Shopify Subscriptions: 11 Easy Ways to Boost Sales

shopify subscriptions increase sales

Written by Adriana Pope

December 3, 2021

If you want to skyrocket your subscription sales, we have some fast and easy ways to take your revenue to the moon.

Having subscription products on your Shopify store is fantastic, but how will your shoppers find your subscription products?

Is it even clear you have subscription products, or are they buried somewhere on your site, forcing the customer to click around even to see them?

If you want to hear about some ways you improve your subscription business model, we’re here to help.

In this article, we’ll cover the top ways you can optimize your existing subscription products on your Shopify store.

Shopify Subscriptions: 11 Ways to Get More Sales!

Feature Subscriptions in your Navigation Bar

Place “Subscriptions” or “Subscription Box” in your navigation bar, and watch how many clicks it gets!

People love subscriptions! And if they love your brand or are exploring your site to see what you offer, make sure to direct them towards your subscription products.

Subscription products let your customers gain the convenience of getting automatic repeat deliveries.

If you offer a Subscription Box, make sure your customers know this. Then, drive traffic to those product pages you want people to see first.

professional product photography shopify subscriptions
Focused by Fredi is a company who has incredible design and beautiful subscription product packaging

Invest in Professional Product Photos

Make sure your subscription product photos are on point.

Blurry photos are usually a no-go for shoppers trying to figure out whether or not they want to buy your product.

Also, amateur photos taken at home are a great way to get started but can convey the message of an unestablished company which isn’t great for building trust.

Consider paying a professional photographer to take product photos.

If your shopper is not a returning customer, they don’t have experience with your brand and will be sizing up your product by its photos.

Your customers want to know when they click that “add to cart” button precisely what they should expect to receive in the mail.

Professional photos help build that much-needed trust with your shoppers so they can take a leap of faith and subscribe to your product.

Having pro-style product photos also helps build hype and get your shopper excited to buy your subscription product.

shopify subscriptions improve product listiing

Pretend your the Customer

Creating a subscription product is fantastic, but you’ll want to make sure to revisit your site often to improve the product listings.

Pretend you are a shopper on your website.

The main question to ask yourself is, “How does your product page look, are you convinced to buy this product?”

If you feel you can improve your product page somehow (and I’m sure you can), then make those tweaks.

I recommend logging this on a spreadsheet somewhere, what you updated on your site, the date, and product, and track your progress by monitoring if sales pick up.

  • Are your subscription product photos enticing?
  • Are the product prices displaying well?
  • Could you offer a better subscription discount?
  • Are you offering enough frequency intervals? ( Delivery Every: Week, Month, Every 2 Months)
  • Are your subscription plan options easy to understand and straightforward?
  • Can the product be easily added to the cart?
shopify subscriptions product description
BioPlus does a great job describing their products in full detail with benefits explained.

Create a Highly Convincing Product Description

Most shop owners skip over their product description or make it an afterthought. A single paragraph of text is usually not enough.

Try to aim for 300 words. Space your sentences out nicely, so the description is easily scannable.

Make sure your opening sentence locks in their attention so they can keep reading the rest of your product description.

Often, I see merchants copying and pasting the same information for all their products. Sometimes the product description is only a sentence or a weak paragraph.

Having short product descriptions can hurt your subscription sales.

Merchants always tell me it looks nicer to have less text on the product page, but shoppers want info. They want you to sell them on that product!


When a shopper lands on your product page, it’s your job to convince them to buy that product.

Better yet, it’s your job to convince them to subscribe to a product.
That way, your customer can enter their credit card details once and get automatic repeat orders.

Describe the product in as much detail as possible. What is it? Why should the customer buy it, and how can they benefit from this purchase. Why are you better than the competition? Why is your brand the best, and how?

If your subscription product is a little bit more involved, like a subscription box or membership, describe how it works, order cut-off dates, and expected delivery dates.

shopify subscriptions discounts
Taos Bee uses Ongoing Subscriptions to create an alluring discount for subscribers

Create an Alluring Subscription Discount

If you’re selling a replenishment subscription, like a refill, make sure to offer a subscription discount.

Your customers love your products, so make it a no-brainer why they should subscribe.

With an attractive discount like 10% off, your subscription option looks alluring.

With Ongoing subscriptions, you can create a subscription discount with one click. In addition, the discounted price is prominently displayed on the product, making it easier for shoppers to see how much they are saving if they subscribe.

Pushing your customers towards subscribing can help you potentially 5x sales.

shopify subscriptions featured on homepage
Silver Grizzly Espresso has a “Subscribe Now” on their homepage directing shoppers towards their subscriptions

Feature Subscription Products on Homepage

Make your subscriptions front and center. It’s a good idea to point shoppers towards your subscription products first.

Don’t hide or bury your subscription products.

Subscription products can generate the most revenue with the highest ROI.

Get someone to subscribe, and you’ve locked in future orders that happen automatically.

Create a call to action button on your homepage directing shoppers towards subscriptions. 

For example, you can have a big “Subscribe” button on your homepage.

When a shopper clicks this Subscribe button, take them to a specific subscription product or a collection of subscription products.

Directing your shoppers to view your subscription products first increases your chances of purchasing a subscription product.

Create a Collection for your Subscription Products

Having all of your subscription products in a single collection is a great way to organize them.

With a clearly defined subscription collection, your customers can easily browse all the products you have available as recurring purchases.

Grouping all your subscription products in one spot saves your shopper time.

Remember, the bounce rate on online stores is exceptionally high, so you want to make sure to capture your shoppers’ attention in the littlest amount of time possible!

Having a subscription collection gives your shopper all the info they need in one convenient location.

Create a Discount Code that applies to Subscription Products

If you’re creating a discount code on Shopify, make sure the “purchase type” is set to BOTH subscription and one-time purchase products.

Why?

Emailing customers a coupon code that only works on some products can cause frustration, and they’ll probably abandon their cart.

Reducing cart abandonment is critical for increasing the number of subscribers your shop has.

Each subscriber is a recurring income, so your subscribers are valuable to the financial health of your shop.

Advertise your Subscription Products

We understand it’s costly to spend money on ads to get people to come to your shop.

Once a shopper is on your site, the next goal is to order something.

One-time purchases are nice, but they aren’t the greatest.

Why? They force you to spend money and time to bring that person back in the hopes they’ll buy from you again, and there are no guarantees.

Advertising for subscription products is a much better use of your money.

Creating an ad for your subscription product naturally has a higher ROI (return on your investment).

If the shopper happens to subscribe to a product, that customer will automatically be charged on a repeat basis (unless they cancel, of course).

Create a Subscription Landing Page

Having a subscription landing page on your Shopify store can encourage customers to subscribe to a product.

The subscription landing page is your net for catching subscription sales.

So what exactly is a subscription landing page?

This landing page would be all about subscriptions.

It should clearly describe subscriptions, how subscriptions work, the benefits of subscribing to your products, and why they should subscribe now.

This landing page is also your chance to feature your most popular subscription products.

We recommend featuring subscription products with a higher price point.
Keep in mind not everyone is familiar with subscriptions.

59% of people use a subscription service, but what about the other 41% of folks new to subscriptions?

This landing page is your chance to educate your shoppers about subscriptions and why they are so fantastic.

It’s also a massive call to action to create brand awareness that your company offers subscription products.

Create Wow Factor with Every Delivery

Your goal is to create an exceptional experience with your subscription product.

The first-month churn rate is probably the most challenging hurdle to overcome, so how do you avoid the pitfall of having your customer immediately unsubscribe after their first delivery?

Make the first delivery an incredible experience for your subscription customer.

Having a delightful first experience means your customer is more likely to let the subscription auto-renew and continue receiving orders.

But remember, it’s not just the first delivery that counts! It’s every delivery!

Your goal is to keep your subscriber subscribed!

Cancellations are no good. They stop your recurring income produced by subscriptions.

If your subscription doesn’t have a WOW factor, customers are more likely to cancel their subscription. So don’t drive your customers away and give them a 5-star experience.

Best Shopify Subscriptions App – Ongoing

Are you looking for the best Shopify Subscriptions app?

Ongoing is the easiest and fastest way to start selling subscriptions on Shopify.

With the Ongoing app, you can seamlessly turn your existing products into subscription products in just a couple of minutes.

Ongoing lets your customer automatically re-order products with automatic repeat charges.

Products are shipped directly to their door regularly.

Auto-ship means customers don’t have to enter their credit card details whenever they want to re-order a product.

Ongoing handles the recurring billing for all your subscription orders.

It’s all automatic, from repeat payments to creating new orders, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Ongoing is the best Shopify subscription app to handle all of your recurring payment needs.

Summary

Having repeat customers and repeat orders are the most important perks of selling subscriptions.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our roundup of the best ways to optimize your subscription products.

Spending a little bit of time improving your subscription products can have a definite payoff.

Ongoing lets you easily create your first subscription product and then track your progress.

The Ongoing subscription analytics shows you exactly how many active subscribers you have, how much revenue you’ve earned in total from subscription sales, and your forecasted income for next month’s sales in subscriptions.

Remember the classic quote, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? The same rule applies here.

Take small steps every month to improve your subscription offerings.

Over time, these incremental minor 1% improvements can have a substantial positive compounding effect.

And you’ll be left with a thriving subscription business optimized for sales.

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