Offering subscriptions for convenience without a discount

Vertical

Food & Beverage

Use case

Replenishment

About

The milk industry has been rapidly changing in recent years. Since the nineties, most Americans were used to drinking whole or 2% milk. As sustainability, dietary restrictions, and lifestyle choices like veganism have become more popular across the country, many are looking for an environmentally conscious and tasty milk alternative.

Swedish based Oatly was founded on turning fiber rich and sustainable oats into nutritional liquid food that is perfectly designed for humans without taxing the planet’s resources in the process.

Oatly increased LTV 14X through subscriptions without a discount

Oatly was determined to create a direct-to-consumer subscription model in the US where customers could purchase at their convenience and have autonomy to manage their subscription. Whether a subscriber wanted to skip a delivery, change their delivery schedule or buy additional products as they pleased, the functionality needed to be built into the online store and blended with Oatly’s delightful brand experience.

As a result, they needed an agency partner with experience scaling a subscription business who could also advise on best practices for a checkout and Customer Portal experience.

Netalico was chosen because their team has experience working for merchants directly, an ingrained piece of their culture that allows for more empathy to what merchants care about and are going through. That key element empowered both teams to work together seamlessly and Oatly was able to successfully double their number of subscribers within 3 months.

“With Recharge, we were able to optimize both the holistic subscriptions experience as well as the details that are so important to Oatly’s brand because our teams worked in lockstep throughout the project. We couldn’t be happier with the results!”

Mark Lewis

Founder & CEO, Netalico Commerce

Challenge

Oatly’s first challenge was public awareness of their ecommerce platform simply because recurring online oatmilk subscriptions are not the most common subscription products.

The American market is growing more comfortable with purchasing perishables online, but there is so much competition for attention across all verticals. There was no guarantee Oatly would be able to sell products online if they couldn’t raise brand and product awareness.

Additionally, the Customer Portal required a total overhaul. The Oatly team knew once people subscribed, they would want flexibility to manage their orders based on a variety of scenarios. This meant ensuring customers felt empowered to own this process while using an easy to navigate Customer Portal.

Finally, and arguably the biggest challenge, the team needed to create a value proposition that offered customers convenience and value outside of the traditional discount strategy. They had never looked at discounting as a hurdle or a challenge to overcome. Instead, the focus for the subscription program was the convenience and accessibility factor.

Solution

Through our expertise in the subscription ecosystem here at Recharge , we were able to address the lack of public awareness and concerns over subscription dropping discount shoppers by implementing a dedicated Oatly Subscriptions landing page.

This page would allow customers to build their own monthly subscription of four different varieties of oat milk, as well as include an FAQ section to ease concerns of any first-time subscribers.

The FAQ page answered specific questions like:

“How does a subscription order work?”
“What if I decide I need to increase/decrease my order, or even cancel my subscription later on?”
“What if I want my order delivered more or less frequently than once per month?”

Through customer research, these three questions were deemed most important to Oatly’s current customer base. Creating a dedicated and easily accessible page to address these common inquiries allowed Oatly to alleviate a potential customer's concerns upfront before they committed to a subscription.

Lastly, building off the latest version of the Recharge Theme Engine allowed subscribers to manage the timing of their subscription with ease. Implementing thoroughly researched features and best practices quickly paid off as customers took advantage of changing delivery dates throughout the month or pausing their subscription instead of outright cancelling.

At the same time, Oatly added an on/off toggle to their subscription product pages, meaning any shopper could become a subscriber with the flip of a switch.

Results

Since launching these updates, Oatly has seen a 188% increase in monthly recurring revenue.

Customers were empowered to manage their own subscriptions, causing a significant rise in lifetime value. Since launch, LTV has more than doubled compared to those that purchase one at a time.