You know those customers who churn because they have “too much product” (or an oversupply of the products they typically get with their subscription)? Yeah, those are your most win-backable customers.
Up until now, winning back churned customers has been a capitulating mind game, filled with a lot of guesswork, a lot of disconnected data, and out-of-date industry standards.
A lot has changed.
Without even counting AI, there are so many winback strategies that work today, and they completely obliterate old industry standards.
We spoke with six of our favorite companies in the e-commerce space—Bubblehouse, Rep AI, Rebuy, Aftersell, Saras Analytics, and NoFraud—about the winback strategies they recommend. We cover what they said below.
Lean on your loyalty and rewards program
Loyalty programs aren’t just a cornerstone of retention—they’re a transformative tool to implement within your winback strategies.
The key lies in crafting a reward structure that sparks action.
By blending point multipliers, exclusive gifts, VIP access, and personalized discounts, you can activate targeted winback campaigns that remind customers of the points they’ve earned, their progress, and the rewards they’re just a step away from unlocking.
You need to integrate your loyalty program with your subscription technology to do that. This allows you to create compelling milestones tailored to critical churn points in a subscriber’s lifecycle.
Ensure the rewards align with each customer’s unique journey and that your loyalty system enables them to pick up where they left off.
Get a comprehensive loyalty system—like Bubblehouse—that enables multi-layered and dynamic reward packages combining all of these elements.
Offer your customers variety, and make it easy to swap products in their subscription
Did your valuable customers cancel because they didn’t like the flavor? Are they bored with what they’ve been getting for months and want to try something new?
The first instinct is to cancel your subscription, maybe take a break from the flavor, and come back when you’ve had enough time to start craving it again.
They might not know you have new flavors out or that it’s extremely easy to swap for that flavor in their subscription.
Including these options in winback flows can reengage their interest and may help keep it, too. They’ll see that swapping out products is extremely easy, and they have the freedom to explore, keeping them excited about your brand.
Let ex-customers know you have a flexible delivery cadence
Many brands opt for the default 30-day delivery for their subscription products, but this doesn’t make sense for all brands.
In fact, if your purchase latency is much longer, you’ll quickly end up with people canceling because they’ve built up a stock of products and need time to work through them.
You can either automatically set subscription frequency at a cadence that makes sense with your product’s purchase latency, or give your customers the ability to alter their deliveries at will (or offer both).
While you may already offer this, your disengaged customers might not know it.
When sending them targeted messages, inform them of this, along with any pause or skip options they have available to them. Then, make enable them to perform this action with a Quick Action in the email.
Personalize their email with an exclusive “come back” offer based on their cancellation reason
Most brands default to a discount or a free gift on next month’s box, but that isn’t enough to win back every ex-customer. In fact, it may even have some customers turning a blind eye to your brand altogether.
They’re so used to seeing your discounts through the regular promotions you’ve run during their time with you.
If they didn’t engage with those, then why would they when they’ve left?
Instead, send them a personalized message with a tailored offer based on their reason for cancellation.
- If they leave because of cost, offer a more significant discount or offer to pause their subscription for a while.
- If they wanted more styles, let them build a custom box or offer them the flexibility to swap items independently.
- Show a minor deal on accessories (like socks or headbands) as a one-time add-on.
- Offer another resubscribe deal with more incentives, such as a free gift.
- Remind them they can pause or skip easily and include a link to manage their subscription
This really relies on your analytics deep dive. The more personal you can offer, the better.
Use Aftersell’s customer tag or order history triggers to set up tailored offers that complement their journey.
Craft personalized experiences via customer segmentation
Segment customers based on shared characteristics and specific churn reasons to create targeted strategies that resonate.
If you’re using AI with conditional logic, you can offer specific treatments to these specific groups of customers by leveraging the various conditions, including:
- Subscription LTV
- Customer LTV
- Number of orders
- Price
- Variant ID
Take an omni-channel approach in your winback strategies
Emails are yet another default in most winback campaigns, but inactive customers likely aren’t going to engage with them if they haven’t before (or at least haven’t since they’ve churned).
But you can re-engage them with other winback efforts such as:
- Retargeting ads
- Push notifications
- Direct mail
- Social media promotions
The idea is to cut through the noise while re-engaging customers in a format you haven’t worn out. Just make sure that if you do reach them, you have the right offer to win them back.
Leverage customer behavior data to uncover insights into what works with Saras Analytics.
Offer churned customers a Gift With Purchase (GWP)
Sometimes, the key to winning back ex-customers is to remind them of products they’ve purchased and liked before.
This is where a Gift With Purchase comes in.
All that’s really needed is a custom UTM link or a Klayvio Quick Action in the email to bring them straight to the offer.
Of course, you want to A/B test your free gift offers, but customers are generally thrilled with receiving products they know they love already, especially when they’re free. It gives them a reason to revisit their subscription to claim it and tells them you’re paying attention to what they like.
With Rebuy, you can seamlessly set up a GWT by tweaking the logic on the back end to make going from offer to cart a one-click experience.
Make it easy to pick up where they left off
Maintaining the conversation history between customers and customer service/chat creates a seamless return experience.
Not only can you continue to personalize messaging and offers, but when they reach out to customer service again, agents will have the historical context to work with. This means previous shopping patterns, subscription issues, preferences, and more.
By maintaining this conversational continuity, you’re not just making it easier for customers to return—you’re giving them a compelling reason to stay.
Rep AI is powered by behavioral and conversational AI to revolutionize how Shopify brands engage shoppers and drive growth.
Make changes to the entire customer experience so they’re excited to return
Creating a comprehensive winback strategy isn’t just contained to your winback campaigns. It’s actually about reducing the kind of friction that made the customer leave to begin with.
Sure, they may have cancellation reasons outside of your control, but there are dozens of things you can fix.
Reduce the friction
Many customers churn when their payments fail for whatever reason. Most aren’t thrilled when they have to go into their portal to swap their card information or try to diagnose the issue themselves.
It’s critical to use a fraud prevention provider with a powerful global network to provide a seamless experience and reduce friction for loyal customers.
A robust network enables the identification of shoppers based on their activity across multiple merchants. If a returning customer has been verified as trustworthy in past transactions with other stores, your fraud solution can confidently approve their order.
This also reduces the likelihood of unnecessary declines and provides a smoother shopping experience for returning customers.
By leveraging these insights, merchants can ensure legitimate customers are not inconvenienced, making it easier to win back their business if churn occurs.
Empower customers to manage their orders
Giving customers control over their orders is a simple yet effective way to reduce churn and improve their experience.
Features like customizable verification emails and self-service order edits allow customers to verify or adjust their orders without involving support teams. This minimizes delays and ensures that customers feel supported throughout their shopping journey.
By offering these capabilities, merchants can significantly reduce support tickets, improve operational efficiency, and create a positive experience that encourages customers to return.
NoFraud enables merchants to implement customizable verification emails and self-service order edits, allowing customers to verify or adjust their orders without involving support teams.
Winning back churned customers isn’t some last-ditch effort you just throw out and hope it sticks.
No, it’s heavily laden with customer data from their feedback survey and past purchase history. It’s going beyond the discount code to truly understand customers who’ve left and call to action that’ll bring them back.
It’s a mix of strategies that don’t just stop at the inbox.
If you’re ready to optimize your entire customer experience, not just the experiences needed to win back your ex-customers, the partners mentioned in this article work beautifully paired with Stay AI.
