- The pre-charge reminder is the subscription email that does the most work. For one subscription wellness brand, it made $47,321 in one month, 74% of all flow revenue.
- Skip, swap and pause let a subscriber fix "I have too much" or "I'm bored of it" without cancelling.
- Put skip and swap options in the reminder email itself, so the easy option is right there.
- Keep winback emails going after a cancel. In a small sample of 4 consumable brands, winback email #3 earned about 2x email #1.
Why do subscribers churn after the first couple of orders?
Order two is the first real test of a subscription. The customer signed up on a good first impression, and now the second box is arriving whether they're ready or not.
The reasons I'd look at first are pretty ordinary:
- Too much product. They haven't finished the first one, and another is on the way.
- A charge they didn't expect. They forgot they subscribed, and the card charge feels like a gotcha.
- Boredom. Same flavor, same scent, every month.
- Money got tight. They still like it, just not right now.
None of those are "I don't like your product." All of them can be handled by email, if the right email arrives at the right time.
The pre-charge reminder: your most important subscription churn email
This is the email that goes out a few days before the next charge. It tells the subscriber what's coming, when, and what they can change.
For a subscription wellness brand, this "your order is coming up" reminder made $47,321 in one month. That was 74% of all its flow revenue. It's a reminder that can also sell: people add products, swap and confirm what they want.
If you use Recharge with Klaviyo, Recharge sends an "Order upcoming on ReCharge" event into Klaviyo that can trigger this flow. By default it fires three days before the charge date, and you can change that in Recharge's settings. Recharge also offers a pre-built Upcoming Order Reminder flow for Klaviyo. One note: it doesn't trigger for $0 prepaid shipments.
Here's what I'd put in it:
- What's coming and when. The product, the quantity, the charge date. No surprises.
- A button to add something. A one-time add-on is the easiest upsell you'll ever get.
- Skip and swap, right in the email. "Still have some left? Skip this one." "Want to try a new flavor?"
- One clear main action. Keep the layout simple so the options don't compete.
That skip button might feel like you're inviting people to buy less. You are, a little. But a skipped order is a subscriber who's still there next month. A cancel is gone.
Give them skip, swap and pause before cancel
Your email is only half of this. The other half is what happens when someone clicks cancel in your subscription portal.
Recharge has a feature for this. When a subscriber goes to cancel, it can offer a pause first, then ask why they're leaving, then show an offer matched to that reason. The options include a discount on the next order, skipping the next charge, delaying the subscription, swapping to a different product, or pausing. Stores set up on Recharge after October 23, 2023 get this through a Cancellation Prevention experience instead of the older settings.
Match the save to the reason:
- "I have too much" → skip or delay.
- "I'm bored of it" → swap.
- "It's too expensive right now" → pause, or a discount on the next order.
- "It's not working for me" → this is a product or education problem. Your post-purchase emails should have caught it earlier.
Recharge also lets you export cancellation reasons. Read them. They'll tell you which emails to write.
What should you send after someone cancels?
Some people will cancel anyway. That's fine. Make leaving easy and coming back easier.
Recharge sends a "Subscription cancelled on ReCharge" event to Klaviyo, so you can trigger a flow off it. Here's how I'd set it up:
- Right away: a short confirmation. No guilt trip. Confirm it's done, thank them, and give a one-click way to restart.
- A few days later: a one-time order option. Some people don't want a subscription but still want the product. Let them buy it without signing up again.
- Then: hand off to winback. If they haven't come back on their own, they go into your subscriber winback.
Some people who cancel still like the product and just don't want to be locked in. A one-time option keeps them as customers.
How long should a subscriber winback run?
Longer than most brands think. In my pooled data across four consumable brands, winback email #3 earns about 2x what email #1 does, $0.23 vs $0.11 per person. That's winback flows in general, not just subscribers, but the lesson holds: the later emails do real work.
Recharge offers a pre-built Subscriber Win Back flow for Klaviyo if you want a starting point. I'd use each email to try a different reason to come back: what's new, a reminder of why they started, and eventually an offer.
More on length and spacing in how long should a winback flow be.
What other emails should subscribers get, or not get?
A few quick rules:
- Keep active subscribers out of your replenishment flow. They already have an order coming. A "running low?" email confuses them. Set up exclusions in your Klaviyo replenishment flow.
- Check in after a pause. Recharge sends a "Subscription paused on ReCharge" event. A light note before the pause ends gives them a chance to adjust.
- Treat subscribers as your best customers in campaigns. Early access to new products, first look at a new flavor. Give them a reason to stay that isn't just a discount.
This is also why subscriptions matter beyond the monthly revenue. A subscription wellness brand had a month where store revenue fell 37% and new customers dropped from 1,657 to 223. Email's share of revenue went from 41% to 53%. Ads are rented, your list is owned, and subscribers are the most loyal part of that list.
For how subscriptions fit with everything else, read my guide to a repeat purchase email strategy.
Where these numbers come from
The winback figures come from pooled data across 4 consumable brands: 2,897 campaigns and $17.7M in email revenue. It's a small sample, so treat it as directional. The subscription reminder and revenue share numbers come from a single subscription wellness brand.
FAQ
How many days before the charge should the reminder go out?
A few days, enough time for them to skip or swap before the charge. Recharge's upcoming order event fires three days before by default, which is a sensible starting point. Adjust it if your customers need more time.
Won't a skip button just lose me revenue?
In the short term, a little. But a subscriber who skips is still a subscriber. One who cancels because they had too much product is gone, and costs you an ad to replace.
Should I offer a discount to stop a cancellation?
It can work for people leaving over price. For people leaving because they have too much or got bored, skip or swap solves the actual problem without cutting your margin.
What's the difference between a subscription churn email and a winback email?
Churn emails try to keep someone subscribed, mostly before and during a cancel. Winback emails try to bring them back after they've left. You need both.
Do I need Recharge to do any of this?
No, but your subscription app has to send events into Klaviyo for the flows to trigger. Recharge is the one I've referenced here because its Klaviyo events and retention options are well documented.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.