Welcome offers are one of several strategies to acquire new customers that can encourage them to subscribe. Stay AI merchants have mastered the art, deploying a range of innovative welcome subscription offers to incentivize new subscribers. Let’s delve into some of the most effective strategies employed by these brands:
An Overview of Brands & Their Subscription Offers:
- Alice Mushrooms: Offers different gifts depending on the SKU, pairing supplements with relevant lifestyle perks
- Intake Breathing: Uses a free starter refill kit to build immediate value for new subscribers
- Art of Skin Care: Combines a gift-with-purchase with loyalty rewards to boost subscriber acquisition
- DADFUEL: Provides a practical gift (a shaker bottle) and a decreasing cost structure that rewards long-term subscribers
- For Wellness: Adds branded tools as welcome gifts, designed to enhance the customer’s product experience
- Clean Skin Club: Locks in new subscriber pricing in the face of tariff uncertainty and sweetens the deal with a high-value free gift
- Portland Pet Food Company: Incentivizes customers to try a subscription with extra first-order discounts
- Fishwife: Structures its gifts across multiple shipments to combat churn and reward loyalty over time
- Curie: Streamlines decisionmaking by highlighting subscription value and most popular cadence
- Oxford Healthspan: Uses tiered discounts to encourage higher average order value with larger subscription quantities
- Proxies: Offers a fun, functional accessory gift to complement its product (a champagne stopper).
- Clevr: Provides a practical branded tool (scoop) that supports regular product use
- Feals: Differentiates its subscription offer with personalized support via a 1:1 dosage consultation
- Huron: Mixes traditional discounts with surprise gifts and exclusive perks to increase subscriber acquisition
- Veracity: Tiered gifts and savings unlock with higher order size, encouraging subscribers to purchase more from the start
1. Alice Mushrooms
Alice Mushrooms, makers of functional chocolate that combines the long-term benefits of mushrooms with the immediate effects of nootropics, has a subscription offer that varies depending on SKU. For example, customers interested in their Nightcap SKU to improve sleep receive a 30-day free trial to Open, a meditation and sleep app, along with a 100% silk sleep mask. Not only are new customers excited about the added bonus in their order, but they’re also given a functional (and related) piece of merch that further enables regular product usage.
2. Intake Breathing
Nasal strip brand Intake Breathing entices a new subscriber with a free Refill Kit. When customers select their Refill Plan option, they know they’re getting 30 more uses delivered monthly – but even better, they get the first one free! It’s a great strategy for building value from the start and encouraging subscribers to remain loyal after their first order.
3. Art of Skin Care
Art of Skin Care, a skincare brand that embraces natural beauty with science-backed formulations, offers subscribers a free gift and the promise of rewards points. With their robust AoS loyalty program, customers can advance through the ranks and receive increasingly valuable rewards at each tier. Offering 50 points with each order (over $25) is a great way to combine the incentives of the rewards program into a subscription offer.
4. DADFUEL
A meal supplement for busy men, DADFUEL takes the idea of discount subscription offers a step further with its decreasing cost structure. Each order costs subscribers less, so the longer a customer stays, the more they save. While order #1 starts at $79, if they stick around until order 6, they get their bag for just $50, a whopping 37% discount! To sweeten the deal even further, new subscribers receive a complimentary shaker bottle with their first order.
5. For Wellness
For Wellness’ supercharged supplement coffee subscription welcomes new customers with a complimentary canister and scoop, branded tools for enjoying their subscription offerings.
6. Clean Skin Club
Clean Skin Club, creator of the TikTok viral Clean Towels, addresses the concern of rising prices due to tariffs in its subscriber acquisition strategy. They let customers know on their PDP that if they subscribe today, they’ll lock in their price (10% off) for life. That, along with a free gift valued at as much as $52, is an offer that is hard to refuse.
7. Portland Pet Food Company
Portland Pet Food Company’s pet food delivery service entices new subscribers with an extra discount on their first order, making it more affordable to try their products. This subscription offer encourages trial and incentivizes potential subscribers to make the switch to Portland Pet Food.
8. Fishwife
Tinned fish connoisseurs, Fishwife, offer a 10% discount and the flexibility of pausing or canceling anytime. However, the key to increasing subscriber acquisition on this PDP is highlighting the gifts offered with second and third orders. This consecutive reward keeps subscribers loyal at a time when churn tends to be high (between the first and second orders, and the second and third orders), and demonstrates a different approach to the gift-with-purchase incentive.
9. Primal Harvest
Curie reminds customers interested in their clean deodorant products not just about savings and flexibility, but also the most popular choice of cadence. The 15% off savings and free shipping are highlighted directly in the buy box to emphasize value. Then to make the decision to subscribe even easier, Curie highlights the most popular cadence – 2 months – so customers don’t need to think twice about adding to cart.
10. Oxford Healthspan
Healthy aging supplement brand Oxford Healthspan utilizes discounts for subscriber acquisition – a notable feature is that the discount increases with the number of bottles purchased. For example, customers who subscribe to a delivery of 1 bottle get a 15% discount, while those who subscribe to 2 bottles get 18% off. Increasing the discount amount with quantity encourages a higher AOV, along with making the offer to subscribe more appealing to customers.
11. Proxies
Alcohol-free wine brand Proxies sends new subscribers of their Wine Club a free, limited edition champagne stopper “to ensure your sparkling Proxies stay bubbly and delicious”.
12. Clevr
Superfood latte brand Clevr sends new subscribers a free SuperLatte scoop with each new subscription order – another example of a merch item that both increases subscriber acquisition and enables regular product usage!
13. Feals
Feals, a CBD brand, offers one of the most unique subscription offers we’ve seen: a 1:1 consultation with an expert to help guide customers on determining the right CBD dosage.
14. Huron
Men’s grooming and personal care brand Huron employs several strategies to acquire new customers, including a 15% discount, exclusive shipping rates, order flexibility, and surprise gifts and rewards, such as a loofah or a free order up to $40.
15. Veracity
Veracity offers a ton of subscription offers to customers of their metabolic supplements brands, including free shipping, a money-back guarantee, and exclusive access. They also include gifts with purchase, which are tiered based on order size: a Travel Vial with a one-month supply, crew socks for a three-month supply, and a metabolism cleanse for a six-month delivery. Plus, these gifts are highlighted again in the product image on the PDP, underscoring their value. Giving subscribers more gifts and larger savings with a bigger order incentivizes higher AOV.
Wrapping Up
These examples illustrate the diverse ways subscription brands can use welcome offers to drive subscriber acquisition. Each brand’s approach not only demonstrates a deep understanding of its target audience but also lays the foundation for building long-term brand loyalty. Welcome offers are more than just initial perks – they’re strategic tools in cultivating a lasting subscriber base.
