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Shopify Subscriptions vs Recharge vs Loop : Which app is the best?

September 27, 2024

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Remember when you used to go to Toys “R” Us or Walmart to buy a physical product? Those were the days, right? Everything is all about subscriptions now, from Hulu, Netflix, Hello Fresh and the meal kits. You can even get slime on a subscription, who would’ve thought? But having subscriptions all around us makes us think, why is this happening and what are the benefits of subscriptions for e-commerce brands? Let’s dive in and understand the subscription business and choose between a shopify subscription or recharge. 

The Rise of Subscription Businesses

As suggested by this Mckinsey article, the subscription economy grew 300% from 2012 to 2018 and COVID-19 amplified the need for subscriptions. DTC businesses saw an increase in average order value and increased loyalty of consumers. Similarly, customers appreciated the convenience, novelty and curated experience provided by subscriptions. 

But why are Subscriptions so Popular? 

  1. Convenience: No more going to the mall to get the essentials or ordering particular products each month when it’s over, subscriptions have made life easier by offering convenience. 82% of shoppers say convenience is extremely or very important to them. 
  2. Value: Subscriptions offer great value like discounts, free products, and gifts rather than buying a single product. Providing great value is a great value to acquire new customers, it’s usually a combination of good pricing and product offerings. Let’s see what are the top motivations of customers signing up for a subscription. 
  1. Experience and personalization: Experiences and personalization like high-quality, variety of products, and service quality keep the customers engaged. The graph shared below explains what are the most valuable elements to a customer. 

As the subscription businesses grow, we expect competition between top shopify subscription apps for managing subscriptions and the app that provides comprehensive subscription management with the perfect combination of features, pricing and support will be the winner. 

Shopify Subscriptions vs Recharge

For eCommerce businesses pursuing the subscription route, the best shopify subscription app is essential for the success of this eCommerce business model and eCommerce growth.

Let’s compare Shopify subscriptions and Recharge on their offerings, pricing, and reviews, and check out case studies of their alternative, Loop Subscriptions. 

Shopify Subscriptions

Shopify subscriptions is a built-in app that allows eCommerce businesses to offer subscriptions to their customers. The app provides an easy setup as you can access shopify subscriptions inside your admin portal. The app also offers various subscription frequencies and discount types for individual products or bundled offerings and works with the latest themes. 

Key Features:

  1. Recurring Billing: Set up automatic billing for weekly, monthly or yearly subscriptions. 
  2. Subscription Management: Easily skip, pause, modify or cancel subscriptions.
  3. Easy Communication: Send emails to keep subscribers informed about their subscriptions. 
  4. Analytics: Track and analyze data to make the store’s subscriptions performance. 

Pricing: The Shopify subscriptions app is free to install, check out the details here. 

Reviews: While features and pricing are important factors in selecting a subscription app, reviews play a big role in influencing your choice. Reviews act as social proof and provide user feedback, giving a real-world experience of app performance, reliability, and support. Let’s check out a few Shopify subscriptions app reviews. 

Recharge Subscriptions App 

The Recharge Subscriptions app is one of the popular subscription apps in the shopify domain, the app allows merchants to automate recurring payments, track customer data, and manage and scale their subscriptions business. The Recharge app integrates with popular platforms like Shopify so merchants can easily sync customer data across multiple stores.

Key Features: 

  1. Customer Portal: Create a customer portal that aligns with your brand identity without code. 
  2. Retain: Analyze and identify at-risk customers and save your subscribers from cancelling 
  3. Bundles: Offer customized bundles and empower customers to build their bundles.
  4. Unified checkout - Single checkout process no matter the contents of the cart. 

Pricing: The standard plan of Recharge Subscriptions is $99 per month and 1.25% + 19¢ per transaction. The pro plan is $499 per month and 1% + 19¢ per transaction. 

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Reviews: Beyond features, pricing and support, customer reviews offer valuable insight on app performance and support. These reviews showcase some of the issues faced by their customers - this can help make a more informed decision.

Loop Subscriptions vs Shopify Subscriptions vs Recharge 

Loop Subscriptions, a top Recharge Alternative, is an all-in-one app that helps DTC brands grow, manage and retain their subscribers with ease. Loop Subscriptions has developed a platform based on feedback from the DTC community. 

A few of the most loved Loop subscriptions include: 

Loop Flows: Personalized subscriber journeys through automation and workflows. Fully customised banner inside the portal to communicate awards and upcoming orders. 

With the help of Loop Flows, the Livingood Daily team set up a rewards system to give an additional 5% on top of the existing subscription discount of 15%- that is, a total of 20%. Read the full case study here: How Livingood migrated 130K subscribers to Loop Subscriptions.

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100% Customizable Customer Portal: With Loop Subscriptions, you get an insanely customizable and personalizable customer portal designed with smartphones in mind. You can create and manage new themes for your portal and Customize everything from background, CTAs, text, sidebars, popups and upsell cards with a no-code interface. Highlight customer rewards and other marketing campaigns through banners inside the portal. 

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Seamless Bundle Builder: Loop offers the flexibility to choose between range-based and fixed-based product offerings. Brands can set up multiple bundles ( different SKUs and categories). Subscribers can add, remove, or swap products in their box. Subscribers also get the flexibility to add one-time products to an outgoing box subscription. 

Smart Dunning Management: Handle failed payments and declined credit cards with Smart Dunning Management by Loop. Brands can automatically set the number of retry attempts for failed or about-to-fail cards and choose when to cancel or pause subscriptions. Brands can also opt to skip failed payments or automatically cancel subscriptions after multiple failed attempts, ensuring a reliable and efficient payment process. Loop allows merchants to easily export subscriber data with potential failed payments Automate contextual SMS and emails that inform subscribers about their failed payments. 

Cancellation Flows: Build interactive custom cancellation flows with emotions, video/GIFs, surveys, alternative options and features to gift subscribers as an incentive. Build your retention campaign using our rich text editor to make your retention campaign live in minutes instead of waiting for a developer. Use a detailed cancellation analytics dashboard to understand cancellation reasons, the number of cancellation attempts in the last 30 days, the current churn rate, and Average orders before a subscriber cancels. 

Comparison Table: Shopify Subscriptions vs Recharge vs Loop Subscriptions

Feature Shopify Subscriptions Recharge Subscriptions Loop Subscriptions
Customers can edit their subscriptions (skin/pause/cancel) âť“
âś… âś…
Inbuit communication alerts âť“ âś… âś…
Basic Subscriber Analytics âť“
âś… âś…
Shipping automation ❌ ❌ ✅
High-Risk Subscription Analytics âť“ âť“ âś…
Gamified reward banner within the customer portal âť“ âť“ âś…
Include GIFs and videos in your cancellation flows âť“ âť“ âś…
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Written by
Emma Johnson
Head of Marketing

Emma Johnson is celebrated for her strategic brilliance and innovative flair. By seamlessly blending creativity with data-driven insights, she has propelled Loop’s brand to new heights, establishing it as a formidable force in the Shopify Subscriptions space.