Subscription acquisition best practices

Acquisition is the first lever in subscription growth. It covers every tactic you use to convert shoppers, one-time buyers, and cart abandoners into paying subscribers. This article walks through the acquisition tactics that consistently move the needle for Loop merchants, and maps each one to the feature you use to set it up.

A flat discount on subscriptions works, but a stepped discount tends to drive higher LTV. You start with a smaller discount and increase it over time, so subscribers have a reason to stay past their first few orders.

For example, in your selling plan you can set:

The first discount gets the subscriber in. The second one rewards them for staying, which reduces early churn and pushes customers past the point where most cancellations happen.

To configure stepped discounts, navigate to Loop admin > Acquire > Selling plans, then edit or create a selling plan.

For a full walkthrough, refer to the selling plans guide.

A checkout link is a direct URL that takes a customer to checkout with a specific product, quantity, and selling plan already applied. You can paste these into emails, SMS campaigns, or ads to skip the product page entirely.

If your one-time revenue is larger than your subscription revenue, your biggest acquisition opportunity is already in your existing customer list. You can check this in Loop admin > Analytics > Subscribers > Subscription vs non-subscription revenue.

The simplest use case is a reorder email.

For example, 30 days after a purchase, you can send an email saying: "You might be running low. Place a one-time order now, or subscribe at 10% off and never worry about reordering again." The checkout link sends the customer straight to checkout with the subscription product and discount already applied.

To create a checkout link, navigate to Loop admin > Acquire > Checkout links, then click Create checkout link. For full details, refer to the checkout links guide.

The subscription widget is the subscribe-and-save block on your product page. It is your biggest acquisition surface, and small changes to it compound across every product view.

A few defaults make a meaningful difference:

To configure your widget, navigate to Loop admin > Acquire > Widget. You can compare your widget against benchmarks on the same page and adjust settings that fit your brand. For a full walkthrough, refer to the widget configuration guide.

A trial subscription lets new customers try your product before committing to a paid plan. You lower the barrier to entry with a free or reduced-cost first experience, then automatically transition the customer into a recurring subscription once the trial ends.

This works well for products where value becomes clear only after consistent use, like skincare, supplements, or curated boxes. Trial-to-paid customers also tend to retain longer, since they have already experienced the product before their first full billing cycle.

Examples of trial subscriptions:

For setup details, refer to the trial subscriptions guide.

At checkout, a checkout upgrade shows customers who have added a one-time product to their cart the subscription option with savings clearly highlighted. They can upgrade with a single click, without restarting the checkout flow.

For example, a customer buying a one-time bag of coffee at $24 can be shown a prompt at checkout: "Subscribe and save 15%, $20.40 per month. Cancel anytime." One click upgrades their order to a subscription. This turns a standard checkout moment into a low-friction acquisition touchpoint. The customer has already decided to buy, so the only question left is whether they buy once or recurring.

To configure checkout upgrades, navigate to Loop admin > Acquire > Checkout upgrades. For full details, refer to the checkout upgrades guide.

A bundle groups multiple products together at a discount and presents the combined savings clearly against buying each item individually. This increases AOV on the first order and gives customers a stronger reason to subscribe, since they get more value per order than they would buying products separately.

For example, a haircare brand can offer a shampoo, conditioner, and scalp serum as a bundle at $55, showing that it would cost $72 if bought separately. Presented as a subscription with an additional 10% off, the perceived value is strong enough to convert customers who might otherwise pick up just one product.

Bundles work especially well as a first-order offer, since they let a new subscriber experience your full product range immediately rather than trying one item at a time.

To create a bundle, navigate to Loop admin > Bundles > Create bundle. For full details, refer to the bundles guide.

Build your own bundle lets customers select their own combination of products and subscribe to that custom bundle on a recurring basis. This is a strong acquisition tool because it shifts the question from "should I subscribe" to "what should I put in my bundle," which is a lower-resistance decision.

Custom bundles work especially well for brands with large or varied catalogs where different customers have different needs. A coffee brand can let a subscriber pick 4 roasts per month from a catalog of 20. A pet nutrition brand can let owners build a monthly box of treats, supplements, and food based on their pet's size and preferences.

Because the bundle is personalized, subscribers feel more ownership over it and tend to cancel less often than they would with a fixed bundle.

For setup details, refer to the build your own bundle guide.

You do not need to set up every tactic at once. A practical sequence for most stores:

Review your acquisition metrics after each change in Loop admin > Analytics > Subscribers to see which tactic moved the needle.

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Regards,

Loop Subscriptions Team 🙂