Nearly 70% of top direct selling companies have autoship programs, and many are seeing impressive results. If autoship is already driving 30–60% of your total sales, it’s easy to assume that autoship is a success.
But that’s exactly the trap. High autoship volume can create a false sense of security.
In reality, many programs are still built on bare-bones infrastructure — a checkbox at checkout, limited flexibility, and little to no optimization. And while they’re generating steady recurring revenue, it also comes at the cost of leaving massive growth potential on the table.
In fact, Ordergroove’s audits have identified an average 60% revenue growth opportunity that direct selling autoship has yet to capture.
Autoship shouldn’t just be a revenue stream. Done right, it’s a strategic engine for long-term profitability, retention, and field growth. The question is: how optimized is yours?
With more powerful tech tools than ever available to help scale up initial autoship success, there’s nothing holding direct selling brands back from eCommerce innovation. Right now, direct selling companies can unlock a first-mover advantage by embracing modern subscriptions that are widely — and successfully — used outside of the direct selling channel.
Basic autoship is holding direct selling companies back
Modern shoppers want more than the convenience of automated orders. They want a quality experience that lives up to the high bar leading DTC subscription brands have set in recent years, with advancements like subscription boxes, seasonally curated bundles, and prepaid subscriptions, and to stay competitive, direct selling brands must deliver the same.
The first step is reframing what autoship really is — a subscriber experience — and making smart optimizations to tap into its full recurring revenue potential.
To most direct selling companies, launching subscriptions means simply adding an opt-in checkbox to the shopping cart. That might be enough to spark initial interest and generate some recurring orders and even meet volume requirements to qualify a distributor for commissions or to unlock free shipping.
But when you deliver a better experience — one that’s flexible, personalized, and built to engage — you unlock a much greater opportunity: increased retention, higher average order value, and sustainable recurring revenue growth.
Direct selling companies don’t need to start from scratch. They can adopt proven strategies from leading DTC brands. For example, just by making it easy for customers to skip, pause, or swap, OLLY achieved 3.5× higher subscriber LTV.
These kinds of enhancements can help direct selling brands unlock the same kind of meaningful growth.
The hidden limits of basic autoship: From missed revenue to high customer and distributor churn
Direct selling has come a long way since the days of person-to-person selling and home parties. But when it comes to technology and eCommerce, the industry is still playing catch-up.
Now, the brands that prioritize meeting consumer expectations for a delightful subscriber experience have a significant growth opportunity on their hands.
Profitable growth is within reach for direct selling brands ready to evolve. But those clinging to the status quo are putting long-term revenue, retention, and relevance at risk.
Low AOV = Low LTV
Today’s subscribers won’t stick around for the long haul unless the experience meets their expectations. They want more than just the convenience — they expect things like subscriber incentives and perks, frictionless order management, the ability to swap out or add additional products. And, the experience needs to be seamless, flexible and on-brand.
Direct selling companies need tools that make it easy to configure free shipping thresholds, provide personalized product recommendations, and trigger upsell offers at the perfect moment. According to a report by eCommerce platform and consultancy Monetate, brands can increase AOV by up to 12% simply by tailoring the customer journey.
Without these tools in place, brands miss out on valuable revenue opportunities that erode subscriber lifetime value (LTV) and profitability over time.
More importantly, a poor subscriber experience can quickly lead to high churn, both from customers and the distributors who serve them.
The chain reaction of churn
There’s no shortage of studies proving that subscribers expect brands to provide value for their money and full control over their recurring orders. One study found that 62% of respondents cite value for their money as the primary reason they sign up for subscriptions, and when brands fall short, subscribers will churn without hesitation.
And when subscribers leave, distributors feel the impact.
In direct selling, customer churn often triggers distributor churn. Without predictable, recurring income, distributors shift their focus back to short-term sales, miss performance milestones, and start questioning their long-term future with your brand.
But here’s the upside: increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95%. Done right, subscriptions can generate stable income that reduces financial uncertainty for distributors, empowering them to focus on growth initiatives and ultimately build a sustainable career.
Signs your subscriptions are under-performing
Put simply, subscriptions that don’t meet modern expectations will carry significant opportunity costs for direct selling brands both now and in the long run.
As far as the telltale signs that an unoptimized autoship program is costing direct selling companies recurring revenue and profitable growth? Your subscriber experience — and your distributor experience — may be under-performing if any of the below sounds familiar:
- Your subscriber LTV is flat instead of growing consistently.
- You’re not sure how your subscriptions are currently performing.
- Your subscriber churn rate is already higher than 5-7% annually.
- You lack insights into subscriber behavior — like when and why subscribers cancel, and whether the churn is voluntary or involuntary.
- Subscribers have limited control over their orders and are contacting you for assistance to pause, skip, or change out the products in their upcoming orders.
- You’re not sending strategic transactional messages to subscribers to remind them about upcoming shipments or encourage them to try new products in their next order.
If you found yourself ticking even one of those boxes, it’s time to optimize your subscriber experience and tap into its full recurring revenue potential.
You don’t know what you don’t know
Launching subscriptions and hoping for the best is one thing. Actively measuring performance and optimizing based on what the data tells you — that’s what drives real results.
For an industry whose distributor retention is closely linked with subscriber retention, this is especially important.
Direct selling brands willing to go beyond traditional autoship can become first-movers in a new era of recurring revenue, unlocking up to 60% more revenue.
It’s time to evolve autoship from a simple checkbox into a strategic growth engine.
If you’re ready to future-proof your revenue model, reach out to schedule a demo and discover how subscriptions can elevate your distributor experience, reduce churn, and take your company’s direct selling revenue to new heights.
