Handling your customer subscriptions can be a trickier job than expected when you have an online store – a problem the Recharge Subscriptions app tackles.
Shopify does have several useful built-in features, but a method for managing recurring payment charges isn’t one of them. That said, the subscription eCommerce market is growing by 100% yearly, and 15% of online shoppers sign up for subscriptions with their purchases. The Recharge app makes the subscription process as seamless as possible for you and your customers.
Keep reading to find out more about the pros and cons of the app, and how it can help you improve your conversion rate, average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV).
What is Recharge?
Recharge is a Shopify app which provides your eCommerce store with a subscription management solution. Recharge helps your brand turn your one-time visitors into loyal customers. The subscription app helps you create, scale, and customise your Shopify store subscriptions with ease.
The app works as a Shopify checkout extension, and apart from recurring orders, it also helps you manage billing and payments.
Recharge Pros & cons
+ A friction-free checkout
+ Mobile-first approach
+ Many customisation and integration options
+ No impact on loading speed when integrated via direct API
- Recharge Pro is on the expensive side
Recharge App Benefits
Some of the most outstanding pros of Recharge are its friction-free checkout, its mobile-first approach and the many customisation and integration options. Let’s look closer at these benefits.
A friction-free checkout
Because the Recharge app is integrated with Shopify checkout, the unified checkout experience reduces hassle, which leads to increased conversions. Recharge has an impressive level of compatibility with the Shopify ecosystem, making it a perfect fit for your Shopify store.
Many other recurring billing apps are not native to the Shopify checkout, meaning subscribers have to choose either one-time products or a separate checkout for recurring subscriptions. More complicated checkout processes lead to friction and a higher cart abandonment rate.
Recharge allows the customer to have a friction-less payment experience, whether it’s for a subscription, a one-time product, or a mixed cart. For the few customers that do abandon their cart, you can always win them back, since Recharge integrates with Klaviyo’s abandoned cart emails. This kind of email marketing from Klaviyo allows you to recover orders and increase your conversion rate.
Mobile-first approach
The Recharge app has a mobile-first approach, which is wise, since most people complete their purchases on a smartphone. In 2022, an estimated 56% of all online purchases were made from a mobile device. Statistics also show that a worrisome 84% have experienced poor mobile transactions, and 40% will go to a competitor after such an experience. Recharge optimises their features to be easily accessed by subscribers on their phones.
Many customers shop while they’re on the go and want to complete recurring purchases on their mobile devices. Whether an app is mobile-optimised or not can be the deciding factor which either facilitates or prevents a conversion. With Recharge’s mobile app adaptiveness, you can increase mobile conversions easily.
Many customisation and integration options
The Shopify app Recharge provides extended customisation options and flexibility, allowing you to have complete control over your customer portal. It allows your eCommerce to create a cohesive and welcoming subscription environment.
Customers can also customise their preferences regarding their subscriptions through the intuitive customer portal.
Recharge also integrates with a large array of leading industry apps, including Klaviyo, Gorgias, Automate, LoyaltyLion, Shipstation. The app also supports many major merchant processing platforms, such as:
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Stripe
- Square
- Braintree
- Shopify Payments
Recharge Shopify App Price
Compared to certain other subscription apps, Recharge Pro does have a relatively high monthly price. Your eCommerce has the option of getting either the Standard plan or the Pro plan. It’s also possible to get a tailored plan and rates with their custom pricing, which means they might be able to find you a solution which suits your needs even better.
Ultimately, you’ll have to decide if the price is worth it considering the benefits it can bring to your business.
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Standard |
Pro |
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$99/month |
$499/month |
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How Recharge helps you achieve a better AOV
One of the reasons Recharge helps you increase your average order value (AOV) is that their subscription options are so flexible. Customers can easily control their own subscriptions. Among other things, they can:
- Swap products
- Add one-time purchases
- Edit delivery frequency and other info
- Personalise bundles
Swap or add products
Their customer portal allows your subscribers to swap products or add one-time products to their recurring orders. One-time purchases can easily be combined with subscription items in the same cart without friction.
These features encourage cross-selling and upselling and make it easy for subscribers to try out new products without feeling like they have to make a commitment right away.
Edit info and personalise bundles
It’s also easy for customers to edit the delivery frequency, update shipping info, address info, payment info, etc. If they’re not at home and don’t have easy access to the customer portal, they can even do so on Recharge’s SMS platform. You as a store owner, can also send them notifications as text messages.
There’s also the option of creating custom product bundles, or letting your customers personalise their own bundles, and in this way increase customer satisfaction.
How Recharge helps you achieve a better LTV
Recharge’s techniques can help you increase LTV substantially, which simultaneously increases your brand loyalty. Partly, it does this by:
- Increasing AOV
- Increasing purchase frequency
- Allowing you to see the reasons behind your customers’ decisions
It increases AOV and purchase frequency
It’s clear that Recharge’s flexible options has the power to increase your AOV, and subscriptions are also a natural way to increase purchase frequency. AOV and purchase frequency are both factors which directly affect your LTV.
Reminder: Your LTV is calculated by multiplying the AOV with the purchase frequency and the estimated customer lifespan.
Average Order Value x Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan = LTV
Some of the many ways Recharge improves LTV is by customisable subscription options which also improve AOV, like allowing subscribers to reschedule a delivery, skip a monthly shipment, and easily swap a product in the subscription management portal.
It allows you to analyse your customers
With the option of subscribing through Recharge, you’re making it easier for your customers to become loyal to your brand.
Recharge has developed a lot of knowledge about customer retention techniques, and they offer an analytics suite which allows Shopify vendors to see reasons why some of their customers cancel subscriptions.
How to launch Recharge subscriptions on Shopify in 5 steps
You can quickly create subscriptions in your Shopify store by following the following five steps:
- Go to the Shopify App Store and install Recharge
- Enable the widget on your Shopify store or ask our team for a custom installation.
- Migrate your subscriptions (if you already have subscribers)
- Choose a product and a subscription model
- Set a payment frequency and publish!
The Verdict: Recharge is a valuable tool for Shopify subscription management
The subscription eCommerce market is growing, and if you have a subscription model business, Recharge is an app to manage your subscriptions seamlessly. The app's friction-free checkout, mobile-optimised approach and many customisation and integration options, are some of its many benefits.
The possibility to edit and personalise subscriptions and swap or add products have the power to increase your AOV. This, along with naturally increased purchase frequency also has a positive effect on your LTV.
Recharge’s built-in analytics also helps you understand your customers and subscription trends on a deeper level, allowing you to create better subscription offers and improve your LTV.
