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The holiday season is near, and both businesses and consumers are preparing for the upcoming festivities. While economic conditions may affect spending, 53% of consumers are interested in giving gift subscriptions this year, according to our recent survey for 2023 holiday shopping trends. We asked 2,000 consumers in the...
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the ecommerce industry, and subscriptions aren’t an exception. With new technologies come new challenges, and business owners must understand how to incorporate AI into their current strategy and product offerings. In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about artificial intelligence and...
Consumers’ demands and expectations are shaping the way subscriptions are perceived. And businesses must understand them to succeed. To help you create a better consumer experience, Recurly asked over 6,000 consumers globally what they want from their subscription service–discovering valuable insights that drive engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction across geographies and...
Consumers are shaping the path for growth in the industry–understanding their demands and expectations is essential for success. To help you get a better picture, we went straight to the source. Recurly surveyed over 6,000 consumers globally about what they look for in subscription services to identify the key factors...
In the dynamic world of subscriptions, understanding consumer needs and expectations is essential for success. To tap into exactly what subscribers demand, Recurly surveyed over 6,000 consumers globally to discover valuable insights into what subscribers want from their subscription service—and the key factors that drive engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction. Our...
Consumers dictate today’s market pace, especially in the subscription industry, where customers demand and expect flexible, personalised, and valuable offers. How can subscription businesses continue to expand globally amid challenging economic times? And how can they do it seamlessly? On the 19th of June, a panel of subscription experts consisting...
What is innovation at scale? Innovation is key to the success of any subscription business. It's what keeps customers engaged and coming back for more. There are many ways to innovate in the subscriptions space, but some of the most common include: Adding new features or products: This is a...
The subscription business model continues to experience major shifts in subscriber expectations and demands, the value of subscription services, and consumer experiences. Amid challenging times of macroeconomic uncertainty and the revaluation of subscriptions, brands must get ready to grow at the same pace as the industry–expected to top $1.5 trillion...
What is scale? In computing, scale is the ability of a system to handle an increasing amount of work without a decline in performance. In the context of your businesses, scale refers to the ability to grow revenue and customer base without a corresponding increase in costs. But what does...
Successful subscriber acquisition means you have figured out which acquisition channels produce the most high-value subscribers for your business–an accomplishment that every recurring revenue business strives to achieve. To reach this state, a subscription brand must understand what attracts consumers to their business–is it the promotional offers? The free trial?...
The subscription economy continues to bloom–and as the industry thrives, the competition becomes more challenging every day. Understanding what it takes to sustainably accelerate subscriber and business growth is key to setting your business apart. How can your brand stand out and become an industry leader? At Recurly, we are...
According to Checkout.com, 56% of consumers would be “permanently put off shopping on a site” if they couldn’t use their preferred payment method. Without a doubt, payments play a large role in conversions of new subscriptions and renewals alike. The payment methods and currencies available at checkout help consumers...
Now more than ever, consumers crave experiences and products that are catered to their preferences. They want to be able to customize everything from the product or service to payment methods to the frequency at which they receive their goods. In the subscription industry, there are innumerable opportunities to allow...
The subscription-based business model continues to rise in popularity, helping companies to find new revenue streams and cultivate long-term customer relationships. While economic pressures usually drive purchase decisions and customer behaviors, the demand for recurring products and services proves that subscriptions are the future of consumerism. In fact, the subscription...
Imagine this: A shopper wants to purchase your subscription, but their preferred online payment method is a card in their mobile wallet and it isn’t available at your checkout. Broken experiences like this can stop online transactions as some customers would drop the whole checkout process if they have to...
One of the most underrated but important aspects of the subscriber experience is the relationship you create with your subscribers. This year, an expertly-crafted subscriber experience maintains its position at the center of high customer satisfaction (which translates to high customer lifetime value), loyalty, and improved retention rates. If you’re...
From a product perspective, consumer preferences mean everything. With this kind of knowledge, you create a product or service that your ideal consumers truly want–and keep them loyal to your brand. And every year, consumer preferences change, and that is a weighty consideration for subscription businesses especially, whose goals include...
From the beginning, Recurly has helped its customers make sound strategy decisions, forecast financial performance, close books on time, and ensure financial accuracy. For more than a decade, we have worked with category-defining brands like Paramount+, BARK, Sprout Social, and Sling TV to grow their businesses successfully. As a...
The subscription industry has changed, and it will continue to evolve in response to the changing climate of the economy and subscriber preferences: Complexity in maturity: As the industry matures, competition, commoditization, and more factors arise that complicate the existing subscription infrastructure. Simple subscription plans have transformed into variable plans...
As we embark on another year of subscriptions, a fresh outlook on marketing is mandatory. Consumers are conducting their annual evaluations of their subscriptions, and they are deciding if your subscription service is still worth the money. Whether you’re a streaming media subscription business or a SaaS recurring revenue service,...
General Manager of EMEA at Recurly Oscar Wall and Recuro Founder and CEO Jonas Åström sat down to share the latest in subscriber growth and revenue trends in 2023. Based in Stockholm, Recuro is a strategy consulting and growth marketing firm, focused exclusively on subscription-based companies. In the webinar,...
2023 is off to a great start in the land of subscriptions, especially with the announcement of our new partnership with Recuro, a Stockholm-based leading subscription business models consultancy. Combined with the technology and professional services of Recuro, Recurly will now be able to provide subscription businesses with the...
Customer insights are a powerful way to ensure a data-driven, subscriber-centric approach across your business. These insights result from thorough analysis and interpretation of valuable information in consumer interactions and channels. Download now: The State of Subscriptions report provides the acquisition, growth, churn, and payments insights you need to...
Led by Recurly’s CEO Dan Burkhart, CMO Theresa McEndree, and Director of Business Intelligence Brian Grier, the 2023 State of Subscriptions webinar unveils the biggest, most impactful findings in the subscription industry from the past year. With these discoveries, our in-house subscription experts have predicted the year to come:...
G2, a peer-to-peer review site for business software and services, has given accolades to Recurly in its Mid-Market Implementation and Usability Indexes for subscription revenue management for the winter 2023 period. Every quarter, G2 highlights top-rated industry solutions from customers themselves. Recurly has been ranked as the top-rated subscription...
Anticipating consumers’ needs has become the main goal for most subscription businesses, especially in challenging economic times. Quality, actionable subscriber insights are the most effective way to achieve it. The importance of subscriber insights analysis Consumer insights give you a deeper understanding of how your audience behaves and why–helping you...
The evolution of subscriptions leads us to a web of advancements. From digital wallets to omnichannel experiences, subscriptions are a sign of the changing times and consumer demands. Mobile apps are just one of the many avenues subscription businesses explore to sell their products and services. While having your subscription...
While Black Friday kicks off one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year, Cyber Monday is giving it a run for its money. The pandemic has given shoppers more reasons to stay home, and the fruits of this isolation are heavily evident in online shopping. Shoppers spent $10.7...
A genealogy website based in London, Findmypast is dedicated to finding family stories and bringing them to life. When it first started 65 years ago, Findmypast was solely dedicated to helping its customers locate records–a one-time, direct sales transaction. But as Findmypast grows and records have become digitized, the...
Every subscription business aims to build a strong subscriber base and turn their customers into brand ambassadors. Valuable subscribers aren’t necessarily the customers who spend the most. Profitable customers advocate on your behalf, share valuable feedback, and actively interact with your brand. When identifying your most profitable subscribers, apply the...
Acquisition is one of the most challenging strategies in subscriptions. How can businesses reinvent their offerings to beat the competition, subscriber demand shifts, and new buying behaviors? Many components create the ideal customer acquisition promotional toolkit. Free trials are one of them. This article will answer all your questions about...
When it comes to optimizing subscriber experience, your work is never really done. Subscription motivations and priorities are constantly changing; however, customer experience remains a top driver for revenue. Over 90% of consumers said they’d spend more money with businesses that offer streamlined experiences. Given the importance of customer...
Subscriber acquisition impacts your business and revenue growth, and it’s one of the most important and challenging strategies in subscriptions. Acquisition requires a deep understanding of your product, subscriber preferences and behavior, and consumer loyalty. This article will teach you the ideal subscriber acquisition strategy and how to optimize yours...
What started as standard royal entertainment via tapes and documentaries blossomed into a full-blown on-demand streaming service devoted to Royalty worldwide. In 2018, True Royalty TV started a direct-to-consumer play, eventually growing globally into six markets, with a major portion of its customer base in the U.S. The transition...
Subscriptions are a top driver of loyalty and revenue growth for brands looking to grow. However, there comes a time when consumers may consider canceling their subscriptions. In fact, 31% of U.S. consumers say they plan to cancel some subscription services this year–after 46% canceled a subscription due to...
In a recent survey about the impacts of the pandemic and the overall sentiment of U.S. subscribers, Recurly found that 87% of respondents have a subscription to at least one streaming video service and 46% have a subscription to at least one streaming audio service. The increasing ubiquity of...
Scentbird is a U.S.-based subscription service for perfumes and colognes. This niche box-of-the-month offers subscribers eight different scents of their choice every month, and as Andrei Rebrov, CTO of Scentbird, puts it: “Everything is very simple, but the devil is in the details. What are the special payment-related features of...
Customers canceling subscriptions are among the lesser desired situations for any subscription business. Contrary to what it may sound, providing an excellent cancellation experience fuels strong subscriber retention outcomes. This article covers why cancellation journeys are crucial in subscription models, along with some best practices for a stellar cancellation...
The pandemic has paved the way for consumer re-evaluation, leading us to the direct-to-consumer (DTC) shift. Emerging consumer models continue to grow, bringing new consumer values, new buying behaviors, and new demands. As a result of this shift to a DTC, subscription-run commerce landscape, businesses must focus on their brand,...
The creator economy is growing steeply, imposing stiff competition on the few well-known journalists and media companies that once enjoyed monopoly control. While promoting decentralized creation and distribution of content, the creator economy empowers individuals to leverage their skills and creativity, directly reach their audience, and encash their talent. As...
The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and micropayments is quickly changing the way consumers spend and save. In 2021, a study found that 16% of U.S. adults had invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency — up from just 1% in 2015. For Americans between the ages of 18 and...
The impact of COVID-19 on subscriber behavior has been drastic. Lockdowns and restrictions expedited the shift from purchases in brick-and-mortar stores to ecommerce–changing every aspect of the customer experience, especially in the subscription business. While some have seen a positive impact, others have faced more challenges than opportunities, forcing...
With the deep-rooted penetration of smartphones and the Internet into mainstream life, the marketplace for goods and services has pivoted sharply over the last few years. Moreover, with the pandemic impacting the world in unprecedented ways, standard industry purchasing trends have further undergone a steeper pace of change. Unsurprisingly,
When running a subscription-based business, fighting against churn is one of your everyday battles. Even though customer acquisition is a major need to scale a business, the ability to retain existing ones is easier and less costly. Here is where tracking revenue retention comes in handy. What is net...
In this blog post, our Chief Technology Officer Tony Allen discusses the importance of scalable technology and how Recurly ensures every customer is set up for success with our cutting-edge technology. Technology is evolving, and it evolves rapidly. In today’s day and age, companies need to continually invest in scalable...
In this blog post, our Chief Technology Officer, Tony Allen, shares how Recurly helps companies scale for large digital events like the big game, shopping holidays, and more. Digital events have dominated our screens. Behind the scenes, companies are responsible for creating the capacity to power these occurrences, but as...
In the business of subscriptions, one thing is guaranteed: Business growth is at the center of all our goals. To gather insights on how some of the biggest names in subscription are achieving this, Recurly’s CMO Theresa Mcendree sat down with a few of our top customers for a...
Each year, the end of November marks the beginning of a slew of deals as consumers gear up to shop for the holiday season. Cyber Monday is particularly notable and has become the dominant day for eCommerce purchases and activity. Shoppers spent $10.8 billion online on 2020’s Cyber Monday,...
It seems like every industry, from fitness and fashion to entertainment and education, has embraced the subscription business model in one way or another. With recurring payments everywhere you look, you might feel tempted to think there’s no more room for innovation in the subscription space. Ask companies like Wyze,...
There are certain well worn areas businesses focus on to accelerate growth. You know that to drive acquisition, you need to learn more about your customers, run hard hitting marketing campaigns, and come up with offerings so great that your customers will spread the word about them. But one strategic...
The global Software as a Service (SaaS) market size is projected to reach USD $307B by 2026, from $159B in 2020. To learn more about how the SaaS industry has evolved, we virtually sat down with Joe Hyrkin, CEO of Issuu - a Recurly customer since 2014 and...
Digital marketing agencies may not think of themselves as an ideal use case for a subscription management and billing platform, but Black Propeller, an award-winning digital marketing agency based out of Bel Air, Maryland, doesn’t like to do things the traditional way. “Being able to easily keep an eye...
A year ago, COVID-19 hit the US in full force—and MarketMuse, a SaaS company that helps marketing teams build smart content strategies—saw an opportunity to boost subscriber acquisition by leveraging coupons and promotions. “We've experimented a lot in the past year after launching our self-serve product. When the pandemic...
Subscription merchants remain well-positioned for pandemic lockdown living, and 2020 subscription rates are a testament to that fact. As we head into 2021, subscription businesses now face the task of retaining COVID-era subscribers as people separate needs from wants in the aftermath. In PYMNTS’ Subscription Commerce Tracker®, done in...
Before we relegate 2020 to the past, I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight one of the major economic trends we saw this year: an explosion in subscription commerce. This time last year, we accurately predicted that subscription commerce would continue to grow and evolve, but certainly none of...
Userlike, based in Cologne, Germany, offers professional live chat software to help its customers raise conversion rates, promote customer loyalty, reduce churn, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Userlike wanted to maintain its lean business model, but at the same time, recognized the importance of partnering with a reliable subscription...
The subscription race is rapidly accelerating, fueled by more and more players entering the subscription market. In an effort to scale growth, savvy subscription model businesses are looking to expand across borders in new regions, such as EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. But global expansion brings with it a plethora of...
Recurly’s Item Catalog has come a long way since we introduced it in earlier this year. Just a few months later, we made it possible to sell add-on recurring items in addition to selling items in a one-off fashion, and a few months after that, we made...
Consumers are spending differently due to a myriad of effects stemming from the ongoing global pandemic. This year’s holiday shopping and gift-giving season is sure to feel the impact of these changes in consumer behavior. Is this the year that Black Friday loses its importance and Cyber Monday takes its place as...
In 2020, we’ve seen a remarkable period of transition. According to some estimates, the COVID-19 pandemic will mean “most major economies will lose at least 2.4% of the value of their gross domestic product) throughout 2020.” In the U.S. alone, that equates to some $3.5 trillion dollars lost—just like that....
COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, changing our day-to-day existence in ways we could have never imagined. Back in March, when the pandemic hit the U.S. in full force, many consumers reacted by emptying store shelves of basic necessities including canned goods and toilet paper. Many people, not knowing...
Recently, Recurly Chief of Staff, Emma Clark joined Subscription Insider’s Kathy Greenler Sexton to discuss the impacts — both positive and negative — that COVID-19 has had on subscription-based businesses. If you missed out on the webinar, here’s the gist. COVID-19 has entirely reshaped the subscription landscape, as well as increased the economic uncertainty...
“Doers drive change. We empower them.” -- Pipefy video These six words succinctly describe Pipefy’s mission: to make work easier and faster through workflow automation and organization. Since Pipefy launched in 2015, companies like Volvo, Wipro, Capgemini, and IBM have embraced Pipefy’s powerful platform. Today, Pipefy is used by...
We’ve all seen those little chat icons that pop up at the bottom of countless web pages, asking if you need any help or want to chat with customer support. As it turns out, there’s more to chat support than meets the eye. LiveChat, one of the pioneering providers of...
In a recent blog post, we discussed why it's important for subscription businesses to offer alternative payment methods like PayPal and Amazon Pay. Today, we’ll share aggregated data insights to show why merchants should consider using multiple payment gateways to grow their business. In this post, we’ll discuss payment gateway usage...
In the past, we’ve shared how gift cards and plans can help you acquire new subscribers. Today, in the midst of COVID-19, gift cards and plans are as important as ever to help you acquire subscribers and retain the ones you already have. According to a report by NBC, one analyst...
Freemium has become a massively popular business model in SaaS in the last few years. While it can look like the secret ingredient to success for many businesses, it doesn’t work for everyone. In this post, we’ll share how the team at Qwilr tried freemium, what happened, and what they...
As businesses grow, moving beyond their home locale is often one of the milestones of expansion. Global expansion often requires a considerable amount of planning including research into regions and payment methods best suited for a business’s needs as well as evaluating and choosing the right partners to help them achieve...
The subscription model has proven to be ideal for our digital, customer-centric economy, offering sustainable recurring revenue, improved customer loyalty, plus a wealth of data to enable data-driven insights. But, as consumer preferences and buying behaviors continue to shift, subscription businesses must evolve to remain competitive or risk losing significant...
In addition to being highly successful, innovative subscription businesses, what is another thing that BarkBox, FabFitFun, and Speedo all have in common? Answer: they all combine subscriptions with one-time offerings. This is called “hybrid commerce,” and it refers to businesses that have both a recurring line-of-business and sell one-time items. Regardless of whether...
One key to converting prospects and increasing cross-border sales is to provide your potential subscribers with the option to use the payment method they most prefer. For many merchants, the ability to offer additional payment methods is not always an easy or straightforward endeavor. Which countries to expand into first? Which...
Subscription commerce has been undergoing epic growth year after year and shows no sign of slowing down. Subscription commerce is clearly here to stay. As the industry continues to mature, the space continues to get more evolved and sophisticated. To help you stay ahead of the trends, the team at...
Subscriber retention is a cornerstone of successful subscription commerce, and one of the best ways to retain loyal subscribers is to ensure that your subscription delivers value. Because many subscriptions allow subscribers the convenience to set it and forget it, your subscription business might not always be top-of-mind. That’s one...
Over the past number of years, Thanksgiving weekend has turned into an all-out ‘deal-apalooza’ with merchants offering discounts galore that begin earlier and earlier each year. Cyber Monday fell one week later this year, on December 2nd (compared to November 26th in 2018). This means consumers have only 26 days...
Recently, we wrote about the trends expected this holiday shopping season. We discussed tips and best practices related to gift subscriptions, coupons, and free trials which can be very effective tactics that subscription businesses can use to acquire new subscribers during this most wonderful time of the year. But what...
That time of year is approaching, when sleigh bells are rung, dreidels spun—and retailers look forward to making their revenue numbers for the year. For retailers and shoppers alike, the holiday season officially kicks off on Black Friday followed by Cyber Monday, an even more popular shopping day. Last year, 67...
According to McKinsey, subscription e-commerce has grown 100% a year over the last five years. Savvy e-commerce companies are taking full advantage of the subscription model—predictable revenue and deep customer relationships—to gain a competitive advantage and accelerate growth. You too can capitalize on this incredible growth by adding subscriptions as a...
Subscription businesses, like any other business, need to continually attract new customers—and of course, keep their existing customers happy. When businesses exceed all expectations, they may find themselves lauded in the trade press over these results, as AMC Theaters and Spotify were recently. AMC’s Stubs A-List movie ticket subscription service reported...
Sales of physical products in e-commerce are experiencing sustained growth. According to industry-expert, Mary Meeker, the market has experienced double-digit growth each year since 2008. Because of the intensely competitive nature of e-commerce, businesses seek any advantage that might give them an edge over their competition. For example, some businesses are...
The subscription e-commerce market has continued to grow exponentially year after year. To take advantage of the many benefits the subscription model offers, it’s important to understand current trends in terms of product offerings, growth beyond recurring revenue, and plan structures. The Recurly Research team set out to analyze these...
Did you know that 15% of online shoppers have signed up for one or more subscription services? Or that the subscription e-commerce market has grown by more than 100% every year over the past five years? In fact, this market generated more than $2.6 billion in sales recently, and 2019...
We’ve all been there: waiting in line at the grocery store with one item behind someone with twenty. It’s frustrating. The checkout process in e-commerce can be frustrating too, and subscription businesses should do all they can to optimize and streamline this process for their subscribers. Why? Because eliminating friction...
Tailor Brands was founded on the belief that powerful branding should be accessible to everyone, regardless of skill level, background in design, or budget size. The company describes its platform as the world’s first automated branding agency—providing AI-software that creates unique brand identities and elements on the spot. Based in...
The competition is coming. By 2020, eighty percent of SaaS players will move to a subscription-based model, which means your success strategies have to evolve—and that includes the all-important fundamental: how your subscriptions are structured. Your subscription pricing and plan structure have a profound impact on subscriber acquisition and retention. Do you...
