How to Increase Subscription Rate on Shopify: 5 Tests, One Pattern
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Get My TeardownHow to increase subscription rate on Shopify: make subscribing the first and easiest choice, and never make it the only one. In our tests, putting Subscribe & Save first and pre-selected took subscription share from about 3% of orders to about 21%. Removing the one-time option, hiding the short plan, or pushing people up a price ladder lost orders every time.
Below are five of our own tests across two subscription brands. Three tried to increase subscription rate by taking a choice away. Two did it by changing what the shopper sees first. The pattern is the same in all five.
Who this is for: Shopify brands selling on subscription with Recharge, Loop, Skio, or a similar app.
What you'll learn: what actually moves subscription share, what backfires, and how to increase subscription rate on Shopify without losing first orders.
The data: five real tests from our client work, numbers pulled from Intelligems. Clients anonymized.
The five tests at a glance
| What we changed | Subscription share of orders | Orders |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription as the only way to buy | 2.2% to 97.4% | Conversion rate -42%, revenue per visitor -58% |
| One-month plan hidden | 85.4% to 79.7% | Conversion rate -28.1% |
| Longer plan priced above the monthly plan | 86.4% to 87.7% | Conversion rate -13.9% |
| Subscribe & Save block moved above the pack options | 1.6% to 21.6% | Conversion rate -3.9%, not significant |
| Subscribe pre-selected in a pack builder | 3.3% to 20.5% | Order value +46%, revenue per visitor -7.4%, not significant |
What backfired: taking the choice away
Test 1: subscription-only, 97% subscribed and 42% fewer orders
A food brand had a subscription share of about 2%. The idea: this is a visibility problem, so make subscription the only way to buy.
It worked on paper. 97.4% of orders in that variation were subscriptions. But conversion rate fell from 3.16% to 1.84%, a 42% drop, and revenue per visitor fell 58%. Cart abandonment went from 61% to 75%. The test ran 29 days with 135 orders in control and 76 in the variation.
People do subscribe when it is the only door. A much bigger group just leaves.
Test 2: hiding the one-month plan
A subscription box brand offered a one-month plan next to longer ones. We hid the one-month plan to push shoppers into a longer commitment.
Conversion rate dropped 28.1% and revenue per visitor dropped 30.2%. We stopped it after 7 days, at 59 orders against 82. Subscription share went down too, from 85.4% to 79.7%. The hidden plan was not sending people to a bigger plan. It was the reason they joined at all.
Test 3: pricing the longer plan above the monthly one
Same brand. We raised the price of the every-two-months plan above the monthly plan, so monthly would look like the better deal.
Over 31 days, conversion rate fell 13.9% and revenue per visitor fell 11.4%, on 472 orders against 551. Order value rose 2.9%, which did not cover the lost orders. The mix between plans barely moved. The price ladder did not shift buyers. It shed them.
What worked: subscribe first, one-time still there
Test 4: Subscribe & Save above the pack options
Back to the food brand. We kept one-time purchase on the page, but moved the Subscribe & Save block above the pack options and spelled out the deal: extra 10% off, free shipping, swap flavors, cancel anytime.
Subscription share went from 1.6% to 21.6% in 17 days, on 309 orders against 310. Conversion rate moved -3.9%, which is inside the noise.
The catch: about a third of the new subscribers picked the smallest single item. With free shipping and the extra discount, that subscription loses money. Order value fell 7.2%.
Test 5: subscribe pre-selected in a pack builder
The follow-up fixed that leak. We replaced the single item with packs of 5, 10 and 15, and tested three versions of the new pack selector against the old page.
The version with subscribe pre-selected took subscription share from 3.3% to 20.5%. The same builder with one-time pre-selected landed at 4.0%. The default did the work, not the builder.
Order value rose 46%. Conversion rate fell 37%, which we expected after removing the cheapest item. Revenue per visitor ended 7.4% down and not significant, on 210 orders against 288. On mobile it was level with control (-0.8%). The gap was desktop, at -27%.
The brand rolled it out. A first order that is 46% bigger and six times more likely to be a subscription is worth more than a slightly higher first-order number.
The rules we use to increase subscription rate now
- Keep one-time purchase visible. Subscription should be the better-presented option, never the only one.
- Put subscribe first and pre-select it. In our builder test, the default was the difference between 4.0% and 20.5%.
- Spell out the deal next to the option. Extra discount, free shipping, swap, cancel anytime. Shoppers should not have to hunt for it.
- Set a floor on what can be subscribed to. A subscription to one small item with free shipping can lose money on every box.
- Never remove the low-commitment plan. If you want longer plans, add them as an extra choice with their own reward.
- Judge the test on more than first-order revenue. Look at subscription share, order value and repeat orders, and split mobile from desktop.
How sure are we?
Not as sure as we would like. None of these five tests reached the 1,000 orders per variation we now aim for. Subscription brands with that kind of volume on one page are rare.
What makes us trust the pattern is that it repeats. Five tests, two brands, two product types, and the direction never flipped: taking a choice away lost orders, and changing the default moved subscription share by a lot. Treat the exact numbers as a guide, and test it on your own store.
For two finished examples with full detail, see our subscription buy box test and the subscription frequency price anchoring test.
Common questions about subscription rate on Shopify
How do you increase subscription rate on Shopify?
Put the subscribe option first, pre-select it, and list the benefits right next to it. Keep one-time purchase on the page. In our tests this took subscription share from about 3% of orders to about 21%.
Should subscription be the default option on a product page?
Yes, as long as one-time purchase is one click away. In our pack builder test, the same page had 4.0% subscription share with one-time pre-selected and 20.5% with subscribe pre-selected.
Should I remove the one-time purchase option?
No. When we made subscription the only way to buy, 97.4% of orders were subscriptions, but conversion rate fell 42% and revenue per visitor fell 58%.
Does hiding the shortest subscription plan push people to longer plans?
Not in our test. Hiding the one-month plan cut conversion rate by 28.1%, and subscription share went down, not up. The short plan is why many shoppers join.
Want more subscribers without losing orders?
Our team runs testing programs for 8 and 9-figure Shopify brands, including subscription brands on Recharge, Loop and Skio. See how we approach Shopify subscription CRO, or book a free strategy call to talk through your subscription funnel.