More Predictable
Predictable revenues simplify managing your business. They make it easier to forecast your business expenses. They streamline inventory management. And they facilitate making long-term decisions about where to invest in your business.
With one-time purchases, there’s always the risk that a customer will never come back. Even if they’re happy with their purchase, life happens. People forget to re-order when they run out of something. Or they order from someone else because of a cool ad they’ve seen.
With subscriptions added in your WooCommerce store, customers don’t have to remember to come back to your store. You can send them automatic reminders and charge their credit card automatically.
2. Subscription Simplify Tracking Customer Engagement and Behaviour
When a customer buys a product from you, it’s hard to know how engaged they are with your brand. Are they using the product? Do they like it? What other products would they be interested in?
The only way to figure it out is to ask them directly through surveys or customer interviews. But even then, you can never be sure if they’re being 100% honest with you. Assuming they answer the survey in the first place. Customer surveys average a response rate between 5 and 50%, depending on industry (Source: trustmary.com).
With subscriptions, you have access to much more data about how customers interact with your products. You can see what products they’re using, how often they’re using them, and where they are in their customer journey.
3. Subscriptions Reduce Churn and Increase Customer Lifetime Value
Churn is the percentage of customers that cancel their subscription to your product or service within a given period. According to Omniconvert’s real-time benchmark report, the average customer churn rate in ecommerce is around 70-80%.
The reason subscriptions help to reduce churn is twofold. First, customers are more likely to stick around with this model. And second, you can offer a discount for customers that subscribe, since subscriptions improve your margins.
Subscribed customers are more likely to buy additional products from you. This increases their customer lifetime value. Which is the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend on your products over the course of your relationship.
4. Subscriptions Help You Build a Stronger Relationship With Your Customers
When customers buy a subscription to your WooCommerce store, they’re making a commitment. They’re saying that they trust you, and they want to keep doing business with you in the future.
Subscriptions can help build a stronger relationship with customers by providing them with regular access to your product or service. This can help keep them engaged and interested in what you have to offer, and can encourage them to return for more. Additionally, subscriptions can often be personalized based on the customer’s preferences, which can make them feel even more valued and appreciated.
Subscribed customers are also more likely to tell their friends about their positive experiences. Which could lead to more customers and more sales for your business.
Supercharge Your Store – The Easy Way
Subscriptions have become increasingly popular in recent years, as they offer many advantages for both businesses and customers. But their adoption is still low.
If you’re not offering subscriptions for your products or services, now is the time to start! And if you’re worried about how complicated it sounds to implement, don’t be. Here at Billwerk+ we built a WooCommerce plugin that lets you set up recurring payments — even if you’re not a technical person.
