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Subscription Commerce Momentum Builds at Kick-Off of Holiday Shopping Season

New research reveals same-store sales jumped 17 percent on Black Friday and 16 percent on Cyber Monday for subscription businesses

San Francisco, CA – December 15, 2016 – Recurly, Inc., the enterprise-grade subscription management platform, released findings today from an analysis of subscription business activity during the start of the 2016 holiday period, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Same-store sales saw significant growth, with total payment volume (TPV) increasing 17 percent on Black Friday and 16 percent on Cyber Monday, compared to 2015 data.

These growth rates compare favorably to overall commerce volume measured by Adobe Digital Insights which reported that shoppers spent 12.1 percent more on Cyber Monday 2016 than they did in 2015. Further underlining the powerful momentum in subscription commerce, same-store sales for top performing subscription businesses increased substantially, with total payment volume (TPV) surging 131 percent on Cyber Monday and 126 percent on Black Friday, compared to 2015 data.

“As subscription models continue to proliferate across categories of commerce, consumer behavior demonstrates that compelling offerings delivered over time provide more delight than one-time purchases,” said Dan Burkhart, CEO of Recurly. “In addition to the subscription ‘box-of-the-month’ category, we saw noteworthy growth in companies specializing in digital goods and services, shining a spotlight on how subscription businesses are propelling the growth of the digital economy.”

The four-day period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2016 experienced strong TPV growth overall, with top performing subscription businesses experiencing a growth rate of 115 percent when compared to the four-day holiday weekend period in 2015. Black Friday experienced the largest increase in TPV at 188 percent as compared to other days in the study period.

Recurly also measured the effect of sales promotions and found that coupon redemptions grew 43 percent on Cyber Monday from redemption rates seen in 2015. Overall, Cyber Monday saw three times more coupon redemptions than other days during the study period, while Black Friday saw two-and-a-half times more redemptions.

Methodology

The company examined a sample of more than 450 business-to-consumer (B2C) subscription businesses during a two-week study period that included Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Specific dates of the study period were Monday, November 14, 2016 to Monday, November 28, 2016. In 2016, the date of Black Friday was November 25 and Cyber Monday was November 28.

About Recurly

Recurly, Inc. delivers flexible enterprise-grade subscription management to thousands of SaaS, media, mobile, consumer goods, productivity and publishing businesses worldwide. Businesses like AccuWeather, Sling Media, JibJab Media, Asana, HubSpot and Twitch.tv depend on Recurly’s ability to cut through the complexity of subscription management to drive recurring revenue growth. Since its launch in 2010, Recurly has deployed subscription billing for thousands of companies in 32 countries, making it the most trusted pure-play provider of subscription management services. Recurly is PCI-DSS Level 1, SAS 70 / SSAE 16 Compliant. For more information, visit Recurly.

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