Most Shopify stores I audit already have a subscription app installed. They’re paying for it every month. And the subscription option is still quietly losing them money.
Not because subscriptions don’t work for their products. Because the setup has gaps nobody has had time to look at. A plan that exists in the admin but never shows on the page. A discount that’s too small to matter. A cancel button that lets a customer leave without ever hearing a better offer.
I checked 622 Shopify stores to see how many actually offer subscriptions. See the data.
I’m Carson Cobb. I run Shopify stores for growing DTC brands on monthly retainers, and subscription revenue is one of the first places I look. Over 6+ years and 50+ Shopify stores, I’ve learned that the biggest wins usually aren’t new tools. They’re fixing what’s already there.
Who this is for
This is for founders of growing brands who sell something people use up and buy again. Supplements, coffee, skincare, pet food, protein, tea, personal care. If a customer who loves your product will need more of it in 30 or 60 days, you should be earning that second order automatically.
It’s a good fit if any of these sound familiar:
- You have Recharge or Skio installed but subscribers are a small share of orders.
- You aren’t sure your subscribe and save option even shows on every product.
- Subscribers churn after two or three orders and you don’t know why.
- Your team doesn’t have anyone who owns subscriptions end to end.
If you’re on the fence about which app to use in the first place, start with my Recharge vs Skio vs Loop comparison.
The most common Shopify subscription leaks
These are real patterns I find in audits. Each one is small on its own. Together they can cut subscription revenue in half.
Subscribe and save is missing on the hero product. The brand set up subscriptions on a few products during launch, then added their daily product later and never attached a plan. The one item people buy most often has no way to subscribe.
The selling plan exists but the widget never renders. The plan is created in Shopify, the app shows it as active, but the theme was updated or swapped and the widget block was never added back. Customers literally cannot see the option.
The default selection works against you. One time purchase is preselected, the subscribe option sits below the fold, and the savings aren’t shown in dollars. Customers take the path of least resistance.
Trial and sample packs lead nowhere. A brand sells a starter kit or sample pack, the customer loves it, and then there’s no offer to roll into a subscription. The best moment to convert a buyer into a subscriber passes in silence.
Cancellation is a single click. No pause option, no skip, no swap to a different flavor or frequency, no offer to slow the shipping cadence. Many customers who cancel just have too much product. They’d stay if you asked.
Subscribers get the same emails as everyone else. No upcoming order reminder, no easy way to add an item to the next box, no failed payment recovery that sounds like a person. Subscribers are your best customers and they’re being treated like strangers.
What I actually do
I treat subscriptions as a system, not a setting. Here’s the work, in the order I usually tackle it.
Offer design
I start with the offer because nothing else matters if the offer is weak. That means the discount level your margins can carry, the frequencies that match how fast people actually use your product, whether to add a free gift on the first order or a loyalty step up at order three, and whether prepaid plans make sense. I base this on your real order data, not a template.
Plan setup in Recharge or Skio
I build or clean up your selling plans so every product that should be subscribable is, with the right frequencies and the right discounts. I check that plans are attached to every variant, that bundles and stacks behave correctly, and that nothing breaks at checkout. I work in Recharge, Skio and native Shopify selling plans.
Product page widget and default selection
This is where the biggest lifts usually come from. I make sure the widget renders on every relevant template, decide whether subscribe should be the default, show the savings clearly in dollars, and explain what happens next in one or two plain lines so customers aren’t worried about getting stuck. Then I test it on real phones, because most of your traffic is mobile.
Trial to subscription paths
If you sell a sample, starter kit or trial size, I connect it to a subscription offer. That can be a post purchase upsell, an email sequence timed to when the trial runs out, or a starter kit that converts into a subscription automatically. The goal is that no happy trial customer ever has to go looking for how to reorder.
Cancellation flows
I set up a cancel flow that gives customers real alternatives before they leave: skip, pause, change frequency, swap the product, or take a one time offer. I also look at the reasons people give and feed them back into the offer and the product page.
Klaviyo flows for subscribers
I build subscriber specific flows in Klaviyo: welcome, upcoming charge reminder, add to next order, failed payment recovery, win back after cancel, and milestone thank you emails. Each one is short and written to sound like your brand, not a billing system.
How the work is packaged
You don’t need a giant project to fix this. There are two ways I usually start.
Store Sprint, $1,500 one time. One week. I audit your subscription setup along with the rest of the store, then fix the highest impact problems that same week. If you move to a retainer afterward, the $1,500 is credited toward it. This is the right fit if you want to see how I work before committing.
Operator, $3,000/mo. This is the plan I recommend for most growing brands. I own subscriptions as part of running the store month to month: offer tests, widget changes, flows, cancellation insights, and everything else on the site that affects revenue. You get one person who knows your store deeply instead of a rotating cast.
There are also lighter and heavier options, from the Advisor plan to a full Head of Ecommerce engagement. You can see all of them on the pricing section.
Proof: subscribe opt in from 7% to 32%
One subscription brand I worked with had a solid product and loyal customers, but only 7% of eligible orders chose subscribe and save.
I worked through the same list on this page: which products had plans attached, how the widget rendered on mobile, which option was selected by default, how the savings were shown, and whether customers could tell they were free to skip or cancel. Then I fixed what was getting in the way. Opt in went from 7% to 32%.
That’s the kind of change that compounds. Every one of those subscribers is revenue you don’t have to buy again with ads.
Across all my work, rebuilt pages average a 2.1x conversion lift, and I’ve supported more than $40M in client revenue. If you sell supplements or wellness products specifically, my page for supplement brands covers the extra challenges that come with that category.
Book a 20 minute intro call
If you think your subscription program should be doing more, it probably should. Book a 20 minute intro call and tell me about your store, your app and your hero products. I’ll tell you honestly where I’d look first and which plan makes sense.