Subscription apps that fit your model, not the other way round

Dear founder,

Subscriptions are one of the few things that genuinely lift lifetime value. They're also one of the easiest places to bolt on an app that fights your business rather than helping it.

Before you install anything, get clear on how you actually want subscriptions to work.

Questions to answer first

• Are you selling replenishment (same thing, on repeat) or curation (a changing box)?
• Do customers need to skip, swap or pause easily, or is it simpler than that?
• How will a subscription interact with your checkout, discounts and shipping rules?

Answer those and the right tool usually picks itself. Skip them and you inherit whatever the app assumes.

A subscription customer who can't easily pause will cancel instead. Friction doesn't retain people, it just delays the goodbye.

Watch the edges

The demo always looks tidy. The reality lives in the edge cases: failed payments, address changes, a customer with two subscriptions and one card. Test those before you commit, because that's where the support tickets come from.

Keep it as native to your checkout as you can, keep the customer's self-service options generous, and don't let a tool talk you into a model your customers never asked for.

If you're weighing up options and want a second opinion before you sign a contract, book advisory time and we'll pressure-test it together.