This is where you tell your brand story, why you started your business, who you are as founders, and what you care about.

Using nine different brands from a range of different product verticals, let’s look at the ways businesses can craft beautiful and value-focused About Us pages that drive conversions (as well as retention) by connecting with their target audience over shared company values. 

Here are the nine merchant About Us pages we’ll be featuring:

• Bite
• Naked Poppy
• Five Marys Farm
• Pomegranate
• Pipette
• Four Sigmatic
• Crossrope
• Blume
• Dropps

We’ll break down the best practices that these About Us pages follow and share tips along the way for how you can craft a page of your own. Ultimately, this will help you attract the right website visitors to your business and boost your brand affinity. 

Your company’s mission: What do you stand for?

So, where do you start when you’re trying to craft the perfect About Us page? It’s simple—you start with your “why.” Why was your business founded? What problem were you trying to solve for your customers? Why did you decide to buck the status quo?

Narrow down the answer to this “why” question to its most succinct possible form—that’s your mission statement. Think of this like your most concise value proposition that you’ll display at the top of your About Us page so that customers can instantly see what your brand stands for.

Let’s take a look at some mission statement examples from the About Us pages of our featured merchants for inspiration.

Crossrope: “We believe everyone deserves a fun and accessible workout. We are on a mission to inspire millions of people to experience a different way to get fit through jump rope fitness.”

Pipette: “We believe that biotechnology has the power to change the world. That’s why our scientists devote their energy to creating effective, safe skincare that doesn’t harm the environment or animals — because our babies and our earth deserve better.”

Pomegranate: “We believe in the power of art and information to positively impact the world. Access to art and knowledge expands your mind, builds community, and enhances your life.”

Through sheer coincidence, each of these begins with “We believe…” 

That’s not a requirement for a mission statement, but it’s a great prompt to use if you’re feeling unsure how to start your own.

A few tips for creating a solid brand statement: It’s important to not go into too much detail here. Think of this as a well-crafted elevator pitch that you’d share with a stranger when they ask what your business does. It should be obvious what your brand produces as a product while using emotionally evocative language (notice the use of “inspire,” “positively impact,” “devote,” and “deserve” in the above mission statements). 

You want a potential customer to read the statement and be drawn in to knowing more about your brand. They should be eager to scroll down the About page to discover more about who created your brand and what core values you identify with. 

Create intrigue, be honest, and be succinct. 

Weave a brand story—don’t share your company’s history

Often, another title for an About Us page can be “Our Story.” Whichever title you use, it’s important to include a section outlining the story of how your brand came to be. The focus here is on the word story. This is not a detailed history of your company’s inception. This isn’t the 25 slide business plan you created. This is a curated story about why you or your company’s founders decided to take the leap all entrepreneurs do: create a company.

Your founding story should dive into more detail behind your company’s why. 

Let’s take a look at a few examples from some more of our merchants. 

Bite’s About Us page does an incredible job right off the top. They share a polished video of the founder telling their personal story of why they started the company. 

Through the video and the entire page, we uncover the story of why Founder and CEO Lindsay McCormick created the company. Lindsay was traveling for work and noticing how many small toothpaste tubes she used. Frustrated at how wasteful it was, she did some research and discovered that over a billion toothpaste tubes end up in landfills every year. She started looking for a sustainable alternative, but couldn’t find one that was plastic free and used ingredients she could trust—so she created her own. 

A quick note: Bite’s “Our Story” video is beautiful and well produced, but don’t be intimidated that you won’t be able to match that level of quality to connect with customers. You don’t have to hire a video production company to achieve the same authenticity and connect with your customers.

Instead, use what you have—even recording a short video on your phone—that is well lit and has clear audio featuring someone on your brand’s leadership team who can share why your brand was created. Video is a great way to connect more viscerally with customers than a wall of text.

Share the faces (and voices) of your brand

Another great example of a well crafted “Our Story” comes from Five Marys Farms, sellers of ranch raised meats. 

On their About Us page, they share Mary’s story of the many businesses she founded before starting a ranch with her husband Brian (and their four daughters named Mary). The story is so effective because it’s written in the first person and contains a multitude of pictures of Mary and her family, connecting customers with the faces behind the brand. 

And yes, you read that correctly, all the daughter’s first names are Mary (after strong and memorable grandmothers and aunts on both sides of the family) but they go by nicknames based on their middle names. 

We can’t stress how effective it is to use an About Us page like this when you’re selling something like food, because of how important it is for the brand to establish trust and credibility with their customers. 

Here’s another About Us page example from Blume which showcases their co-founders, sisters Taran and Bunny Ghatrora. 

It’s hard to quantify this, but consider putting faces behind the brand as a subliminal retention strategy. It’s easy to stop buying from a faceless logo, but it’s hard to stop doing business with people you recognize and connect with. 

You’ve read about Bunny and Taran starting their women’s selfcare brand because they learned that 60% of women can pinpoint that their self-esteem plummeted when they went through puberty—and their mission is to change that. You want to help them on that journey to create a safe space for future generations. 

Or you loved the vibrant photos of Mary, her husband, and their five daughters working on their ranch. You’ve read about how Mary was inspired by her entrepreneurial grandfather and see how she’s sharing that spark with her family.

When you establish these connections and form these kinds of relationships with your customers, it’s a lot harder for them to churn when they know the people behind the brand. 

In your own words 

Here’s a tip for crafting an effective “Our Story” section on the About Us page. Using a third-person perspective when talking about the brand can be effective, but combining it with a dedicated section written from the founder’s first-person perspective is where the real connection lies. 

Here are some examples from our featured merchants.

On Crossrope’s About Us page, they share an interactive timeline complete with pictures and third-person descriptions about their founder discovering weighted jump ropes for the first time at a military gym while deployed in Djibouti. That third-person perspective continues throughout the timeline but beneath it is a prominent quote written in first person from Dave himself explaining why he started the company: 

“During my naval career, I developed a passion for jump rope fitness that inspired Crossrope.

To this day, Crossrope is still my primary fitness routine. Our amazing team is driven to bring the joy of jump rope fitness to all!”

Dave Hunt, Crossrope Founder

Similarly on Bite’s About Us page, there is a signed letter from CEO and Founder Lindsay McCormick outlining why they started the brand. 

Show, don’t tell, potential customers

Attention spans are short these days. So do everything you can to make the readability on your About Us page as pleasant (and scannable) as possible. Use bold photos, illustrations, symbols, videos, badges—whatever visual imagery you can use to convey different aspects of your brand.

On NakedPoppy’s About Us page they use a custom graphic designed in their brand colors to show the difference between the clean, vetted ingredients they use versus what other personal care brands use.

Showcasing the difference between these numbers is way more effective as a graphic (and more digestible as a reader) than it would be to just share these data points as text.

You can also use illustrations or images to outline the lifecycle of a product from inception to your customer’s front door. 

On the About Us page for Dropps, they feature three illustrations outlining the sustainability journey their products take from ingredients, packaging, and distribution (while also giving you the option to learn more beneath each stage). 

Caption + alt text

Similarly on Four Sigmatic’s About Us page, they break down the origins of their scientific sounding name with a handy chart illustration, which is way more effective and easier to understand than a wall of text. 

If there is a complex idea you feel is impactful that you want to share with your target audience, we strongly recommend using imagery to portray it so it will come across in its most compelling and readable way.

What do you care about?

Lastly, let’s focus in on showcasing what your brand values. 

Using your About Us page to highlight causes and initiatives that your brand cares about is a way to connect with your customers on a deeper level. Gen Z and millennials account for $350 billion in spending power in the U.S. and 83% of millennials favor brands that align with them on their values.

All this to say, if you’re not sharing what your company values, you’re missing an opportunity to build brand loyalty and connection with potential customers. 

Sustainability is a top of mind for many customers these days as they’re looking to spend their money with businesses that care about the environment. If that’s important to your personal brand, let your customers know on the about us page. 

Dropps showcases the ongoing results of their sustainability efforts while also offering a link to an impact report outlining their environmental sustainability priorities. 

Caption + alt text

Crossrope features a section their About Us page titled “Crossrope cares,” describing a program dedicated giving back to marginalized groups and communities of color. On the page, they also highlight the organizations they support as well as the amount of cash and products they’ve donated. 

Blume highlights the charity they donate a portion of all proceeds to, Days for Girls, which has helped over 2.5 million girls worldwide with menstrual health solutions & education.

Caption + alt text

Connecting with your customers over what you care about is why they would choose you over your competitors. Consider that Gen Zers and millennials are willing to spend more on brands that prioritize sustainability because limiting the effects of climate change is one of their core values.

If you’re a brand that cares about environmental initiatives and isn’t letting your customers know that on your About Us page, you’re missing out on these shared connections (and potential conversions from site visitors).

Focus on connection, your story, and building brand credibility

Nailing the About Us page is key to letting your customers know why they should buy from your business as opposed to your competitors. You want the page design to flow from your customer’s perspective. One section should lead into the other, taking readers on a journey from your mission statement and your brand story to your personal connections and values that your customers can connect with. 

Here are some other impactful ideas you can utilize on your About Us page:

• Use a Frequently Asked Questions section where you can get ahead of any common inquiries your customers might have about your brand and your products.
• Feature a selection of your top reviews or customer testimonials as provide social proof to entice new buyers.
• Highlight your company culture by sharing pictures of your team to give your customers a look behind the scenes.

The post 9 “About Us” page examples that drive conversions appeared first on Recharge.

She was nine months pregnant and had been making smoothies throughout the pregnancy to soothe certain symptoms. Swollen ankles? Smoothie. Mood swing? Smoothie. Insomnia? 

Well, mix some dark cherries and basil (which both contain natural sources of melatonin), plus some banana, which contains magnesium that can help relax your muscles. Blend it all up, and you’ve got a delicious night-time smoothie.  

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Lisa Mastela, who is a registered dietitian with a master’s in nutrition and public health.

So, at nine months pregnant, after her husband sent her a text mentioning how the smoothies she was blending up to soothe various symptoms were good enough to sell, it sparked an idea.

So much so that on their babymoon, Lisa spent the majority of the time at the spa sitting in her robe writing up a business plan on her laptop for Bumpin Blends (“bumpin” because of the baby bump). 

As successful entrepreneurs will tell you, that’s how it starts: with an idea you can’t stop thinking about. But the most important ingredient is the will to try—to make the idea a reality through hard work and perseverance (and, in Lisa’s particular case, a dash of charm and a heaping scoop of authenticity).

So, let’s take a look at the lessons we learned from our conversation with Lisa, Founder and CEO of Bumpin Blends, on our Hit Subscribe podcast. We’ll focus on what it takes to bring an idea to life, the power of having a subscription program from launch, and the impact of social media when combined with authenticity.

Building the airplane as you fly

Lisa remembers strapping her newborn to herself in a baby carrier and blending up smoothie concoctions in her garage. She’d ask moms in the neighborhood to try new smoothies she had whipped up. Researching and tweaking recipes to have a variation of flavors was the goal here. 

You have to learn on the fly as an early startup entrepreneur, and one of those early lessons was about SKUs.

Lisa’s initial goal was to start the business with over 50 different recipes of various flavors targeting different symptoms.

“I didn’t really realize that the more SKUs you have, the more challenging it is in every way. I should have just started with like three flavors. But no, we launched with 30 flavors.”

Lisa Mastela, Founder & CEO of Bumpin Blends

That initial launch was targeted at 50 people (a mix of friends, neighbors, and competitor customers and followers). Lisa laid out smoothie samples as well as scorecards so they could take the rating feedback and pare down the initial product menu. From there, they landed on those 30 initial flavors.

The business started six months after Lisa began brewing up recipes in her garage. Every Saturday morning, Lisa would load up the car with smoothie orders, put her six-month-old daughter in the back seat, and drive around Southern California delivering orders. 

The benefits to launching your brand with subscriptions

Lisa knew she wanted to launch with her products on subscription. The benefits of recurring revenue and inventory forecasting, and as well the importance of making the smoothies part of an everyday routine for her customers, were key to the business strategy.

“It’s so hard to stick to something that’s good for you. To create that habit. If it wasn’t a subscription, there’s no way we could change people’s lives, because you need the subscription piece in order to stick to the habit.”

Lisa Mastela, Founder & CEO of Bumpin Blends

Lisa knew that subscriptions would make it easier on customers to optimize their health if they were getting them on a regular cadence. No need to remember to place orders when you’re running low. Subscriptions allow for an almost effortless customer experience. 

Though Lisa knew her products are priced on the higher end (because she used high quality organic ingredients and real food as opposed to powder like many of her competitors), subscriptions allowed her to create a loyalty program and offer deals that grow as you remain a subscriber to incentivize the program. 

The other benefit to subscriptions is that if your product goes viral, the customers that flock to your brand aren’t one-and-done shoppers. They enter the program and remain subscribers. 

“That’s huge for us as a small business that’s self-funded… I can’t imagine being a business that’s trying to make out revenue goals every month starting from scratch,” Lisa mentioned during the podcast. She went on to explain the peace of mind that comes from being able to forecast financials with some level of predictability based on subscription orders. 

So, what is one of the ways you can get your brand out there in front of new customers? Reach out to influencers.

Leveraging influencers for subscriber growth

Lisa is very transparent when talking about influencers. “I have never paid a celebrity or influencer to talk about our product,” she says.

To uphold the authenticity of herself and Bumpin Blends it’s important to Lisa that anyone who speaks about the brand does so because they genuinely like the product instead of being paid for their endorsement. 

So what Lisa does is send a gift bundle of smoothies to an influencer to try (and never mention sharing the products on their feed) with an accompanying note that says something like, “You’re an inspiration to me. I’d love your feedback to improve these smoothies. If you have any advice, I’d love to hear it.” And that’s it.

The results, and Lisa’s smoothies, speak for themselves. Influencers like Amanda Kloots, Miranda Kerr, and Chrissy Teigen (who has over 38 million followers) have shared Bumpin Blends with their followers.

It’s a great lesson for any self-funded brands to learn from. You don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to dedicate to an influencer marketing budget to get eyes on your product. Instead, focus on having a great product and sharing it with people you respect who align with your own values. The worst thing that can happen is you never hear from that person. The best thing? They share your products with their followers and new customers flock to your brand. 

Remember here, with the power of these spikes in sales triggered by a viral moment, if you have your product on subscription those aren’t one-and-done spikes in growth. If you’ve got a great product and a smooth customer experience, those new orders become subscribers who will stick around in your program. 

Another opportunity to consider: Be your own influencer. 

Share your own journey behind the scenes (influencer entrepreneur marketing)

The trend couldn’t be ignored when Lisa started looking at her social media engagement for Bumpin Blends and consulted with experts. 

“Every person I’ve consulted with on social media is like, ‘Funny. Every time you post a photo or video of yourself, or your family, or your behind the scenes stuff, engagement is through the roof.

And every time you post some beautiful flat lay smoothie bowl, engagement is in the trash.’”

Lisa Mastela, Founder & CEO of Bumpin Blends

Trash is a harsh word (we love a good flat lay), but you can’t argue with the numbers and with the relatability of authentic content. 

More and more, social media users are desiring and interacting with content that is less polished and more vulnerable. Customers love seeing what happens behind the scenes and the faces behind the brand. Adding a face to your business, showing your personality, sharing your values, and giving people a glimpse of the day-to-day life (and occasional struggles) are great ways to boost brand awareness.

Consider this real-life example that Lisa shared on the Bumping Blends Instagram. She shared a quick video montage of her getting ready for a business dinner in the warehouse bathroom after hauling dirty pallets around all afternoon.

You don’t have to have a team of professionals with cinema quality cameras or studio lights to make well performing content. Instead, use what you have. Lean your phone on a cup, hit record, and share with your audience a behind the scenes moment. 

Another way to consider it, from a customer psychology perspective, is adding another layer of churn protection. It can be easy as a customer to churn from a faceless brand. But to hit cancel on a subscription program where you’ve followed the founder’s journey from the start? That’s tough when you’ve seen behind the scenes how hard they work and how caring they are to their customers and to their family. 

Saying goodbye to a face is a lot harder than canceling your subscription to a logo.

The perfect blend—authenticity & subscriptions

What stood out most from the conversation with Lisa was her genuineness and her passion for offering the best product to her subscribers. From the start, Lisa wanted to make a product that helps people, whether it was through their overall wellness, their skin health, or sleep quality. Bumpin Blends was founded on creating organic smoothie cubes designed for your body and lifestyle. 

From waking up pre-dawn to hand deliver orders herself with a newborn to selling smoothies across the country, Lisa’s journey is a lesson in learning on the fly, staying true to your values, and giving yourself the freedom to try. 

With subscriptions, Lisa was able to help her customers achieve their goals by making it as easy as possible for Bumpin Blends to be a part of their everyday routine. By sharing her own entrepreneurial journey and staying true to her values, Lisa was able to form long lasting customer relationships and continue to scale the business to new heights. 

Check out the full interview with Lisa, as well as conversations with other industry experts, on our Hit Subscribe podcast.

The post The power of subscriptions & authenticity with Bumpin Blends appeared first on Recharge.

To create Fortune’s 2022 Best Workplaces for Millennials list, Fortune partnered with the people analytics firm Great Place to Work®. The list was then determined using Great Place to Work’s Methodology to evaluate thousands of organizations in America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study. This year’s list alone was based on over 1 million employee survey responses and data from companies representing more than 6.1 million employees. 

To be considered for the list, companies must be Great Place to Work-Certified and have at least 50 millennial employees in the US. They also take into consideration significant survey results, news, and financial performance, and validate the integrity of their findings. 

Here is the perspective of a millennial at Recharge, Content Marketing Associate Scott Meiklejohn, on why he feels so fulfilled working here.

From a millennial perspective at Recharge

As a millennial, all I crave is a participation medal and avocado toast. Also an opportunity to flex my sarcasm and snark. 

Okay, millennial stereotypes out of the way, let’s be serious and chat about the things I actually crave at my workplace and how I’ve found them at Recharge.

As a lucky millennial, I graduated school during the recession of the late 2000s and now find myself well into my career in the totally uneventful 2020s (please—just a little good news and stability for the rest of the decade). Having navigated these turbulent times of market unease and economic uncertainty, I feel so grateful to be at a company like Recharge where I feel so supported and appreciated.

Two of the things I value most – and I think I can say that these are values that resonate with my generation – are opportunities to show my abilities and working in collaborative teams that have a foundation of empathy. Quite simply, I want to be able to drive value with my work and feel supported by my peers.

At Recharge, this is what I get to do every single day. I am given countless opportunities to provide value to our thousands of merchants and their customers, and to my fellow colleagues. I feel supported in my ideas and empowered to execute them. For example, in the first few months of working here, I suggested to our VP of Marketing that we should start a podcast. He recognized that it was a great opportunity for us to share captivating conversations with ecommerce leaders and told me they’d give me the resources and runway to get it off the ground.

Three seasons and more than 50 episodes later, I now host and produce our subscription ecommerce podcast, Hit Subscribe. 

And the cherry on top of the fulfilling millennial workplace sundae? Acknowledgment.

This is a company that goes out of its way to make sure that its employees feel seen, appreciated, and recognized for their contributions. This isn’t performative or forced. This is honest appreciation and camaraderie for those who are excelling or making a difference in their teams.

It was no shock to me to find out we made Fortune’s Best Workplaces for Millennials as I feel so lucky to be working at this company where I am provided with ample opportunities to grow and succeed.

I’ll leave you with our core values at Recharge because I feel like they resonate strongly with millennials.

• Day one: Stay ambitious, open-minded, optimistic, and ready to learn. Every day counts towards building the future.
• Ownership: You are accountable to yourself, your peers, and our customers. You believe that your work impacts the mission.
• Empathy: You anticipate the needs of others. You communicate clearly and with care, always striving to do the right thing.
• Humility: Approach every task with an open mind, learning with and from your peers. You value effective collaboration above rank.

The post Recharge named one of the best workplaces for millennials appeared first on Recharge.

There’s no better time to start your ecommerce holiday planning than the dog days of summer. We’re as serious as a stoic snowman with a candy cane for a mouth.

By starting to prepare now, you’ll give your business as much runway as possible to be ready for the busiest time of the year (and all that increased web traffic) for online shopping.

Whether you’re preparing for Black Friday / Cyber Monday (circle your calendar for the weekend of November 24) or the plethora of other major shopping holidays throughout the year, the information in this article will equip you and your online store for everything you need to setup a merry and delightful shopping experience. 

Ecommerce holiday checklist 

Stay on the nice list this year by creating your own ecommerce holiday checklist. Set your own timelines against these tips to ensure you’ve prepared each facet of your online store for whichever upcoming holiday dates you’re targeting.

These are 5 specific areas of focus you’ll want to consider when preparing your strategy for the upcoming ecommerce holiday season. This isn’t necessarily a step-by-step plan, but rather a comprehensive rundown on aspects to consider when holiday planning. Make sure to thoughtfully look over each one as you prepare your ecommerce store for the holiday season:

• Discounts and promotions
• Holiday campaign marketing strategies
• Sitewide testing and the customer experience
• Holiday inventory and shipping logistics
• Leveraging subscriptions 

1. Discounts & promotions over the holiday season

What promotional strategies will you be running in the lead up to whichever holiday you’re targeting? Discounts? Buy 2 get 1 free? Free shipping over X amount of dollars?

However you’re setting up your holiday promotions, it’s important to understand the double-edged sword nature of promotional perks and pricing. 

For instance, if you’re a subscription business, it can be tempting to offer a significant discount on a customers first subscription order as a way of bringing them into your subscription program. The flip side to this strategy is that you run the risk of significant customers churn when subscription orders begin processing without that discount.

This is where it’s paramount to understand the importance of retaining loyal customers as opposed to focusing the majority of your energy acquiring new customers. Significant first order discounts tilt that balance in favor of a Sisyphean struggle towards always trying to acquire new customers.

Remember, it can cost five times as much to attract a new customer than keeping an existing one. Doubling down on the importance of retention, consider that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost a company’s profitability by as much as 75%.

All this is to say: It’s important that your brand adopts promotional strategies around the upcoming ecommerce holiday season that balance enticing customers to purchase without diminishing the value or your products. Discount too low and a consumer will balk at having to pay full price as a returning customer. Avoid promotions or discounts all together and you run the risk of missing out on the eager shoppers accustomed to deals around Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM).

Strategic discounts can be very effective—just make sure you’re not diminishing the value of your products with an overzealous deal when you’re strategizing your ecommerce holiday planning. 

There are a variety of ways you can provide extra value to your online shoppers aside from a straight up discount off the purchase price. Consider implementing various perks, like free shipping, free gift wrapping, volume discounts (like 15% of orders over $150), or cross-selling specific discounts (like a discounted specialty coffee mug after purchase of a coffee beans subscription).

Remember, it’s all about giving value to your customers while setting yourself up for success long term (and delivering some holiday magic along the way).

2. Holiday campaign marketing strategies

Tied in with your promotions and discounts is how you’ll inform customers about your various perks around the holiday shopping season. Giving yourself plenty of time to set up a variety of marketing strategies is just good business. Consider tactically utilizing all of these channels in the lead up to the holiday rush: 

• Paid advertising 
• Email marketing to your wider customer base
• Promotional SMS to your most loyal customers
• Posts on your social media platforms
• Banners on popular landing pages on your ecommerce website
• Paper inserts in your packages advertising upcoming deals 

If you’re not a new business, take a look at last year’s data and see if there were any channels in particular that performed well. Know where your target audience is most active and make sure to prioritize those channels when considering your advertising spend. 

The best ecommerce business owners know that there’s no silver bullet marketing strategy for capitalizing on the upcoming holiday season. Every product vertical is different and what works for one industry may fall flat for another. It’s not wise to compare your strategy to another brands, as the resources available to different ecommerce businesses big and small will afford them different opportunities. 

Instead, compete with yourself. Look at your previous years ecommerce sales and analyze the marketing efforts you implemented. Highlight the successes and misses associated with these processes then create your future holiday marketing strategy based on these learnings. 

Look to last year’s holiday sales as the benchmark to beat when you’re setting up your holiday goals. Block out the noise from your competitors and focus on bettering your own online store and continuously improving your marketing strategies.

3. Sitewide testing & the customer experience 

This should be a regular part of your business operations, but it’s worth repeating—is your online store ready for increased traffic? BFCM can be the busiest time of the year for holiday shopping, so it’s important to make sure your ecommerce store is ready for that influx of visitors. 

Now is a great time to look at site speed and the ways in which you can decrease load times on your website. Consider that 70% of online shoppers admit that a slower page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an ecommerce store. Site stability should be front of mind when thinking about holiday readiness as a crashed website around BFCM is a disaster for anyone in the ecommerce industry. 

With that in mind, consider a code freeze at the start of November to ensure that your business will be up and running during what will likely be its highest web traffic time of the year. You don’t want to be trying to fix bugs or risk a crashed website because of changes to your ecommerce store in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

One of the best things you can do in the lead up to whatever dates you’re targeting on the holiday calendar is ensuring you’re offering a frictionless customer experience. In particular, focus on the mobile experience.

We had Kelly Vaughn, founder of the ecommerce agency turned consultancy The Taproom, on our podcast Hit Subscribe, where she outlined a variety of ways to prepare your business for the holiday season. She had this to say about the mobile shopping experience:

“It’s really important to remember that you might be managing your website, your business from a desktop, from a laptop, but your customers are not doing the same thing. So I highly recommend taking some time to go through the entire shopping experience on your own mobile phone and find those gaps in the user experience that you didn’t realize were an issue.”

Kelly Vaughn, Founder of The Taproom

4. Holiday inventory & shipping logistics 

Supply chain issues continue to impact countless ecommerce businesses across the globe affecting inventory forecasting and shipping timelines. These frustrating logistical issues will be something merchants will have to deal with and factor into this year’s ecommerce holiday planning. 

How ever your business handles its fulfillment logistics, the most important thing to do is communicate clearly with your customers and set realistic expectations with them about product delivery. Don’t string along your customers with vague timelines—let them know if shipping delays will impact the delivery of their orders. There’s nothing more frustrating as a customer than feeling like you’re in the dark about when you’ll receive an item after purchase. Instead, be as transparent as possible and keep them up to date with any delays or issues affecting when they’ll get their products. 

While customers are waiting to receive their products, consider that this post-purchase window is when they’re likely at their most engaged. This is the perfect time to supply them with valuable supplemental content that will help them get the most of their purchase. We mentioned coffee beans as an earlier example, so let’s use that as a pretend purchase by a customer and run through a post-purchase flow that a merchant can use to provide an exceptional customer experience.

A hypothetical customer is delighted by the holiday promotion they saw on social media and purchases two bags of your dark roast coffee beans. Your brand sends along their order confirmation email then a day later sends along a pre-built email all about the history of the dark roast beans they ordered. This content includes a charming history of the farm where these beans are from, an interview with one of the coffee farmers as well as a map detailing the journey the beans take from farm to your brand’s roastery.

Days later when beans ship to the customer, inside their shipping confirmation email, you also supply them with content detailing the difference between dark and light roast beans, a guide to making the perfect cup of coffee, and information on how to get these beans on subscription. Throughout each of these emails, there are also a variety of cross-sell opportunities to feature branded products like a grinder, mug, or apparel. 

Going that extra mile turns a one-time shopper into a loyal brand customer, so look for the ways to increase customer satisfaction and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

Beyond your communication and content, be sure to build flexibility into your shipping logistics processes in key ways. For example, consider offering local pickup and delivery options for customers who live nearby, or implement partial order fulfillment to prevent missed shipments when part of an order is no longer available.

5. Subscriptions—the gift that keeps on giving

If your business offers subscriptions, let customers know about the value of subscribing to your products during the holiday season.

Don’t just advertise your subscription program in your holiday marketing; be specific in detailing the ways in which it is advantageous to subscribe. Highlight the convenience of subscribing to get their favorite product and getting it delivered right to their door without having to log back on to the website and repurchase. Outline the various additional perks your subscription program offers like a discount or early access to new products. 

However you’ve optimized your subscription program, don’t just advertise it in your marketing material; make sure you’re showcasing it in your across your site, especially on product pages.

Subscribers are 2–4 times more valuable than one-time purchasers, so ensuring the visibility of your subscription program is vital to ecommerce holiday planning. Let customers know they have flexibility over their subscriptions to reduce the likelihood of them churning out of your subscription program. For example, one of the most common reasons people cancel subscriptions is because they have too much product. So, let subscribers know how easy it is to skip a shipment, swap a product, or pause a subscription. 

You can also offer customers the ability to gift a subscription through our integration with Govalo. And really, what’s better than offering the gift that keeps on giving this upcoming holiday season?

Have a happy holiday season

Stay off the naughty list this holiday season by preparing yourself well in advance of the busiest time of the year. Make sure to optimize the customer experience, highlight the value of your products and brand and showcase the benefits of joining your subscription program to reap the reward of recurring revenue all year round. 

The post 5 ecommerce holiday planning tips to stay on the nice list this year appeared first on Recharge.

The latter, sustainable packaging options, is what we’re going to be highlighting in this post. We’ll dive into how focusing on sustainability will benefit your business (and the world) by prioritizing an issue that the world’s two largest generations of consumers rate as one of their top priorities. 

Why should your business use recyclable packaging?

Beyond the importance of, you know… protecting the only known habitable planet in our solar system from a civilization-ending climate catastrophe—take away the doom and gloom and Captain Planet mentality and look at it from an economic perspective.

Gen Z, the world’s youngest generation of shoppers, are already 40% of all consumers in the U.S. and they are passionate about making their purchasing decisions based off their values.

In fact, 64% of Gen Zs would pay more to purchase an environmentally sustainable product according to a 2022 Deloitte survey.

Customers crave sustainable packaging. They want to do good and they want to financially support the brands that share their same values. From another perspective, consider when your customer is most excited to interact with your brand. 

It’s when they’re opening the package that contains the products they’ve ordered. That key moment, when they are experiencing your brand tactically, can be absolutely ruined if they are wading through a sea of non-recyclable materials.

On the other hand, if your customers notice the care and effort your brand has gone to providing environmentally friendly packaging, you’re connecting with their identity. You’re not seen as a soulless business they purchase products from. You’re a brand that reflects their core values. 

You’re not transaction. You’re a relationship.

So let’s focus on some recyclable packaging options that you and your brand can utilize to connect with your customers on a more personal level and do your part in positively impacting our planet.

5 recyclable packaging materials for a more sustainable product

There are several options for brands looking to use more sustainable packaging for their products. From, recycled materials, biodegradable plastic, dissolvable packing peanuts and even mushroom packaging. Let’s run through a variety of options.

1. Corrugated cardboard packaging

The gold standard (or perhaps the green standard in this case) for eco-friendly packaging would be paper products specifically, cardboard. 

Corrugated cardboard is the most recycled packaging material in the world. This type of cardboard is made to be lighter and more durable by incorporating ridges of cardboard sandwiched between the layers of a sheet. Cardboard packaging is affordable, offered in a variety of sizes and readily available. 

What’s more, cardboard can be easily used as an extension of your brand and offer opportunities to surprise and delight your customers. On Recharge’s Hit Subscribe podcast, Jimmy Wu, Co-Founder and CEO at Cat Person, detailed how they knew their customers were passionate about eco-friendly packaging, so they looked for ways to develop a sustainable alternative for their boxes. 

“We’ve got one box that turns into a play toy that’s got holes and a ball that your cat can bat around. We’ve got another box that turns into something we call a cat chalet, where your cat can actually hide out in it and peek out. Then we’ve got this extra large box that we call the cat condo.” –Jimmy Wu, Co-Founder and CEO at Cat Person

Another DTC business, Who Gives A Crap, have also used their sustainable packaging as a branding opportunity. A recent edition was called, “Where’s The Loo?” inspired by “Where’s Waldo” children’s books which challenges customers to find the hidden loos hiding in fantastical worlds printed on their packaging.

But more than an entertaining game featured on their custom packaging, Who Gives A Crap outlines how the quirky game is meant to shed light on the billions of people around the world who don’t have access to toilets and that each customer’s purchase of their limited edition recycled packaging boxes helps them fund sanitation projects around the world. 

Corrugated packaging can also be combined with other sustainable packaging solutions, like cushioning materials to ensure products are delivered undamaged. Let’s run through one of the most common packaging materials to ensure protection for fragile items—packing peanuts.

2. Compostable packaging peanuts

I used to dread opening a package to find it filled with tiny packing peanuts. Seeing all the waste would make me feel negative about the brand I’d purchased from and leave me hesitant to be a repeat purchaser. 

These peanuts were often made of styrofoam. A little background on styrofoam, it’s essentially plastic and doesn’t break down or decompose over time. Correction—some diligent fact-checking informs me that it does break down over time… it just takes 500 to 1 million years to do so.

So, how can you protect your products for your customers with a green alternative? Let me introduce you to biodegradable packing peanuts which aren’t made of styrofoam but instead made from natural nontoxic raw materials like corn starch or wheat. This packaging material dissolves entirely in water for a safe and easy means of disposal. 

The key thing to note here is how important it is to educate your customers about this and other eco-friendly packaging options when you use them. You want to let them know how to properly recycle these peanuts or alternative eco-friendly solutions so they don’t end up being misidentified and thrown in the garbage. 

This can easily be accomplished with a paper insert (recyclable of course) that can also provide supplemental information about the product or marketing material to entice the customer to shop again. 

3. Mushroom packaging 

Full stop: mushroom packaging is a game changer. This fungi packaging is nothing short of an incredible invention. Don’t believe me? Let’s run through some facts:

• Mushroom packaging is made from the roots of mushrooms called mycelium
• It is just as protective and durable as plastic packaging 
• It is 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable
• It can be grown to custom moldable shapes just in 7 days
• It uses a tenth of the energy needed to create plastic foam 

Keap Candles partnered with Ecovative to use mushroom packaging for the base of their subscription candles.

Keap Candles are champions for sustainable packaging options, dedicating an entire page on their website to the specific materials they package their products with as well as the best ways to help reduce waste with each of them.

For mushroom packaging, that’s as simple as tossing it in the compost or using it as food for your plants. 

4. Compostable packaging mailers

For smaller products, compostable packaging mailers are an excellent choice. These can often be 100% curbside recyclable or compostable depending on the brand you choose for your business. What’s more, these eco-friendly mailers can often be branded with your business’s colors, logo, or custom messaging to provide a comprehensive brand experience. 

5. Recyclable adhesive shipping labels

Don’t overlook your labels as another opportunity to provide eco-friendly packaging! Whether you’re looking for shipping labels that can be easily recycled or custom-printed brand labels made out of eco-friendly materials, there are a variety of options to choose from. 

Examples of some of the eco-friendly packaging options would be:

• Sustainable hemp labels which are made from 50% hemp and 50% post-consumer waste 
• Biostone labels, which are made of stone (no trees used in the manufacturing process) and are water resistant as well as durable
• Kraft recycled labels which are designed to simulate an earthy brown color that would blend in with cardboard boxes

Many of these custom shipping labels and stickers come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can also be personalized with your brand imagery.

Final thoughts on eco-packaging

It can be overwhelming to try and make every aspect of your business a zero-waste sustainability focused production. That can be unrealistic for many brands who are just trying to make a profit and grow their business. 

Instead, look for opportunities where you can provide eco-friendly solutions and highlight these efforts so they don’t go unnoticed by your customers. If we all do our part, especially by providing recyclable packaging which is so often immediately looked to be disposed of, then we all begin to make a difference. 

The vast majority of customers will appreciate your environmentally friendly efforts and, if they’re of the millennial or Gen-Z generations, feel an

The post 5 recyclable packaging materials for your business appeared first on Recharge.

In early May, Recharge hosted ChargeX, the global ecommerce subscription conference that connects merchants, agencies, and tech partners to delve into industry insights, predictions, and best practices.

We were delighted to record several Hit Subscribe mini episodes over the three day event that we’ve compiled together in this collection for you to easily listen to. We chatted with merchants running successful subscription businesses as well as tech and agency partners offering their best recommendations for brands to grow and scale.

Hit Subscribe’s ChargeX 2022 mini episodes

Proactive retention strategies with Chris George from SUBTA

In this conversation with Chris George, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of SUBTA (Subscription Trade Association), we chat about proactive retention strategies by using your data to interact with customers before they consider churning out of your subscription program.

“I think with retention it’s sometimes it’s more than just like, how do we keep the customer? Or how do we win them back? But being able to dive deep in the data and learn about, what are some proactive retention things we can do?”

Chris George, SUBTA

The difference between partners & vendors with John Roman from BattlBox

We chat with John Roman, CEO of BattlBox, about understanding the difference between a partner and a vendor and the importance of regular and proactive communication.

“I think a good test is when something does go wrong, because something will go wrong with every relationship. How fast is it resolved? And not only that, but like how quickly are people on it. And I think that’s where a partnership excels.” 

John Roman, BattlBox

Turning a cost center into a marketing channel with Noah Rahimzadeh from Malomo

In this mini episode, we’re chatting with Noah Rahimzadeh, Director of Channel Partnership at Malomo, about how giving brands back the control over the landing page to track their package, they can increase brand awarenesss, drive lifetime value, cross-sells, up-sells, and subscriptions.

“Consumers check their packages almost five times on average per order. So if you’re not taking advantage of those touchpoints, and making sure that’s a branded and personalized experience, you’re really sort of missing out on one of the most engaged aspects of the customer journey.”

Noah Rahimzadeh, Malomo

Cross-selling & upselling with Aaron Roper from Rebuy

We chatted with Aaron Roper, Director of Agency Partnerships at Rebuy, about the importance of personalizing your cross-sell and upsell opportunities to drive value to your customers and boost AOV and LTV for merchants.

“Focus on optimizing for the business conditions that you’re currently facing, but don’t lose focus on your brand.”

Aaron Roper, Rebuy

Evolving the loyalty program with Brandon Amoroso from electrIQ

In our conversation with Brandon Amoroso, Founder and CEO of electrIQ, we chat about evolving the points based loyalty program to be more intentional and reducing the friction for the customer for their rewards.

“Think about how you would want your experience to be of your brand, if you were a customer. I think people over complicate things, all of us, we’re all consumers, so just think about the best brand experiences you’ve had and how you’d like to emulate that for your company.”

Brandon Amoroso, electrIQ

Preventing subscription fatigue with Chelsea Jones from Chelsea & Rachel Co.

We chatted with Chelsea Jones, Co-CEO + Chief Visionary at Chelsea & Rachel Co., about strategies to help balance the routine and convenience of a subscription while still finding opportunities to bring creativity and fun to the customer experience to avoid consumer fatigue.

“The subscription businesses that are consistent in talking to their customers often and re-engaging with them, they are the ones that are winning and they’re winning by significant numbers to back it.”

Chelsea Jones, Chelsea & Rachel Co.

Personalizing the customer journey with Marcus Ohanesian from Trellis

In our conversation with Marcus Ohanesian, Account Strategist at Trellis, we chatted about the importance personalizing the customer journey and not overlooking chances to interact with customers at transactional touch points (like post purchase emails).

“If you really want to have a scalable business and make it last for years and have your brand be recognized and memorable.”

Marcus Ohanesian, Trellis

Ecommerce industry predictions with Galen King from Lucid

On this episode we chatted with Galen King, Founder & Strategic Director at Lucid, about ecommerce industry predictions for the rest of the year like realigning growth trajectories and a stronger focus on acquisition and retention.

“There’s huge potential for growth if you can figure out how to create a giftable aspect to your products, because then your customers become ambassadors and they give it to other people, who then give it to other people.”

Galen King, Lucid

Retention-focused customer experience with Brian Becker from FlowCandy

We chatted with Brian Becker, Co-Founder of FlowCandy, about retention focused customer experience by focusing on selling the benefits of your products (not features) and using your subscriber data to provide personalized recommendations.

“No one strategy is the be all end all. If you’re not constantly reevaluating how you’re doing it on a cadence that is known and expectable, then you’re not going to be able to adapt as the times change.”

Brian Becker, FlowCandy

That’s all for our Hit Subscribe mini episode conversations at ChargeX 2022! If you’d like to attend next year’s subscription industry conference it will be in Washington, D.C. from April 26–28, 2023!

Mark your calendars and stay tuned for updates—we can’t wait to see you there!

The post Conversations at ChargeX 2022: retention, personalization & more appeared first on Recharge.

Couldn’t be there for the event? Or do you, like us, want to keep replaying all you experienced over the course of the week? Don’t worry—we’re sharing a recap full of highlights and key takeaways.

Day 1: Welcome to Santa Monica!

Part of the beauty of ChargeX lies in its scope: Attendees came from around the world to convene in Santa Monica and meet in person. After traveling from near and far, we kicked off the conference on Monday with a breezy opening reception at The Bungalow for a beverage and bite to eat—grateful to connect with old friends and make new connections.

Day 2: Diving into the future of ecommerce

Refreshed and ready to get started, we started Tuesday strong by tackling the heart of the conference: the future of ecommerce. Our first general session, moderated by Recharge’s own CEO and Co-Founder Oisin O’Connor, brought together a panel of industry experts to share their insights on ecommerce trends and forecasts.

One of the top takeaways was emphasizing that the best businesses of the future will be those that focus on brand. Several of the panelists spoke about the importance of understanding that consumers are attracted to deep brand experiences, especially brands with whom they share personal values and enjoy a sense of community with.  

“The best brands are building communities. They understand the importance of that relationship. It’s about more than their products. It’s about the feeling and experience they provide to their customers when they interact with the brand.” — Ruoting Sun, Recharge’s VP of Product Marketing

To close out the first panel, Oisin spoke to the audience about the importance of coming together and sharing knowledge with one another in the spirit of collaboration and lifting each other up:

“The future is here. Please talk and connect with one another. Learn from each other. This is an amazing time to start a brand and scale a business.”

Oisin O’Connor, CEO & Co-Founder of Recharge

From there, we heard directly from some of the most innovative brands in the DTC space: Bite, Verve Coffee Roasters, Bumpin Blends, and Blume. They shared their strategies for thinking outside the box and standing apart in a competitive market.

Lindsay McCormick, CEO and Founder of Bite, spoke about how she dedicates time every Friday to get on the phone with customers. “It’s the perfect opportunity to figure out where their biggest pain points are.” She also added that her favorite question to ask her customers was, “What do you think of when you think of Bite?”

That question allows her and the Bite team to immediately understand right from their customers what resonates from the brand the most. She added she was often delighted by their answers, especially when they spoke about their shared values towards sustainability and how Bite is a part of their everyday routine. 

Lisa Mastela, CEO and Founder of Bumpin Blends, shared that 99% of her business is through subscription. Her business has found tremendous success by providing new customers with an onboarding quiz that leads right to checkout with personalized products suited to supporting a customer’s specific symptoms and dietary needs. 

Along the way, the quiz also captures valuable email and personal data that allows the brand to better understand and communicate with their customers. 

Lisa also added that subscriptions provide opportunities to grant loyalty perks to longtime subscribers to boost retention and allowed Bumpin Blends to create a robust refer-a-friend program (with the referrer getting money back towards their own subscription) that has become one of their largest customer acquisition channels. 

After that panel, attendees got to choose their own adventure with a series of breakout sessions falling into three different topics: partner panels, merchant spotlights, and product dives. 

Over the course of the afternoon, guests took in topics like best practices for optimizing subscriptions, must-haves for every merchant tech stack, and the importance of conversational commerce, as well as deep dives from Bokksu and Who Gives a Crap on their incredible success stories.

We ended the day’s sessions on a high note: Daymond John’s much-anticipated keynote speech. The star of ABC’s Shark Tank, Founder and CEO of the FUBU group, and CEO of the Shark Group shared his story of how he became a self-made multimillionaire with over $6 billion in global product sales, as well as the strategies that continue to bring him financial success.

Daymond emphasized the importance of knowing what drives you, whether as a brand or an individual, and boiling down that sentiment into no more than two to five words. Knowing so succinctly what you stand for allows you to stay in alignment with your goals and easily share with others what you’re about.

“Recharge is all about “empowering merchants through recurring commerce.” What are your two to five words?”

ChargeX keynote speaker, Daymond John

After taking it all in, we capped off Tuesday with a happy hour to toast to the end of a successful day of sessions.

Day 3: Fine-tuning & future-proofing 

Our last day at ChargeX was packed with key takeaways on how to grow and scale. After gathering for breakfast, we convened at our first general session of the day to tackle one of the most important questions ecommerce merchants face: What do investors look for in DTC merchants? A panel of longtime investors shared their secrets for what they look for in an investable business and the strategies merchants can use to attract investment talent.

“The pandemic was a huge pull-forward for ecommerce that drove customer acquisition. Now is a great time to focus on retention and raising AOV.”

Aaref Hilaly, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures

Next, we covered how API-first development can empower valuable customer experiences—one of the main priorities of any ecommerce brand. Recharge’s Senior Product Manager Jordan Bluhm shared how to design an API-first foundation for your store through the Recharge API + webhooks.

Wednesday’s breakout sessions ran the gamut, covering everything from owned marketing optimization, going headless in the DTC world, and improving acquisition through subscriptions and payment solutions to optimizing your subscriptions for the holidays and supporting the merchant experience on Recharge. 

Recharge Senior Product Manager Cody De Vos also shared a sneak peek at two updated pages in the customers section of the merchant portal, the new Order Details and Subscription Details sections, which will be rolled out to all merchants later this month.

We closed out our sessions with a conversation with Recharge leaders Oisin O’Connor, Lindy Crea, and Samir Said, who answered audience questions on everything like…

• What product innovations are the panel excited about?
• Anything surprising you heard from merchants or partners this week?
• What is the best way for merchants or partners to bring feature requests or problems to the Recharge team?
• Who are your mentors?
• What resonated most with you from Daymond John’s presentation? 

From there, local food trucks arrived for lunch in the beachside Pacific Garden with views of the Santa Monica pier. After that, attendees were able to choose their own adventure with afternoon activities ranging from wine tasting at the Rosenthal Winery, a private tasting of craft beers at Santa Monica Brew Works, or complimentary bike rentals to enjoy all the boardwalk has to offer. 

We’d like to take a moment here to say a big thank you to our incredible tech and agency sponsors. We appreciate your support so much for helping us throw such a wonderful event.

Save the date: ChargeX 23 in Washington, D.C.!

Can’t wait for next year’s event? You’re in luck—it’s already in the works, taking place in Washington, D.C. from April 26–28, 2023!

Mark your calendars and stay tuned for updates—we can’t wait to see you there!

The post ChargeX 2022: Unpacking the annual subscription industry conference appeared first on Recharge.

Is the latter half of that sentence just me? Well let’s hold off on the doom and gloom, and instead focus more proactively on the first section—our sustainable shopping choices.  

As a guy who loves to shop online and is a member of the ecommerce community, I’ve picked up on several ways in which both merchants and customers can be more eco-friendly when it comes to online shopping.

Disclaimer: This won’t be a guilt-inducing blogpost. 

I totally recognize how incredibly hard it is to run a successful online business. For merchants just getting off the ground, adding the pressure of making every step of the business process eco-friendly and zero waste is an overwhelming feat. So there is no shame slinging here. 

Instead, the following is just meant to highlight the various ways in which we can make a positive environmental impact as business owners and as online shopping customers. 

I’m a firm believer that if we look for even small ways to change our shopping habits to focus on more sustainable living, then we can make a difference. So to all the merchants reading, see what works for you and your brand. You might be surprised that making some small changes to the way you run your business could lower costs and positively impact your customer lifetime value (more on that later).

And since we are all online customers (and most importantly citizens of the only known habitable planet in our galaxy), let me just stand on my soapbox and declare this just once: Please consider only supporting brands that focus on ethical and sustainable business practices and avoid fast fashion brands or lovers of single-use plastics.

Okay, I’m off the soapbox. Let’s run through some key points to consider when reading through this eco-friendly post.

Packaging waste hurts my soul (and our world)

It finally arrived. That package you ordered last week that you’re so excited to get. It’s arrived in a bigger box than you expected but that’s alright. You set it on the counter, cut open the copious amounts of packing tape (they really secured this thing didn’t they?), and just as you open the box… like a glitter bomb, styrofoam pellets and plastic wrap come bursting out of the package.  

Sound familiar?

Single-use plastics, like those commonly used in packaging, dominate landfills across the world. Consider that the 9.2 billion tons of plastic humans have produced never decays and often ends up improperly disposed of, negatively impacting our ecosystem. At this very moment, 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics are floating in our oceans impacting marine life and even ending up in our food. 

So, what alternatives can we use to avoid single-use plastics and instead embrace plastic-free packaging to ship products?

Biodegradable packing peanuts are sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging solutions that will protect products while being delivered and not negatively impact the environment. They are often made from naturally derived starches (like wheat and cornstarch) which can be disposed of by dissolving them in water.

While foam peanuts can be deadly to wildlife who consume them, biodegradable peanuts are not harmful to animals even if they’re not dissolved down.

There are also compostable and recyclable packaging materials that are environmentally friendly. Corrugated cardboard, for instance, is versatile and can handle the rigors of the supply chain to protect your products and then be easily recycled after unboxing. 

Meanwhile, compostable containers can be tossed in the green bin where they will break down just like food waste. There are even recyclable shipping labels that use a special adhesive that make them easy to recycle instead of getting thrown in the trash. 

Just make sure to let your customers know what kind of packaging they’re receiving and the best steps to dispose of it, so it doesn’t mistakenly end up as waste.

Reducing your carbon footprint

How do your products get to the door of your customers? Along the way how much CO2 is released as your product travels to its destination? These are important questions to consider when looking to make a positive impact on the environment.

Carbon neutral shipping helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with our climate emergency in a variety of ways, like using green packaging materials, prioritizing non-wasteful shipping routes, and most popularly, by purchasing carbon offsets. 

Carbon offsets are contributions to sustainable development projects (like renewable energy, forestry, or clean water projects) in exchange for credits that offset their carbon emissions. 

Recharge partnered with apps like EcoCart, Corso, and Ecodrive to give merchants opportunities to offer carbon-neutral subscription services directly to their consumers. 

Sustainable brands leading the way

Here are a collection of eco-friendly online stores that are leading the way when it comes to sustainability:

• Who Gives A Crap: Creators of premium 100% bamboo toilet paper. Bamboo is naturally fast-growing and rapidly renewable, requiring no tending, irrigation, or fertilization as opposed to the more common tree harvested toilet papers

• Keap Candles: Keap Candles list the efforts they make to be a zero-waste company (compostable mushroom packaging, biodegradable labels, and reusable glass candle holders) as well as listing where they get their eco-friendly packaging products from for other aspiring eco-friendly merchants
  

• Bite Toothpaste: Did you know one billion toothpaste tubes are thrown out each year? Bite, the creators of toothpaste bits, are a plastic-free and cruelty-free alternative on a mission to end plastic waste (all while giving you a healthy smile)

Greener future together

We’re by no means sustainability experts but we hope you’re able to take inspiration from some of the sustainable brands and options outlined here. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by our climate crisis but even little changes can over time have big impacts on our environment.  

Ultimately, that’s how change occurs—small choices, made by individual people and businesses. Over time, these choices ripple into larger shifts, leading all towards a more sustainable future for the world and the next generations. Remember customers are eager to support brands that share their values so if sustainability is close to your heart, let people know on your website. Happy Earth Month! 

The post Confessions of a consumer: Sustainable shopping for a healthier world appeared first on Recharge.

Whether you’re looking to start a subscription business or are an established brand interested in offering subscriptions—we’ve got you covered. We’re here to answer all of these commonly asked questions and give you and your brand the confidence to join the predicted $500 billion by 2025 subscription market. Let’s dive in.

The low down on subscription commerce

First let’s talk about the value of the subscription business model. Quite simply, we like to think of subscriptions as turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships.

Subscriptions add convenience to your customers’ lives by regularly supplying them with the products they love or by giving them access to exclusive products and perks. Meanwhile for merchants, a subscription model allows you to foster ongoing relationships with your customers and benefit from repeat orders (60% of consumers have had the same subscription for over a year). 

What’s more, repeat customers are 50% more likely than a new customer to make another purchase. Subscribers also spend on average 33% more by selecting cross-sells, upsells and/or one-time product add-ons and recurring revenue streams are predictable, have reduced customer churn and higher average order values. 

Getting started with the subscription model

So we’ve made the case for subscriptions, now let’s get to the practical advice. After making the decision to start offering subscriptions there’s two important questions to consider. 

1. What kind of subscriptions would best serve our business?
2. What kind of subscription management solution should we use?

Let’s start by focusing on the latter. Subscription management solutions like Recharge make it quick and easy to set up recurring offerings for your brand. They allow you to set up flexible subscriptions with options for skips, swaps, and one-time purchases that encourage your customers to stay with your business longer. 

One of the main keys to a successful subscription program is giving subscribers flexibility over their subscriptions. Our data shows that the more a subscriber engages with their subscription (which we define as taking an action in their customer portal like, skipping an order, swapping a subscription product or trying a one-time product) the more they increase their lifetime value and reduce their likelihood to churn.

To help you find the subscription management solution that works best for your business, we created A Merchant’s Guide to Subscription Management. Inside we break down the various elements of subscription management (subscription billing, merchant tools, shopper tools, analytics tools and payments tools) as well as provide a vendor evaluation worksheet so you can select a provider that best fits your needs. 

With that covered, it’s now time to figure out what kind of subscription would be best for your business to offer. 

Offering the right subscription for your business model

There’s three types of subscription models with various different benefits and it’s important to understand all three to decide which would work best for your company.

Curation is the most popular subscription model with 55% of merchants choosing it overall. This is where the merchant themselves provides a curated selection of product offerings to deliver to subscribers on a regular cadence. Often customers aren’t aware of what’s in these boxes, tapping into the surprise and delight factor that consumers so often enjoy. Curation subscriptions often also include added information alongside their products (like how-to guides or added information to get the most out of the goods).

Next up is replenishment which makes up 32% of the subscription economy. Most often utilized by CPG products, this is where consumers receive the same product or products on a consistent basis. Whether that’s coffee beans, household cleaning products, golf balls or contacts, replenishments are often known as subscribe-and-save (due to the propensity for brands to offer a discount alongside the subscription to incentivize consumers). 

Last up, and the fastest growing subscription type, are access or membership subscriptions (with rank in at 13% of all subscription models). In the era of streaming services like Netflix, Spotify or Amazon Prime this business model should be fairly obvious. For a fee you gain access to various benefits the membership service provides. Whether that’s a digital library of content, discounts, access to exclusive products or truly whatever benefit you can dream up to provide to your subscribers. 

The best part about membership subscriptions is that they’re the easiest type to implement with your business. On our podcast Hit Subscribe, we talked about why membership subscriptions are easy, flexible and valuable and chatted about how to use them to provide rewards, perks or exclusive products.

For a real world example of a membership/access subscription model, LOLA, makers of feminine and reproductive care products, have various subscription membership offerings that they incentivize with rewards like free shipping, early access to products, donations and discounts. They also use the replenishment subscription model with several of their feminine and reproductive care products (with various subscribe-and-save discounts incentivising their subscription options).

If you’re curious to learn some best practices about membership subscriptions and in particular how to price them based on the value you’re providing, check out our deep dive on the ins and outs of membership pricing.

Setting up your subscription model

Whichever subscription management solution you choose there are some important steps to follow before you’ll be off and running in the subscription commerce world. If you’re using Recharge (which you can get started on today for free with no monthly fee) you can use our guided onboarding to set up your subscriptions and checkout flow.

Whichever solution you’re using, after setting up your subscriptions, it’s important to make sure your logistics and shipping are in order and capable of supporting fulfillment of regular purchases on a recurring basis. After that’s all checked over, it’s time to run a test order then set your subscription products live. 

Now the exciting part, letting your customers know (especially your most loyal consumers who’ve made multiple purchases) that you are now offering subscriptions. This is where it’s very important to gather valuable customer feedback on your subscription service. 

For example, are customers hesitant to subscribe to products because they aren’t certain of the value your subscriptions offer? Do they wish other products were on subscription? Do they find their customer portal clunky to manage? It’s vital to your subscription program to gather as much customer feedback as possible to make the most informed and effective decisions. Test new subscriber suggestions and always be looking for ways to enhance the customer experience and create a brand community out of your most loyal customers.

Lastly, if you’re with Recharge, you can optimize your subscriptions with key integrations to create a technology stack that meets the needs of your customers at every phase of their journey. For instance, what customer wouldn’t want to manage their subscription with a quick text message (and what merchant wouldn’t want to benefit from a 30% increase in customer lifetime value with transactional SMS)? Check out RechargeSMS (free to use for all Recharge merchants) and let your customers easily modify their orders, swap products, add one time purchases or skip/delay upcoming shipments through text message.

Ready, set, go

So what are you waiting for? If you’ve read this far, nodded along at the benefits, decided on a subscription model that works for your brand, and dreamt up the products you’d offer by subscription—then you’re ready to get started with subscriptions.

And if you’re looking for some help or tips along the way check out our resource library for expert advice and industry insights that you can use to run a best-in-class subscription business.

The post Is your business ready for subscriptions? appeared first on Recharge.

Recharge was established as a remote-first company, and we wanted to share with you our favorite tools to help you in the event you decide to make the shift to remote work or hybrid remote work a final reality. 

Keeping culture in mind

When considering offering remote work or a hybrid work space, you’ll need to make sure you have your bases covered with a variety of remote tools. We’ll share the specific tech stack we use but first, here are three of the most important tools you’ll need to have in place.

Communication is key

First you need a company wide communication tool. Something reliable and scalable that allows your team to instantly communicate with each other wherever they are in the world, as long as they have an internet connection. This tool needs to be intuitive, needs to be searchable and needs to be able to cut out the clutter. You likely have found one that works for you, even before the forced shift to remote work in 2020.

At Recharge,  we use Slack. Slack allows us to easily direct message each other, have designated channels for specific teams, and quickly spin up channels or group messages. From a culture standpoint, Slack also allows employees to start specific channels where members can join around specific interests or hobbies. We have channels for sharing music, channels for sharing pictures of pets or channels for talking about the latest episode of the Bachelor.

Our most engaged channel is named “staying connected” where employees share pictures and videos from wherever they are in the world or ask open-ended get-to-know you questions (“What was your favourite Halloween costume?” or “If you could have any superpower what would it be?”) to engage with employees they may not interact with on a regular basis.

Connect with more than just text

The next tool that’s a necessity for companies looking to expand their remote work offerings: a video conferencing platform. If employees aren’t able to be in the same space as each other to collaborate and converse, having a tool where they can see each other face to face is the next best thing. At Recharge we use Zoom, while other businesses may use things like  Google Hangouts or Skype. 

Something else to consider when looking to implement remote or a hybrid work environment is what your video conferencing etiquette is. We recommend a camera-on policy for the majority of calls. It not only creates accountability in terms multitasking during meetings, but also gives everyone a chance to connect on more than just a text or voice level. 

A fun tip: Encourage colleagues to include something in their backgrounds that can serve as a conversation piece. Whether it’s a picture on the wall, or something written on a white board, this is a great way for people to connect with each other around something other than the task at hand. It helps foster relationship building in an organic, meaningful way, and who knows… it might lead to friendships being forged over a common interest. 

Other video meeting etiquette tips to consider: We encourage all colleagues to be presentable and be attentive. If they’re unable to prepare in terms of being camera-on, this is where we reserve the camera-off exceptions for.

Keep everyone in the loop

Staying organized and getting things done no matter the distance between your teammates is imperative to getting work done. The way to make it happen seamlessly? Your project management tool. 

There are plenty of project management tools available to utilize, and at Recharge we use a variety between departments based on their needs and scalability. For our marketing team we use Monday.com whereas other teams use Jira (Atlassian). The most important thing is to find the tool that best works for you and allows you to set and achieve your goals. You need something trackable, that has an easy to navigate user experience and is going to scale with you as your team grows. 

Some other types of tools you may need are:

• Internal Documentation
• Support Platform
• Organizational Chart
• Payroll and HR Tools
• Applicant Tracking System

Tips to creating a positive remote work environment

The best way to ensure a positive remote work experience is to embrace the change it instills and not try to conform it to traditional office working traits. 

At Recharge we encourage our team members to work when they are most productive. We’ve got teammates working across the globe in dozens of different countries and numerous different time zones, so trying to regiment schedules to one timezones 9-5 clock just doesn’t work. Instead, what we care about is that you do good work, you get that work in on time and that you engage with your teammates and external groups effectively.

That freedom and trust resonates with Recharge team members who are able to work flexible schedules and set work around their life as opposed to life around their work. In our previously mentioned “staying connected” slack channel, a question was asked about what perks they loved most about the work from home lifestyle. There were dozens of responses, ranging from, “Being able drop and pick up my daughter from the bus stop every day” to “not wasting an hour each way commuting to work” to numerous responses from our travel addicts who are able to work from anywhere in the world they can find a reliable internet connection from. 

The lesson here again is to honor remote or hybrid work for what it is and not try and conform it to the decades of traditional office work that preceded it. One of the most commonly asked questions about remote work is how do you trust your employees to be working when they’re supposed to be? 

And the simple answer is: you trust them. 

If they are not getting their work done or they aren’t attending meetings they should, then you have a problem. But remote work shouldn’t have some sort of employee surveillance attached to it to ensure team members are bolted to their desks for eight hours straight every day. If you don’t trust your employees to do the work they’re supposed to regardless of whether they’re working in the office or remotely—then you’ve got a bigger problem on your hands. 

Some other things we do here at Recharge to ensure a positive experience for our employees, we encourage weekly 1:1s between managers and their direct reports. These meetings are a mix of formal (tracking projects, looking at KPIs, career planning) as well as informal (checking in on burn out, talking about life outside of work etc). For me personally, I feel more connected to my direct manager (whom after a year of working with, I’ve never met in person) than I have with any previous manager I’ve ever worked with. 

Weekly department meetings are also encouraged to run through status reports on projects and to ensure alignment for the week ahead. We also host bi-weekly Town Halls where the entire company comes together for a meeting with senior leadership, and gets updates from various departments about various initiatives or the status of company-wide goals. 

We’ve also had great engagement with an anonymous “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) that we host at the end of every Town Hall, where employees can freely ask any question to SLT or across departments that they may not feel comfortable saying publicly. 

Embracing remote and hybrid work 

Whether your company has made the jump to offering remote/hybrid work or you’re beginning to consider it, we hope this blog has walked you through some of the practical tips to ensure a smooth transition. 

Remote work takes work. But done correctly, you can foster an environment of collaboration, team building, trust, accountability, and fun. 

The post Our top tips to creating a strong remote work culture appeared first on Recharge.