Key takeaways

• Subscriptions deter post holiday attrition. 12.8 million more people shopped online than in-store during BFCM 2023. eCommerce businesses leveraging the lifetime value boosting powers of subscriptions can superpower their customer spend and value with an integrated subscription BFCM strategy.
• Start early. 55% of consumers took advantage of early holiday sales and promotions in 2023. Get a head start with wishlist building and offer subscriber-exclusive earlybird BFCM promotions with targeted messaging campaigns.
• Promote your subscription offers. Embed exclusive subscription offers throughout your overall BFCM campaign and promotions to elicit urgency and encourage new subscriber sign-ups, but also higher subscriber spend from your current ones.
• Leverage giftable subscriptions. 70% of all 2023 BFCM capital was spent on gifting, NRF reports. Prepaid subscriptions and PAYG subscriptions with preordained cancellation terms offer customers the chance to give the gift that quite literally keeps on giving.
• Optimize for mobile shopping. Ask your Ordergroove CSM about our new Subscription Manager theme, in Alpha, for advanced mobile optimized functionalities like searchable SKU swap and sleek, customizable OOTB templates.
• Be transparent about expected delays. Many brands will face delays during this season - whether it be inventory inconsistencies or fulfillment delays. Let your subscribers know about these in advance so they feel as VIP as they really are.

BFCM should be the start of a lifelong customer relationship

134.2 million people shopped online for BFCM 2023, in comparison to the 121.4 million that went to physical retail locations. This changing tide leaves eCommerce storefronts uniquely positioned to benefit from Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) traffic. There’s a plethora of great resources - many from our partner network like Klaviyo’s BFCM SMS Guide - that offer great tips and insights to best leverage this promotional period. But what about eCommerce subscription programs? 

Many brands are realizing that the 2.5x lift to Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV or LTV) that subscriptions can offer is the most profitable path forward amidst rising customer acquisition costs (CAC). It would be a disservice to your business to ignore your subscriber base during this time of peak acquisition and engagement; or worse yet, to lessen the value of their subscriber benefits with higher one-time sales and discounts. With the right strategy, you can actually leverage this season of peak traffic and acquisition to empower the lifelong value of a strong consumer relationship - not fight against it.

So here’s how to seamlessly integrate your subscription program within your wider BFCM eCommerce strategy, not only retain but also acquire additional subscribers to your brand’s most profitable customer segment, and offer your customers the best consumer experience this holiday season.

Start early - and offer exclusivity

2023 BFCM reporting from the National Retail Federation (NRF) reveals that 55% of consumers took advantage of early holiday sales and promotions in 2023. Get a head start with wishlist building and offer subscriber-exclusive earlybird BFCM promotions with targeted messaging campaigns. 

Building your mailing list is perhaps the most discussed tactic in modern email and SMS marketing. Stagnant or disengaged contacts, however, are about as useful as having none at all. To encourage fresh engagement and generate active leads ahead of the holidays, consider offering customers some incentivization to pass their phone numbers back - like POPFLEX’s $1,000.00 shopping spree sweepstakes.

Better yet? Offer this opportunity first to your subscriber base. The average eCommerce subscriber was found to have a 2.5x higher CLTV than before subscribing with a brand. Activating subscribers, a consumer base that’s already more habitual in their spending, with wishlist creation sets them up for their best finds - and you up for conversion - leading into BFCM.

Our cross-sell feature lets customers add items to upcoming subscription orders; eliminating additional shipping/handling charges and reducing checkout friction points that hurt conversion (you can also let subscribers add these cross-sells on Ordergroove with 1-click, which is even better for conversion). You can increase this subscription add-on discount leading up to and during your BFCM promotional period to elicit a sense of exclusivity and urgency from current subscribers, and entice new sign-ups. 

How do you drive traffic to these fantastic subscriber-exclusive offers, you ask? You’ll want to target current subscribers through transactional and marketing emails and SMS. Inject copy or CTAs within your normal subscription transactional emails directing subscribers to take advantage of this increased discount. Here’s how.

Promote subscriber exclusive offers to current and prospective subscribers

To reach prospective subscribers, you’ll want to embed active promotion of subscriber-exclusive offers like a higher subscription add-on discounts throughout your general BFCM campaigns and messaging, like in this Death Wish Coffee example. Note how Death Wish Coffee summarizes the temporary subscription promotion while also explaining general subscription benefits to entice enrollments:

Strategic campaigns targeting your general mailing list with subscription benefits should be a routine component of your marketing strategy. But an underrated tactic? Market subscriber exclusive deals (especially limited time offers like a BFCM promotion) to your current subscribers through transactional emails, like this Order Reminder email below.

If using Klaviyo or Attentive, you can leverage our 1-click cross-sell functionality to eliminate even more friction and encourage subscriber spend.

Here’s an example of this messaging:

You can even leverage existing products with a creative marketing campaign, like cbdMD’s subscriber-exclusive cbd protein latte recipe below. Using creative product combinations you know are cult classics or tried-and-trues are a great way to leverage our 1-click cross sell functionality - if customers are subscribed to one product, send them a creative recipe leveraging it + an appropriate product complement, with the opportunity to add it to their next order.

Integrate subscriptions within your BFCM campaign plans

To convert would-be subscribers from your one-time purchasers, every channel through which you promote your general BFCM offers should also tout subscription-specific promotions.

This includes all onsite promotional opportunities like sticky banners, PLPs, and homepage carousels; as well as campaign channels like email, SMS, and social media. It’s as simple as positioning a BFCM promotion as an onramp or secondary alternative to a lifetime subscriber exclusive discount, like in the example from Bare Performance Nutrition's SMS marketing below:

Many brands hesitate to promote subscriptions over one-time flash sales or discounts in a time of such peak acquisition. It’s true that BFCM is the most promotional and acquisition heavy time of the year - but many brands suffer from post holiday attrition that hurts overall fiscal performance and your bottom line. 

What many don’t realize is that you can avoid this dropoff and actually supercharge your CLTV if you align your subscription offer/promotion strategy in % offered with your overall BFCM offer. Here’s how.

Match (or better yet, top) your subscription offer strategy with sitewide sales

We’ve said it a few times, but it’s true - subscribers really are your ideal customers. The math proves it: retention and repeat purchasing are far more profitable for your business margins than the cost to acquire a new customer - at times 2.5x more profitable.

So don’t punish them for subscribing with a better offer elsewhere. Match, if not top, your BFCM sitewide promos by adjusting your subscription offer temporarily. You can do this in a few different ways:

If matching or exceeding your sitewide promotion with your subscription discount, you should communicate this with your subscribers via email or SMS. Here's a stellar example of an email Lily's Kitchen shared with customers when doing this:

And you should promote these promotions via social channels, too.

Note Ubeauty’s social media promotion of this temporary promotion to increase visibility and subscriber acquisition.

Leverage giftable subscriptions

70% of all 2023 BFCM capital was spent on gifting, NRF reports. And psychological research has shown that humans are actually prone to spending more on gifts for others than on ourselves. Subscriptions are the gift that quite literally keep on giving - so promote them to your customers during the season of gifting. 

Prepaid subscriptions are the most popular subscription gifting option - they allow your customers to pay in advance for a set number of shipments, which the gift-receiver will get in staggered shipments depending on the selected frequency. Here's more on supercharging CLTV with Prepaid subscriptions - usually, we recommend letting Prepaid subscriptions auto-renew for its obvious retention benefits. But for gifting specifically, work with your developer and the Ordergroove team to remove auto-renewal for the specific giftable item's checkout. We've designed our Prepaid feature to do this on the checkout level, so no need to create duplicate SKUs or items. You can elect to keep your normal Prepaid subscriptions on auto-renew, and designate non renewal behavior for gift checkouts specifically. More on that in our developer documentation here!

Ordergroove merchant Flaviar offers 3 tiers of giftable whiskey subscriptions. Here’s more on how to supercharge your CLTV by over 100% with Prepaid subscriptions.

You should promote these giftable experiences via SMS and email campaigns, like La Colombe’s Mother’s Day SMS push below. This is a low lift opportunity to remind customers that all subscriptions, but especially prepaid ones, are some of the most value-saving gift options this BFCM.

Notify subscribers about expected delays

Many brands will face delays during this busy season. Whether it be a shortage of stock or in delivery resources, it's important to notify your consumers about these anticipated disruptions. Your subscribers are your best customers - so prioritize them in this proactive communication. Here's a great example from one of our brands, Intelligentsia, notifying a subscriber of upcoming delays and how to manage them to their preferences.

For more general fulfillment and communication best practices around holiday delays, here's a comprehensive guide from our partners at Klaviyo around shipping deadlines, how to meet them, and how to keep your consumers happy during this season.