Subscription Show 2022

From November 8 to 10, Subscription Insider hosted Subscription Show 2022 with FlexPay and keylight. Taking place in New York City’s Convene Conference Center this year, Subscription Show is “the leading subscription business conference for subscription-specific strategy and intel.” A few of Recurly’s own team made it out to the conference to share and learn subscription industry insights. Keep reading to see how we spent our time in the Big Apple. 

Subscription Show 2022

Representing Recurly at Subscription Show was:

  • Mary Rosberg, Vice President of Customer Success

  • Derek Jones, Director of Partner Development

  • Sarah McCredie, Director of Product Marketing

  • Rebecca Blasser, Senior Account Executive, Enterprise

  • Diana Gonzalez, Campaign Manager  

As a sponsor of Subscription Show, our goal was to have exciting conversations with like-minded teams about subscription strategies, trends, and payments and introduce attendees to the world of Recurly. We got to touch base with our partners attending the event as well as those who are based in New York City, plus we hosted a fun networking event at Treadwell Park with Kount and Vertex. While we were there to hear from subscription leaders from across the country, our very own Director of Product Marketing, Sarah McCredie, also taught her own session about churn.

Recurly's session: How AllTrails, TIME, and BarkBox burned churn

Subscription Show 2022

Titled “How AllTrails, TIME, and BarkBox burned churn,” this session highlighted the realities of the current subscription landscape: macro-economic trends like supply chain challenges, inflationary pressures, and global uncertainty are influencing consumers purchasing decisions, and consumers are coming to businesses with higher expectations for omnichannel experiences, long-lasting value, and a greater desire for experience and access to such rather than ownership. 

Despite these changes, subscription businesses are still growing eight times faster than non-subscription companies. Sarah dives into great examples of how AllTrails, BARK, and TIME combat churn as industry experts:

AllTrails

  • Acquisition through retention strategies: Growth through partnerships, on-site signup incentives, flexible pricing (i.e. ramp pricing)

  • Subscriber engagement trends: Optimizing the onboarding and renewal journeys, creating a sense of community, seamless offline-to-digital experiences, referrals, value manifestations, rewarding loyal and engaged subscribers

BARK

  • Product diversification: Seasonal product launches, a hybrid model of one-time and recurring purchases, custom bundles, blend of physical and digital offerings

TIME

  • Digital transformation: Focus on engagement over acquisition, diversifying through NFTs, audiences, partnerships, events, and ecommerce, a unique approach to launching in new markets

  • Payments for growth and retention: Subscriber feedback on preferred payment methods, multi-gateway strategy

  • Thoughtful cancellation experience: ​​Win-back campaigns, leverage data and segmentation, create opportunities for feedback

With more than 2,000 reasons a card payment can fail, decline management techniques are paramount to managing your involuntary churn rates. 

Recurly churn statistics

A VIP dinner

To close out Subscription Show, Recurly hosted a dinner with some very important guests. With attendees from Forbes, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Peloton, Freshbooks, NBA, Harvard Business Review, and The Arena Group, there was no shortage of subscription experts at the table. Recurly’s own Mary Rosberg, Derek Jones, and Rebecca Blasser entertained our guests for the night with great conversations about the subscription industry, where it’s heading, and the importance of having the right tech stack to support the growth of recurring revenue businesses. It was the perfect way to end an eventful week.