Learn and apply the best subscription and membership strategies to your Shopify baby brand.
The most savvy baby brands on Shopify are using subscription and membership programs to enhance customer engagement and retention.
That’s because these eCommerce strategies are working wonders!
This blog explores the best strategies for increasing customer loyalty in the baby eCommerce market via subscriptions and memberships.
Additionally, you’ll also learn how to put these strategies into action for your Shopify baby brand.
Subscription and membership strategies for baby brands on Shopify
In this section we look at various tried and tested strategies for subscriptions and membership programs. Alongside, we share actionable tips to get you started with the best baby subscription boxes on Shopify.
Subscription strategies for baby brands on Shopify
1. Subscriber-led subscriptions
Agile brands know how to tap into changing customer preferences, needs, trends, and demands.
With baby subscription programs, you have the advantage of building stronger long-term relationships with subscribers. Long-term associations make it easy for you to understand your customers’ needs and offer relevant shopping experiences. You can run various targeted campaigns for increasing customer loyalty in the baby eCommerce space. Let’s look at some strategies:
- Run surveys to understand subscriber needs
- Ask for feedback to enhance your subscription products and services
- Understand different customer segments to ensure you represent all the segments. For example, the needs of baby boys may be different from baby girls
- Understand your customers’ preferred subscription needs. The best baby subscription boxes on Shopify are customer-centric
2. Choose a relevant subscription type
There are different types of subscription plans—build a box, tiered subscriptions, flat rate, curated box, etc. The type of plan you choose for your baby brand on Shopify will depend on many factors. For instance, your product/service, industry, customer preference, etc.
Let’s explore the different types of subscription plans relevant to baby product brands:
- Curated box subscription plan: this type of subscription works best for baby products such as toys, samplers, books, etc.
- Tiered subscription plan: tiered models involve different pricing for different levels offering unique perks in each tier
- Curated box: works best for all kinds of baby products—clothes, baby care items, toys, etc.
- Replenishment: this type of subscription is most suitable for products that need to be ordered on a recurring basis, such as baby diapers
Here’s an example from one of the best baby subscription box brands. The brand collects specific information to tailor subscription boxes to different baby needs.
3. Offer progressive subscription plans
Baby needs are based on their age. For example, newborns may require small size diapers. But their diaper size increases as they grow. That’s an opportunity for you to offer subscription boxes catering to different age groups. That way, you can ensure customer commitment for a longer duration.
Here are some tips for offering the best baby subscription boxes:
- Smart baby brands stay abreast with customer needs. And when it comes to babies, their needs change every month based on their size, growth, and more. Aligning your subscription box to growing babies needs can help you boost customer loyalty
- Create tiered subscription plans that allow customers to choose plans based on the pricing structures. This makes it easy for them to upgrade plans as their baby needs increase
Example of a stage-specific baby toy brand:
Explore Appstle Subscriptions App for your Shopify store.
4. Tie subscription type and pricing to your customer goals
This aspect can’t be stressed enough — plan and design your subscription program around your customers. From the type of subscription to the pricing to the structure, design it with your target audience in mind. By doing so, you can boost customer engagement and retention.
Here are some tips:
- Decide subscription pricing based on your target audiences purchase capacity
- Ensure the pricing enhances profitability and sustainability of your program
- For example, you can offer different pricing levels to cater to various customer segments
Here’s an example for a baby and mom brand. Considering the subscription caters to both baby and mom, the pricing can be slightly higher than plans that only cater to baby needs.
5. Make it easy for customer to access and track subscriptions
Customers like convenience. And you can create an experience wich prioritizes convenience and engagement in your subscription program. There are many ways to do so. Let’s look at some of them:
- Create a landing page for your subscription program
- Maintain a dedicated page for your subscription program
- Create an app for subscribers to track, access, and enjoy exclusive perks
- Enable customers to get an overview of subscriptions in one place, all at their fingertips
Memberships strategies for baby brands on Shopify
Membership programs and subscriptions are often thought to be the same, but there are some differences. Membership plans may not be directly related to product or service sales. They may solely be for customer engagement and loyalty. In this section, we look at membership strategies you can apply to your Shopify store for increasing customer loyalty in baby eCommerce.
1. Create unique membership plans
With competition increasing in the memberships space, you have to ensure your baby products Shopify membership plan stands out. Novelty and uniqueness also help increase customer loyalty in baby eCommerce because parents are commonly drawn to new products and experiences for their babies.
However, promising a unique experience is one thing; creating it is another. Here’s what you’ll need to do to create a unique membership plan:
- Customize your membership plan to create a unique brand personality
- Choose a Shopify memberships app that allows easy customization
- Keep the customer at the heart of your membership plan
2. Build member communities
The best baby brands on Shopify offering memberships understand the power of online communities. And memberships offer an excellent opportunity to adapt and connect to different customer segments within your member base.
Here are community-building tips for baby brands on Shopify:
- Create communities for the parents of the babies by catering to baby age, specifically separate communities for toddlers group, age group 12 months to 2 years, etc.
- Create online communities like Facebook closed groups
- Organize offline community events in locations where you have a significant number of customers
An example from a baby diaper membership brand:
3. Promote memberships on product pages
One of the best ways to promote your membership program is via the product page. Have the membership button/option on all product pages. This is also an opportunity to get customers to commit for a long-term association with your brand.
Here are some tips:
- Display the price benefit against the price of the product when bought separately versus after signing up for membership
- Show customers how much money they can save by signing up for the membership
- Mention other perks of the membership, such as free shipping, reward points, etc.
4. Provide value-added benefits and perks
You may have a membership program for your Shopify baby store, but are your customers actually happy with it? Do they really find it meaningful? Is it adding value to them?
Run of the mill benefits no longer satisfy customers. You have to provide the best Shopify membership benefits for baby products that add value perks to customers. In short, customer-oriented membership benefits. Let’s look at some tips to accomplish this:
- Make the benefits and perks a natural extension to your baby brand and products. For example, if you’re selling baby strollers on your eCommerce store, offer servicing as part of your membership benefits
- Offer a mix of perks such as offline events for babies and mothers, and online discussions forums, price benefits, early access to new collections, etc.
- Collaborate with play schools, play areas, and baby classes to offer discounts, free sessions, etc. for your members
- Creating engaging content for baby brand members is another way to add value to members
5. Tie referral program with memberships
According to a Neilsen study, 92% of people trust referrals from friends and family. Imagine what this could mean for your memberships program if you leverage your existing member base!
You can boost engagement, sign on new members, and increase sales, too. When it comes to baby products, parents tend to trust recommendations from friends and family more than advertisements.
Here’s how you can incorporate a referrals program within your memberships:
- Create special campaigns to encourage members to share referrals. This is also an effective strategy for increasing customer loyalty in baby eCommerce
- Offer exclusive and meaningful Shopify membership benefits for baby products referrals
- Provide a seamless referrals experience by digitizing and automating the process
Try Appstle, the top Shopify apps for baby brand subscriptions and memberships.
Do you have engagement and loyalty strategies for your baby brand on Shopify?
From discounts and perks to online communities and value-added services, there’s a lot that you can do in the booming baby eCommerce market. Subscriptions and memberships are at the center of engaging customers in this market segment.
However, digitalization of your membership experience is not an individual aspect of your programs; it is your program. That’s why successful brands use the top Shopify apps for baby brand subscriptions and memberships.
Using efficient apps takes away the load of tedious, repetitive tasks by automating them. Moreover, you can entice and engage customers with the built-in promotional and marketing features of the app.
If you’re looking for an efficient app for your Shopify baby brand subscriptions and memberships, explore Appstle.
Learn more about the Appstle Shopify memberships app here.
To learn more about the eCommerce membership model and its benefits, download our free guide.
