Theo Chocolate captured recurring revenue throughout the year with subscriptions
About
As the first organic, fair-trade certified chocolate maker in North America, Theo Chocolate invites people to discover a better world through chocolate. They have been making high-quality chocolate from scratch since 2006, using organic ingredients and fair-trade practices. Theo is committed to ensuring their farmers receive a living wage and bringing their industry to a new standard.
Their award-winning bars come in a wide variety of flavors, from mint to hazelnut crisp, and they offer gluten-free, kosher, and vegan options. Theo also makes handmade confections, cookie bites, and candies so that everyone can find their favorite treats.
“Recharge has everything you need to get a core subscription program up and running.”
Lynne Rowan
Sr. Ecommerce Manager, Theo Chocolate
Challenge
Given the nature of their product, Theo typically sees seasonal spikes in business. Around holidays, customers purchase more chocolate for gifting and celebrations. Theo wanted to retain its customers and nurture relationships during the months when customers were less likely to buy chocolate. They realized they needed a way to capture recurring revenue throughout the year.
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Additionally, Theo noticed loyal customers regularly placed one-time orders online to stock up on their favorite bars in bulk. Theo wanted to provide a simple way for customers to never run out of their favorite treats.
Solution
To meet customer needs and grow their business, Theo launched subscriptions with Recharge. As a company primarily focused on brick-and-mortar retail, they had a small ecommerce team. Other subscription solutions offered on their ecommerce platform, BigCommerce, didn’t meet Theo’s requirements and needed customization. Since Theo also runs their wholesale business through their site, they got support from their external development partner to set up a subscription offering with Recharge.
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Theo built a subscription program where customers can customize an order of their favorite treats, set their delivery schedule, and save 10% on their orders. For customers curious about variety, Theo created their Chocolate Fix subscription just in time for the holiday gifting season, with a surprise, curated box of treats every month.
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Recharge also integrates with Theo’s tech stack tools to support their unique business needs. For example, they use
Klaviyo
to segment customers and target communication, further customizing the subscriber experience.
Results
Though they only recently rolled out subscriptions, Theo is already seeing impressive growth in their program. Since launch, they have grown their subscriber base by 360%. And, subscribers are sticking with the program—they have a low churn rate of only 9.8%. Theo is also seeing that customers are adding multiple items to their subscription and have a high AOV of $47.
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With Recharge, Theo had the functionality to streamline execution on their subscription program. They are creating a consistent revenue stream throughout the year and looking to continue building their program with Recharge as the foundation.
“Recharge is a really straightforward tool with great analytics. I can pull data super easily and surface the most important insights.”
Lynne Rowan
Sr. Ecommerce Manager, Theo Chocolate
