Subscription Prescription | Weekly Doses to Boost Ecommerce Revenue

Subscription Doc
  • 4.8 (16)
  • Technology
  • Weekly

Looking to sell on repeat? You’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Subscription Prescription Podcast where you’ll learn everything there is to know about ecommerce. From establishing your brand identity online to winning the loyalty of your customers and limiting churn, nothing is off the table in these fun and informative conversations. In a world where online selling is the new way to shop, it’s important to stand out from the competition. Tune in each week to learn from industry expert, Matthew Holman, and jumpstart your ecommerce journey today!

  1. 8h ago

    Access Over Ownership: Lessons From a $200/Month Handbag Club

    Most subscription brands sell a product you use up. Ashley Boyce sells access. Her members pay around $200 a month to carry rare luxury handbags they would never buy outright, and roughly a third of them hold onto a bag for months because they are afraid they will not get it back. Ashley spent years at Unilever on Axe and Dove, built Noteworthy and ran marketing at Proven Skincare, and is now CEO of Zero Collective, a Canadian handbag membership club. We compare what retention looks like when the product is a feeling instead of a routine, and what the rest of us can borrow from a membership built on variety. What we cover: • Why access beats ownership for a "wants" product, and how that shapes the front-end offer • How curation flips from Proven's quiz-driven algorithm to a catalog where the bags do the selling • Why a three-month minimum protects the first experience instead of scaring members away • Swap behavior as a retention signal, even when a long hold looks better on unit economics • Wish lists, wait lists, and the old Netflix DVD psychology that keeps members engaged between swaps • Breaking your own rules: early swaps and one-off exceptions as a luxury experience lever • Personalized CX at scale, including a follow-up on every NPS score under seven • Why going quiet before a renewal is a sign of a weak subscription business Guest: Ashley Boyce LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-boyce-7055b85/ Website: https://zerocollective.ca/ Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  2. Oct 27

    Is Your Subscription Churn Good or Bad? Here's My Benchmark

    "Is my churn good or bad?" is the question I get on almost every call with a subscription brand. The honest answer is that industry benchmark reports can mislead you, because churn only means something in the context of your growth rate, your vertical, and your offer. In this episode, I break down the churn benchmark I actually use with clients, why single digits should be your baseline, and how to set retention goals you can realistically hit. What we cover: • Why platform benchmark reports fall apart without context on size, vertical, and growth • The baseline I give every brand: single-digit monthly churn, and why 15% makes it hard to scale • How aggressive growth pulls in non-ideal subscribers and pushes churn higher (and why hyperscalers can tolerate it for a while) • Calculating average monthly churn, plus why skincare, supplements, and meal plans perform so differently • Looking at churn by cohort: month one versus month nine, and what first-week cancellations tell you about your offer • What high first-month churn says about offers that are too good to be true or ship too much product • Setting realistic churn goals: 15% to 12%, 10% to 7%, not a straight jump to 5% • When to focus on retention levers (onboarding, billing reminders, cancel flows, dunning, winbacks) versus restructuring the offer with bulk subscriptions and starter kits Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip... Check out our partners at Omnisend and get 30% off your first 3 months when you use code SUBDOC30: https://your.omnisend.com/mattholman

  3. Oct 20

    The 3:1 LTV to CAC Ratio Is a Myth: What to Measure Instead

    Everyone chasing a 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio is chasing a number that came out of the pandemic ecom boom, and most brands could not survive it if LTV is measured in revenue dollars over 12 months. Until you define the margin and the time window, that ratio tells you almost nothing about the health of your business. In this episode, John Blair, founder of Free to Grow CFO, joins me to break down how to actually measure cohort profitability, when you can afford to stretch your payback period, and how to scale ad spend without running out of cash. What we cover: • Why most "LTV" numbers are really lifetime revenue, and how to convert them to margin dollars before comparing to CAC • CAC payback period as the first metric to understand, and why 3 to 6 months is the target for most consumables brands • How strong year two and year three retention lets some brands stretch payback to 9 months (the layered cake effect) • The seesaw model of LTV velocity: balancing new customer losses against margin coming back from returning cohorts • Segmenting LTV to CAC by subscribers versus non-subscribers, and why a deeper subscription discount can increase profitability • Acquisition SKUs versus retention SKUs, including a brand whose hero product on Amazon was different from Shopify • Running sensitivity analyses on rising CAC and falling LTV before you push ad spend • Why running out of subscription inventory is a death sentence, and why subscription brands can afford to order a little long Guest: Jon Blair LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-albert-blair Website: https://freetogrowcfo.com Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  4. Oct 13

    Why Discounting Harder at Cancellation Is Usually the Right Call

    I hate aggressive discounting when you are trying to get someone in the door. But when a subscriber clicks cancel, increasing the discount is usually the right call, and the math is simple: most of those people are gone next month anyway, so one more profitable order is a win. In this episode, I walk through how I approach cancel flows with the brands I work with, from founder videos to reason-specific treatments to segmented offers, and why the cancel flow is one of the fastest places to find short-term revenue in your program. What we cover: • Why the cancel flow is your last line of defense, and why small changes can still lift save rates by 5, 10, or 20 percent • How often to review cancel flow performance (monthly for smaller brands, every one to two weeks for larger ones) • Using a one-minute founder video or educational content to connect with subscribers before they leave • Tying treatments to specific reasons: swaps for flavor complaints, frequency changes for too much product, support links for shipping issues • Why a bigger immediate discount beats a discount spread over multiple orders, and what that means for second and third renewals • Segmenting cancel offers by order number, cart value, and lifetime spend once you pass a few thousand subscribers • When dollars off outperforms a percentage, and when gifting makes more sense for long-tenured customers • Feeding cancel reasons back into onboarding and offer messaging so you stop churn before it starts Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  5. Oct 6

    How Quarterly Upsells Convert 20-30% After Checkout (AfterSell)

    Most brands leave the post-purchase page empty, or they fill it with random add-ons nobody asked for. Meanwhile, merchants offering a monthly-to-quarterly subscription upgrade on that same screen are converting 20 to 30% of buyers in a single click. Varun Kundra, co-founder of AfterSell by Rokt, joins me to break down how upsells actually work after checkout and why the quarterly upgrade is one of the most efficient LTV plays available to subscription brands right now. What we cover: • Why the post-purchase page converts so well: one offer, one click, right after the dopamine hit of buying • How quarterly upgrades hit 20 to 30% conversion with native Skio, Loop, and Recharge integrations • The "get a refund on your next order" framing that makes a bigger commitment feel like a no-brainer • Why the micro-commitment of a first purchase makes buyers more open to a three-month supply • Upsell angles by category: "more of the same" for supplements, "complete the set" for beauty and apparel • How Rokt Thanks lets brands get paid to use AfterSell instead of paying for it • Image-based templates and VSLs that make post-purchase pages look like real direct response offers • Stopping the scroll so shoppers actually read your offer before clicking no Guest: Varun Kundra Twitter:  https://x.com/varunkundra Website: https://www.aftersell.com Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  6. Sep 29

    How I Layer BFCM Offers So Subscribers Don't Cancel for the Sale

    Your subscribers are your most profitable customers. Run a 50% off sitewide sale for Black Friday and a lot of them will cancel just to grab it. That is the BFCM trap I see every year, and the fix is not to skip the sale. It is to layer your offers so subscribing stays the best deal on the site. In this episode, I walk through how I structure Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers for subscription brands, from segment-first rollouts to the bundle offer I think you should be testing this year. What we cover: • Why big sitewide discounts cannibalize subscriptions and turn your best customers into one-time buyers • Leading your BFCM rollout with subscriber-only offers before the public sale goes live • Adding a "sale match" reason to your cancel flow as a defensive move during the sale window • Structuring tiered discounts (sitewide, subscription, bundle) so the subscription offer is always the most compelling one you run • Using bundles, starter kits, and bulk buys to give your deepest discount while raising order value • Why BFCM should be treated as a land grab for subscribers, not just a revenue spike • Planning the second order now with onboarding content, renewal discounts, and gifts that keep new subscribers around If you are wrestling with offer complexity this season, drop a comment or reach out at thesubscriptiondoc.com. Thanks to Omnisend for sponsoring this episode. Get 30% off your first three months with code SUBDOC30: https://your.omnisend.com/matt... Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  7. Sep 22

    If Your Ads Die in Two Weeks, You Have a Positioning Problem

    If you have to launch a hundred new ad creatives every week just to keep spend flowing, the problem is not your ads. It is your positioning. Alex Greifeld, founder of No Best Practices, joins me to break down how the way you pitch a product determines the quality and lifetime value of the customers you bring in, and why that matters more than any subscription tactic. What we cover: • Why scaling a hero product can quietly tank LTV as your promises grow bigger than what you deliver • The three rings of any market (category enthusiasts, motivated new entrants, impulse buyers) and what each means for subscription conversion • How Amazon and retail change the role of your DTC site, and why fighting that river costs you money • Why a 10% subscribe-and-save discount will not move a first-time buyer • The Stars and Honey tasting sample pack that nearly doubled conversion rate without touching a single ad • Finding a niche you can thrive in before you chase impulse buyers or broad distribution • Why ads that die in two weeks point to a positioning problem, not a creative problem • Why offer testing beats subscription hype when your real goal is repeat purchases Guest: Alex Greifeld X: https://x.com/heyitsalexP Website: https://nobestpractices.co Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

  8. Sep 15

    The 90-Day LTV KPI I Use to Align Growth and Retention Teams

    Most established subscription brands run growth and retention as two separate teams chasing two different scoreboards. That misalignment is where profit quietly leaks out of your program. In this episode, I break down where brands past 10,000 subscribers should focus next, and why a time-bound LTV metric is the KPI that finally gets both teams rowing in the same direction. What we cover: • Why subscriptions should sit across growth and retention, not siloed under retention alone • Prioritizing contribution margin and profitability over average vanity metrics • Adding growth-engine complexity with landing pages, quizzes, and bundle builders tied to real buyer intent • The free money sitting in dunning, payment recovery, and processing health (and why 5% recovery lift is thousands in recurring revenue) • Building dedicated onboarding, billing reminder, and winback flows by product line • Introducing product combinations at the right stage to lift AOV and LTV • Testing winback offers by cancellation reason versus staying consistent with strong bundles • Why 90-day LTV with profitability baked in is the northstar KPI that aligns your whole team Every touchpoint, from onboarding emails to billing reminders, should roll up to that one number. When it does, everyone knows what they own and what moving the needle actually looks like. Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly doses just like this one: https://newsletter.thesubscrip...

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Looking to sell on repeat? You’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Subscription Prescription Podcast where you’ll learn everything there is to know about ecommerce. From establishing your brand identity online to winning the loyalty of your customers and limiting churn, nothing is off the table in these fun and informative conversations. In a world where online selling is the new way to shop, it’s important to stand out from the competition. Tune in each week to learn from industry expert, Matthew Holman, and jumpstart your ecommerce journey today!

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