Top-performing retail subscription merchants offer consumers more crowdsourced information about product quality than their bottom-performing counterparts, suggesting that offering this information could play a key role in merchant success.
The latest installment of the Decision Guide series by PYMNTS Intelligence, “The Retail Subscription Features That Make Top-Performing Merchants,” drew on a survey of 188 retail subscription merchants. It examined the relationship between loyal customers and merchant revenues to understand the best practices to expand this lucrative group of consumers.
According to the study, 83% of top-performing merchants offered product ratings and reviews as part of their subscription services. In contrast, only 30% of bottom-performing merchants provided this feature. The difference suggests that the inclusion of product ratings and reviews plays a role in the success of retail subscription businesses.
These kinds of reviews and ratings only drive success if they are reliable. The PYMNTS Intelligence study “The Replenish Economy: A Household Supply Deep Dive” drew from a September survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers, It found that inaccurate or misleading ratings and reviews can contribute to consumers hitting unsubscribe, especially scheduled delivery and auto-fill subscribers.
“At the end of the day, it’s about trust,” Alex Brown, president of sustainable cleaning supplies subscription firm Truly Free, told PYMNTS in May for the series “Tough Questions: Retaining the Selective Subscriber of 2023.
Establishing that trust can go a long way toward building long-term loyalty.
“Consumers will continue to expect satisfying eCommerce experiences that are seamless, smooth and trustworthy,” Vindicia Head of Customer Success Meena Srinivasan told PYMNTS in an interview in February. “They don’t want to be associated with brands that are not providing that experience.”
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