Hello, everyone. Welcome, and thank you so much for joining us. My name is Ellen Lobb. I am a strategic customer success manager here at Recurly.
My passion is working with customers like Brad and Noel to better understand their goals and then through close partnership to be your biggest cheerleader when you hit and then exceed those goals. So we're here to talk today about something that is top of mind for every subscription business right now, the holiday season. It is exciting, but it can also be quite hectic. You've got demand spikes, payments kinda get messy, risk fraud goes up just as you're starting to hit those growth goals.
So while the holidays can be, you know, one of the biggest moments for a subscription business, the real opportunity is what happens after that spike. So today, we've brought together experts from Recurly, from PayPal, Versant Media, and EveryLife to walk through a practical playbook on how to handle those holiday peaks and then set yourself up for success through twenty twenty six. You will hear real life examples, tactical tips, and walk away with things that you can put into action. So without further ado, let's start with a round of introductions so you can meet our experts. Luis, you are right to my left, so I'll kick it over to you first.
Absolutely. Hi. My name is Luis. I'm a senior sales trainer at PayPal. I have fifteen years of experience either as a seller, sales management, and also as a sales trainer. So very excited to, be spending this time with you all today.
Noelle, you wanna take it next?
Oh, absolutely. My name is Noelle Klier. I am VP of d two c and our loyalty programs over Versed Media. Versed Media might be a new name for everyone. We are the golf pass product and the fan club product, and then the, conjoining loyalty programs that work within both of those.
Yep. My name is Brad, and I'm the president here at EveryLife. And we are a baby care company and now a fem care company as of a month ago that celebrates life, family, and champions parenthood. So my background is in finance and operations, and so I'll probably focus more on that side of thing. We tried to get our sales and marketing guy, but he was booked today. His his hourly fee was was too high or something like that. So you you got the junior varsity team, but I am happy to be on this call.
Not true, Brad. We're so happy to have you. Landon, we'll bring it home with you.
Hi, everyone. My name is Landon Cherry. I work closely with some of the world's biggest and most complex subscription businesses here at Recurly.
My role is to help them grow faster, retain more subscribers, and ensuring revenue doesn't leak through technical cracks. So I actually started on the customer success side here, you know, managing renewals and risk firsthand. So now I'm working in strategic accounts. My focus is squarely on the outcomes, you know, what actually moves the needle when the stakes are high.
Great. Again, thank you guys so much for being here. Let's dive into it. So first, a question for everyone just to get started. What does holiday seasonality mean to each of your organizations?
Luis, I'll kick it over to you first.
Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. So here at PayPal, holiday seasonality means, you know, providing our consumers and merchants with the most simple, secure, and personalized ways to pay and sell at one of the busiest times of the year. It's our time to provide innovative payment options really that make shopping online and in store seamless.
I'll focus on our FanDenga Fan Club product here. Holiday season, obviously, everyone knows that it's one of the top seasons outside of summer blockbuster for the movie theater industry.
And so this is a huge ramp up for us in acquisitions, and we are primarily a monthly product. So kinda what you're talking about, Ellen. Our biggest concern is, well, what happens to these monthlies come January, February, March when theaters aren't as popping with those big blockbusters. So we are always in a ramp up on this, but how can we keep them longer?
Holiday season is is big for us as well. We're in a bit of a unique boat in that we offer d to c consumer packaged goods products, but they are essentials. And so we we don't find a a huge spike, during the holiday season from those that are just focused on the Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals. But we do find, that the holidays are big for our team internally and externally.
A lot of people are taking time off, being with their family. We love families. We love newborns a lot of time. It's it's the, the kids' first Christmas.
And so it's it's a fun time for everyone. And then the question after that is how do you keep them around? But, I'll leave us on a cliffhanger. I think we're gonna get back to that later.
Very true.
Great, Nikhil.
You know, from from a Recurly perspective, when we say holiday seasonality, you know, we're talking about the annual surge in subscription demand, more gift purchases, more first time subscribers, more plan upgrades, but the season doesn't end with that acquisition spike. It actually creates a renewal wave in q one where, you know, payment declines and churn risk naturally increase. So our role here is to help our merchants turn that seasonal pattern into long term growth advantage, you know, maximizing the upside in q four while ensuring q one renewals stick. You know, it's not just a holiday moment. It's a multi month life cycle that you can engineer for success.
Okay. This is gonna be great because everybody is coming from from such different backgrounds in the way that they view it. So, Brad, you're right. To get into it a little bit deeper, another question that I have for the team, because we have some folks obviously on the call today who've been through many seasons and many holidays, others that may be watching this that haven't. So I would love to ask everyone on the team today, what is one lesson learned from previous peak seasons that continues to shape your twenty twenty six strategy?
Yeah. So I can jump in. So at PayPal, we've learned that staying resilient really just comes down to being ready for anything. We've built systems that, you know, keep payments flowing even really during those crazy high volume moments.
And one thing is that we're always tightening up our security. So we're protecting data, strengthening our networks, and we're keeping a close eye on our systems. For us, it's really all about staying one step ahead.
And I'll step in from, like, a product perspective.
So we will typically change up our product selection. It may be a promotion or offering, but it's always with them in mind of keeping them in that q one like Landon was talking about. So if it is a discount on a three month commitment in the holiday time frame to get us over that hurdle and get them into that annual or not sorry. A monthly product thereafter. But just having that commitment a little bit higher in the beginning.
Noel, I yeah. I'll definitely echo that as well.
About ninety percent of our direct to consumer orders are on subscription. And so what we've learned we've only been around two years, so it's a small sample size.
But we what we've seen is we need to be really intentional with these new customers that are coming, these moms that are trusting us with such an important product that they put on their baby. And how do we nurture those relationships, like you said, Noel, in the following month? So it's not just a one time flash in the pan. It's really, it's a long term relationship.
And and just one quick note, one way we do that is when, a new customer or a new mom comes in, becomes a subscriber. The third order and we advertise this up front as kind of a little hook. The third order, they get to donate a box to a local, nonprofit of their choice. So that's that's kind of a way that we like to to get people to stick around.
Yeah. I'd say one of the biggest lessons, you know, we've learned through working with our merchants, during past holiday seasons is that, you know, the success during the holidays is determined well before the holidays. So, you know, when subscription updates, retries, you know, gifting flows are all automated and tested early, that holiday rush becomes kind of a momentum event, you know, not not a stress event. So we've seen that shift unlock, you know, millions in revenue for our merchants that used to get lost kind of in the chaos previously.
So preparing ahead to have less chaos later Exactly. In every part of my life. Very, very true. I have a follow-up question for you, Brad, just because you touched on customer trust being a huge part of something you have to retain. So as president, I'm curious, how do you balance these aggressive growth goals, I'm sure you guys have, with maintaining that brand trust during these super high volume moments?
Yeah. It's a good question. I would say it really comes down to our key relationships with our partners. Recurly is one of them, and, no, I did not get paid to say that.
Recurly has been awesome. Highly recommend if you're not partnering with them yet.
But our manufacturing partners as well. Right? If we ask them to bump up their if we say, hey. We're gonna grow thirty percent year over year and you're gonna bump up your manufacturing to that degree, we better believe that all those products are coming in the same quality as what we're used to, with lower quantities.
So I think it it really comes down to, who are we partnering with. And then we do small things like we send Christmas gifts out to our partners. We wanna keep them happy. You know?
They do a lot of really important work for us, so, we'll we'll do a little something for them as well.
That's awesome. Creating those close relationships with vendors.
Noel, something else I wanted to touch on that you said because you mentioned keeping them longer and that retention being a big part of your strategy as well. So from an operational standpoint, what are those offers or retention campaigns that you guys are doing, and and how do you prepare for that?
Yeah. Absolutely. So our fan club, FanDiga fan club membership is also another baby one, Brad, where you just celebrated our first anniversary in October. We're a little bit more mature on our golf pass side, hitting almost ten years with that soon. But we learned really quickly, you know, going into this of those ebbs and flows. And we're not that we hadn't prepared for it, but now we have one year past, and you kinda know it's gonna be that way.
In our peak seasons, we do feel that a free trial to one monthly is the best optimal product we have been seeing in performance wise. But when we are preparing for those other ones, we go to what is called the three month pay in full program. And then at the end of that three month term, they roll into the nine ninety nine there. In the interim, that gives us the opportunity to engage them. That gives us the opportunity to cross sell them because they do have benefits on our at home Fandango at home version so they can have things that they can see when they may not want to go to the theater as well. But it gives us that little bit extra time inside of there.
You bring up a great point, the the time to value. I as a consumer myself, I feel like the the length of trial and how much time I get to actually interact with the product to keep me longer, I see it all the time. So that's amazing that you guys are thinking so strongly on that strategy.
Luis, a question for you. So I'm curious being on the the kind of backside, what are these shifts that you typically see in payment behaviors during these holiday surges that you guys are doing such a great job of preparing for?
Yeah. So, you know, at PayPal, we know that planning for peak seasons really is all about staying ahead of the curve. So what we do is we we try to help merchants really focus their marketing when demand's the highest and make sure the operations from set from staffing to system capacity are ready for, you know, that surge. On our side, you know, we keep a close eye really on transaction patterns. So if a merchant's volume suddenly spikes or buyer activity looks a little bit unusual, our systems flag it so that we can protect both the business and its customers. And because we understand really some of those seasonal trends, our teams know the difference between healthy growth and and potential risk. It's really all about helping merchants scale safely and smoothly during their busiest times.
Scale, the million dollar word. Amazing. Thanks. Landon, I've got one more for you before we move over into those holiday spikes. So I'm curious from a holiday specific patterns that you mentioned seeing previously and then through the holidays, what stands out to you, those patterns, when it comes to, like, churn or reactivation too?
Right. Yeah. I'd say, again, kinda going back to what I what I was mentioning earlier, you know, the things brands can do before holiday volume hits is, you know, treat November and December like a stress test. You know, simulate all the conditions that cause spikes, you know, rapid plan activations, know, gift subscription surges, you know, high credit card decline scenarios, peak time renewals at the same time as well as retries, thousands of small simultaneous checkout events.
A great re Recurly customer example is the NFL. You know, on opening day this year in September, we saw the highest single day processing volume in Recurly history. And they they had summed it up at at the time as, you know, this is the most successful, uneventful Sunday kickoff that we've ever experienced. So, that's the outcome you want in peak season. You know, you don't want, you know, dramatic success. You just want reliable performance at scale.
It's already a bit full enough. Let's take away some of that that chaos and and the event from it. That's an awesome story about the NFL. Go Texans.
Okay. So, Luis, I wanted to dive in a little bit because I'm sure you alluded to fraud and and what PayPal is doing there. I think something top of mind, not just holiday, but all the time in what businesses are seeing. So while these holiday peaks can be super intense, I think having the right payment stack in line can really help with that.
So let's get specifically into payments. I have a couple questions for you. So I'm curious, PayPal and your team, how do you balance fraud prevention but keeping that frictionless checkout during these peak volume times?
Yeah. Great question. So at PayPal, we look at risk and security really as something that has to happen in real time. So, like, our system will look at things like transaction patterns, customer history, and even really session behavior to just spot anything that seems off.
So if something doesn't look right, it can trigger, you know, extra checks right away really before a bad transaction goes through. On the authentication side, we use, like, multiple layers, things like passwords, security tokens, and biometrics, and we actually adjust the level of security really depending on how risky the situation looks. So there's also machine learning component, you know, behind the scenes. It learns from patterns really across millions of transactions, really helping us to catch new types of fraud as they, you know, start to emerge.
So it's really just a combination of data, AI, and smart authentication all working together really to keep users safe without slowing them down.
I have to say this is probably one of my many reasons why I love working at Recurly, but one of these is, as a taking my Recurly hat off and just being a consumer during the holidays, learning the back end of what is happening when I run my credit card or buy something via PayPal that all of that is going on in the back end, whether it's me running the transaction or not. So, I'm curious since you are living there and you most likely are seeing trends that are happening with customers like myself as well, What are the payment methods or wallet behaviors that are trending up this season, you would say?
Yeah. So I we're we're seeing three, big shifts in, like, the digital wallet space, this year. The first one is really just, mass adoption. So over four point three billion people now use digital wallets, like, worldwide, and online payments via wallets are just, like they're rapidly overtaking card usage.
Second, we have smarter security and authentication. So wallets are really layering in biometrics, AI driven fraud detection, really making them both safer and more seamless. The third one is also expanded, like, super wallet functions. So really, like, Beyond Payments, wallets are becoming, like, hubs for loyalty programs, peer to peer transfers, embedded financing, and even identity services.
So, basically, one place for your money, data, and identity. So, really, in short, like, digital wallets have moved from, like, a nice to have to really, like, a central part of how we pay, move money, and really manage our, you know, financial life.
So Super wallets.
Okay.
Good new term to be using into this holiday season.
One last question for you, Louise, on that topic. So these customers, things could be happening. You guys are doing so much work on the back end for your merchants during this holiday season. What are some data points or dashboards that merchants could be using or could help them to make these real time decisions during the high volume periods?
Yeah. Absolutely. So if you're a PayPal merchant, you can easily track transaction issues by subscribing to the attempts and declines report or just pulling it whenever you need it. So, like, merchants using Braintree also have access to a variety of reports, and those things really help monitor declines and expiring cards. And, there's also an account updater feature that keeps your your your credit card data current and stored, really making the process smoother for you and your customers.
Yeah.
One of my favorite features here at Recurly as well. No need. I have had so many subscriptions or things go through when I got new cards and everything happened on the back end.
Scary seamless. So thank you, Louise. Landon, I'm going to pass it over to you. I have a couple questions.
You alluded to all of the preholiday work that customers can be doing to prepare for the season. So I'm curious. What levers should merchants adjust during these preholiday times? So retry logic, billing cycles, promotions they should be testing.
Curious your point of view.
Yeah. That's that's a really good question, Ellen. You know, again, with the first quarter of next year bringing that wave of renewals and, you know, that could mean a wave of potential payment failures. So, you know, like we mentioned, cards expire, balances change, issuers can tighten approval windows after the holidays.
We're seeing a lot of merchants, you know, leveraging AI and how they change the whole strategy from being reactive to preventative. So, with Recurly, smarter retries. You know, rather than guessing when a card might work, we use machine learning to retry when issuer behavior indicates the highest chance of success.
We're seeing a lot of, merchants going to our Recurly wallet, which allows a user to add a backup payment method on their account. So one card failing shouldn't end the subscriber relationship. We wanna give them, an opportunity to have a backup payment ready, method ready to go. Also, dynamic dunning, you know, the tone, the timing, the channel of how you're communicating with your subscribers needs to be able to adapt to the context and value of that subscriber. So all of that to say, you know, the result is what we call a quiet recovery. You know, all of these issues get fixed before the customer ever feels them.
Okay. You answered my next question there too. AI, like smart wallet, being another word that we're hearing often.
And so you alluded to some great ways that Recurly is using AI to help with retention strategies and orchestrate gateways in the right way. So that's really cool to hear. Thanks, Landon. So I think kinda summary here, payments are not just about collecting revenue.
They are truly powering smarter retention, thanks to all that back end work, Luis, that you mentioned that PayPal is doing, things of that nature. So, I wanna talk a little bit about after the rush. And so you guys have done all this great work preholiday to set up. The volume spike is here.
Now we're postholiday, and we're trying to keep The dust has settled.
I am curious. This is a question for everyone. How do you turn well, let me start big. How do you turn these new subscribers into loyal customers?
And then, Brad, I was gonna say everybody, but I'm gonna take it to you first. I'm curious from every life. What strategies have worked best for retaining customers beyond the surge? I'd love to hear.
It's a great question. I think for us, in general, if we zoom out and we get out of this holiday surge, people come to our brand for the values and they stay for the quality of the solution of the product.
It it's interesting because during that holiday surge, people might come more for the the discount, right, the the deal that they're getting. And so our onus then the onus is on us then to communicate our values to those new customers and say, not only did you get a great deal, not only is it a great product, but, hey. Did you know we've donated seven million diapers to moms in need, in our short two years of being around? So it kinda changes the marketing for us a little bit as far as what we do with new customers from the holiday surge versus other times of the year.
Great. So using that super powerful mission that EveryLife has in inserting that to build loyalty beyond.
Exactly. And just communicating that.
Communicate that. Yeah. I am curious.
You described what you guys are doing in in communicating and putting that in front of customers. Have you seen shifts in how the customers want to engage post peak?
Yeah. I think that it's really dependent on the customer.
We tend to give kinda middle of the road discount ranges, if you will, and so we're not doing the ninety percent off.
But we're not also we're not doing the ten percent off either. So it really depends if that customer is coming from from a place of, hey. This is a great deal. Or I've heard about it, and I've been waiting, and now is the time to act.
And I think a lot of the times, it's the latter. And like I said at the the top of this call, it is a needed product. It's a necessity. And so the time, to buy EveryLife for a lot of moms that have been kinda thinking about it and heard about it and been encouraged by their friends to do it could be in that holiday surge, and that's where we wanna get them in and then really communicate our values to keep them in.
Great.
Noel, I've got a a question for you. So in terms of loyalty tactics, which I know you discussed earlier, and happy one year anniversary. Oh, thank you. Team. But I'm curious, specifically, what loyalty tactics, things like pause functionality, bundling, different perks have you found that help keep subscribers engaged?
Well, we are hoping to do pause functionality in twenty six, so we're very excited about that. For us right now, a lot of those keeping engagements is that, you know, the first three months, that's the crucial part. Your biggest drop off is in that time frame with people. And so, like, I alluded to earlier, making the connection of our platforms. We usually try to surprise and delight when we can in those first three months as well.
Some little perks, some special things that they can get to that other people may not, and really connect with them, which is our overall vision of bringing entertainment to everyone who are the lovers of movies in general. So whether you're wanting to experience in the theater, whether you're wanting to do the at home because we have that at home connection in our membership as well. And we've also done things like with our fan store. So people who are collectors and giving them special early access access to the wicked commemorative poster that's coming out, stuff like that to really keep that connection going.
Thank you for reminding me about wicked. My mom and I need to get tickets as soon as possible.
Presale for that started, like, three weeks ago.
We're late. No. That's amazing to hear. So it sounds like personalization and and making that person feel really special and heard and and communicated to you, and you're thinking about them.
Similar to what Brad said, the communication at the right time to getting that that message in front of them. That's amazing. Luis, I've got a a quick question for you. So on the PayPal side, how are you helping merchants to engage those lapsed payers or minimize the churn after those spikes happen?
Yeah. So, really, all of PayPal's features are designed to work together. I like to think of it as, like, a nice little hamburger. Right? You have your hamburger, then you have the condiments.
Sorry to make you hungry, but, you know, checkout optimization, our email campaign campaigns, you know, behavioral analytics, and personalized offers. And not just, like, separate tools. They they really come together to create a built in customer relationship system that's inside of your payment process. So this means that merchants can easily keep track of customer activity and and engage with shoppers really in smart, effective ways.
The other big advantage is that PayPal sees customer behavior across all merchants' shoppers. So it can provide insights and strategies that you might not be able to discover really on your own. Paypal users typically have multiple funding sources in their wallet, so, you know, that helps reduce, subscriber churn. So I would say that's what makes PayPal's platform so valuable really for for keeping your customers, and coming back.
Yeah. On that same vein as churn landed, I'm curious from your perspective.
Are there any life cycle features or analytics that you found that help merchants to kind of stretch beyond that billing and retain more customers? I'd love to hear more about that.
Yeah. I would say personalization across the subscriber life cycle is just so important now. You know? Offers, upgrades, safe tactics, there it's not a one size fits all anymore. You know, engagement with these subscribers throughout their life cycle should be triggered by, you know, usage, timing, what's their intent, not not just their subscription status. So, I I'd say that with that trends coming into focus now, again, it's about being precise, you know, automated, and it's personalized as you grow.
Thank you, everyone. That totally makes sense in in the ways that you're taking those spikes, moving them over into growth. There's definitely strategy behind it.
I'm curious and would love to move into what's next. So looking beyond twenty twenty six and continued strategy forward, this is a question for everyone. So what would you say is one major trend shaping the subscription and payments landscape in twenty twenty six? And, Noelle, I'm gonna kick it over to you first.
Oh goodness. I mean, it's always changing.
I think the biggest thing that's probably affecting us all is all the constant changing to the legal items that we have to be aware of, make changes for, whether or not you're applying it to the full thing or you're just segregating to the not countries, to the states that are applying it. But that's a constantly changing portion that's making our strategies having to be more diverse, more dynamic, and that flexibility inside of our subscriptions to maintain our functions.
So all the yeah. And you're right. It can change per location. It's so nuanced, and it constantly changes. So great points. Brad, I'm curious from your perspective.
Yeah. I think it goes back to the word personalization. I think we've harped on that quite a bit, because it's important. Right? And so when we I I mentioned we launched our feminine care line, about a month ago.
And when we initially launched, we were looking at subscription frequencies, and we're like, well, with baby care, right, all we need is once every month. But with feminine care, without getting into the details, there's there's different needs for different different women there. And so we decided to launch different subscription frequencies, six and eight weeks, and a large chunk of our new customers are selecting those. And they likely would have either not selected for weeks, just gone with a different brand, or been on subscription but then paused or even churned, after their first or second order.
So I think just personalizing, knowing your customer, getting really close to the data. If you have a customer success team and saying what what is getting your ear to the ground. You know, the Sam, Sam Walton story of Walmart, he would go to his Walmart every single week, and he would just ask customers questions and really pick their ear. And I think we can do that in a lot better way now because we have technology, and then it's just about implementing that feedback.
You are giving me flashbacks to my past, Brad. I don't know if I ever told you this, but I used to work in ratings and reviews back in the day. Customer feedback constant and listening, and, we were in there when the heyday of reviews was big. So that's amazing to hear that you're you're listening to customers and and taking that into action. So, I'll pass it. Luis, you next over into major trend you see shaping the subscription industry for twenty twenty six?
Yeah. I think, heading into, next year, I think the most valuable advice, for merchants is is really just modernized payment technology, for speed, security, and seamless, customer experience. I think with rapid advances in AI and and automation and digital wallets, really, you're gonna have customers that are going to increasingly, like, expect convenient, reliable, secure checkout experiences. So I think businesses that, invest early in integrated payment solutions, they're gonna stay competitive and and earn customer loyalty.
Modernizing payments. Landon, what about you?
Yeah. I'd say in twenty twenty six, you know, subscription success is gonna be defined by a few major shifts that we're already seeing across our largest merchants. You know, global scale is a big one. So new subscriber growth is increasingly coming from international audiences we're seeing.
Customers expect to pay with local methods that they already trust. So digital wallets, regional cards, local currency presentation. It's not me really a nice to have anymore. They're table stakes for conversion.
You know, global expansion isn't just launching in a new country. You have to adapt to that country's buying behavior.
Also, again and I'm gonna go back to personalization, key theme today.
Again, those pricing and offers can't be generic anymore. We're seeing the personalized upgrade paths, you know, the targeted save tactics, the messaging being triggered by their actual usage is so important. The subscriber needs to feel the experience is tailored to the to them, and that the longer they stay is what's we're seeing happen. So twenty twenty five, I would say, you know, about scaling audience reach. Twenty twenty six is scaling intelligently, keen in on global conversion, you know, automated recovery that we talked about previously, and and those retention experiences that feel personal.
So I referred you guys as experts today before, but you truly are. And so I think everyone is so eager to learn more about what you guys have been through and just any advice that you have moving into the new year. So if you could give one piece of advice to merchants for twenty twenty six, what would it be?
Luis, I'll start with you.
Yeah. Yeah. I I think I said it in in the last one, and I I think that's probably a trend as well that we'll we'll see is that, just the rapid advances in AI, but I'll but I'll just, briefly touch on it again. I think we're going to see digital wallets become more increasingly adopted, and customers are gonna really expect that that reliable and secure checkout experiences. So I think, again, right, businesses that invest early in those payment solutions are really gonna be ahead and be able to stay, you know, competitive and continue to earn, their customer loyalty.
Good advice. Noelle?
I'm gonna link it to the personalization, but it's more of really getting to know who your customers are. You know, cohort them, find out their behaviors, and then you can have that help you strategize a real personalization journey. And don't be able to afraid to, like, try different things. So it may not work. That's okay. Pull it down. Try something else and really take that time to figure out what is good and keep an eye on it because sometimes it wears out, and you gotta refresh it and everything.
Okay. Noel, not to put you on the spot. And it's okay if you have an an answer for this, but I'm just curious because you mentioned don't be afraid to put something up and remove it if it didn't work. Do you have any stories of a personalization or something that you tried with customers or with a customer that that didn't go the way you thought or didn't work?
Yeah. It was on our other product. So our other product is on a golf platform that books you book golf tee times off of. And we thought that this idea of this flex membership, kind of a seasonal membership where you got the content all year long, you got all your benefits up front, was just gonna be gangbusters. It did not hit its note in the market, but it hit its note in a personalized flow for our at risk customers.
So we were able to pivot it as not necessarily an acquisitional product, but as of something of, oh, someone turned their auto renew off, and we're gonna offer them this product that's got about half of the benefit set, but they still get to watch the content all year long. And it was a really good, risk mitigation for us. So it was like a loss win combination.
That's amazing. Yeah. Something you didn't think and then took it and pivoted and worked in another direction. Excellent example. Noelle, thank you. And I put you on the spot there, so thank you for that.
Advice, Brad, I'll pass it over to you. Piece of advice for twenty twenty six.
I think Luis and Noel nailed it. So I don't I don't wanna reiterate. They said it better than I can, but I will say for twenty twenty five, and to your point, Noel, about learning from your mistakes, the holiday season is upon us, which is crazy to say already.
So for us, I know we're offering discounts that we normally wouldn't. We're creating bundles.
We're launching entirely new products or different skews around current products and all of that while our team is wanting to spend time with their family and take PTO and be with loved ones for the holidays. So I'd say that this is a crazy season, and especially if this is your first holiday season. Enjoy it. But then definitely after it's over, when the dust settles, look back and ask, what did we learn?
You know? What did we what went well? What can we work on? And what would we do differently, for twenty twenty six holiday season?
I don't know if you saw, but right when you said enjoy yourself, I but I've noticed we took a a deep breath and my shoulders relaxed a little bit. So a good reminder to everybody, including myself. Thank you, Brad. And then, Landon, have I have I hit you yet? Advice for twenty twenty six?
Yeah. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if I could offer one piece of advice heading into twenty twenty six for our merchants, it's to invest early in the subscriber experience. You know, from the moment they check out to every successful renewal that follows, with the payments experience is seamless, you know, trust builds. And then when trust builds, customers stay. So the brands that win next year are not just gonna be acquiring more subscribers.
They're gonna be keeping more of them.
That is a perfect segue into my last question, which, hopefully, this won't be people repeating themselves, but maybe in a different way.
This is your final question, team. Thank you so much for the time today. I wanna do a lightning round, and this is going to be your bold prediction for twenty twenty six in five words or less.
I'll jump in there. So AI dominates global financial conversations.
Nailed it.
I followed that one. That was great, Lewis.
I would have to say that just yeah. We're gonna on the personalization level, but get to know your members. So know them just as well as you know how your payments work, but know who they are and what they like.
Get to know your customers. Good.
For us, convenience is everything. I'll just use three.
I like to be frugal with with my work and my finances.
But when we started going just a a a quick aside, when we started changing our communications with these busy moms from emails to text message, we saw we saw things blow up in the best way possible.
So making it convenient for which goes back to the previous point of knowing your customer, how do they receive communications, and then making it convenient for them.
That is so interesting. I wonder in one year from now when we're all back together on this webinar, book your calendars, what we'll be saying in terms of communication style or personalization, tactics that you guys have seen and learned from. So, Landon, bring us home. Five words or less.
Oh, five words. Okay. Trust becomes the ultimate currency. That's my prediction.
I love it. I love it. Well, team, that is a wrap on our session today. Thank you so much, all of you, my experts, for coming here today and sharing your tips and tricks. I wanna thank everybody for tuning in and watching today. This has been so diverse and just great to hear answers from PayPal, Versant Media, EveryLife, Recurly.
Thank you for your real life experiences and sharing that with others. I think in summary, this holiday season can be hectic, but with the right strategies in place and some relaxation to carved in there, it's also full of opportunity. So, again, thank you everyone for today.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much. Everyone.
Oh, thank you so much. That was awesome, y'all. Thank you.
