By Carson Cobb, Fractional Head of Ecommerce. Data checked October 31, 2026.
I checked 622 Shopify stores across six categories, 93,999 products in total, for the same things I look at first in every store audit: whether reorderable products offer subscribe and save, whether best sellers are in stock, whether gifting is set up before the holidays, and whether bundles exist.
Every number here comes from public storefront data, so you can run the same check on your own store with the store check.
The short version
- One in three brands selling reorderable products offers no subscription at all. Across 447 supplement, food, beauty and pet stores, 33% had no selling plan on any sampled product.
- Most brands that do offer subscriptions leave gaps. Of the 299 reorderable brands with subscriptions, 58% had at least one sampled product without the option.
- Best sellers are where it hurts most. Of the reorderable brands with a best sellers collection, only 46% offered subscribe and save on every best seller checked. 20% offered it on none of them.
- A quarter of best sellers collections have something sold out. 25% of stores with a best sellers collection had at least one product in it fully out of stock.
- More than half of stores have no visible gifting setup two months before the holidays. 55% had neither a gift collection at a standard address nor a gift card product.
Subscriptions by category
Share of stores offering subscribe and save on the products sampled (best sellers first, up to 8 per store).
| Category | Stores | Any product | Every product | None |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supplements | 124 | 82% | 50% | 18% |
| Pet | 41 | 71% | 27% | 29% |
| Beauty and skincare | 128 | 61% | 15% | 39% |
| Food and beverage | 154 | 58% | 22% | 42% |
| Home | 77 | 21% | 4% | 79% |
| Apparel | 98 | 7% | 1% | 93% |
Supplements lead because the model is proven there. Food and beauty are where the biggest gap sits: these are products people run out of and buy again, and four in ten stores still make every reorder a fresh purchase.
Not every gap is a mistake. Some products are seasonal, limited or sold as one time gifts, and some brands choose not to discount repeat orders. But when the hero product someone reorders every month has no subscribe option, those reorders can easily drift to a competitor or to Amazon.
Partial subscriptions are the most common setup
The single most common pattern among reorderable brands was a subscription on some products and not others (39% of stores). Often the best seller has it and the newer products do not, or the reverse. In the stores I audit, it tends to come from one of two things:
- Selling plans were added product by product when the subscription app was installed, and new products were never added.
- Bundles and variants were created later without a selling plan attached.
Both are quick fixes once someone looks.
Sold out best sellers
| Category | Stores with a best sellers collection | Of those, at least one sold out |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 68% | 35% |
| Food and beverage | 42% | 31% |
| Beauty and skincare | 67% | 29% |
| Pet | 51% | 29% |
| Apparel | 77% | 17% |
| Supplements | 53% | 14% |
A sold out product in the best sellers collection is the most visible stockout a store can have, since that collection is often linked from the menu or homepage. Beyond best sellers, 32% of all stores had 10% or more of their catalog fully sold out. Food had the highest typical share, which fits seasonal and small batch runs.
If a best seller sells out, a back in stock signup turns the shopper into a list you can email the day it returns, instead of a lost visit.
Gifting before the holidays
| Category | Gift collection found | Gift card product found | Neither |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel | 27% | 46% | 38% |
| Beauty and skincare | 27% | 43% | 46% |
| Home | 22% | 39% | 47% |
| Food and beverage | 16% | 36% | 59% |
| Pet | 5% | 29% | 71% |
| Supplements | 3% | 29% | 70% |
This only checks the most common gift collection addresses, so some stores have gift pages under other names. Even so, seven in ten supplement and pet stores showed no gift collection and no gift card. A gift card alone covers the last week before the holidays, when shipping cutoffs have passed.
Bundles and pricing
80% of stores had at least one product titled as a bundle, kit, set or pack, so bundles are standard now. The question is whether they are easy to find and whether they carry a subscription. The typical product price was $35 overall, $25 in food, $32 in beauty, $40 in supplements and $76 in apparel. That number matters for where you set your free shipping line; the free shipping calculator works it out from your own order value.
What to check on your own store this week
- Open your top 5 sellers and confirm each one offers subscribe and save if people reorder it.
- Check that every bundle and every new product launched this year has the same selling plan as your hero.
- Look at your best sellers collection on mobile. Anything sold out should either come off the collection or show a back in stock signup.
- Make sure a gift card and a gift collection are live and linked before mid November.
- Run the numbers on what a better subscription offer is worth with the subscription calculator.
How this was done
- Stores: 622 US facing Shopify stores in supplements (124), beauty and skincare (128), food and beverage (154), pet (41), home (77) and apparel (98). Mostly small and mid size direct to consumer brands. Four stores with no readable products were excluded.
- Data: each store’s public product data (up to 500 products), checked October 31, 2026. Gift card products were excluded from stock and price counts.
- Subscriptions: up to 8 products per store were checked for active selling plans, taken from the best sellers collection when one existed, otherwise from the catalog. A store offering subscriptions only through a separate page or a quiz would show as none.
- Best sellers: looked for a best sellers collection at its most common addresses.
- Gifting: looked for collections at common gift addresses, and for a gift card product.
- Bundles: product titles containing bundle, kit, set, stack or pack. This is a loose count.
No store is named here. If you want to see how your store compares, book a 20 minute intro call and I’ll walk through it with you.