Enjoying tea or coffee is a favorite daily ritual for many people worldwide.
As the trend of subscriptions gains momentum and consumer interest in recurring purchase options grows, the coffee industry has adapted by offering various coffee subscriptions.
The global coffee subscription market is estimated at $1.98 billion by 2032. As the world’s coffee consumption increases, a lot is riding on coffee merchants’ ability to create and market valuable subscriptions.
But how can these brands stand out, and what tactics can they implement to showcase their unique value? In this post, we’ll talk about the crucial strategies and tools that you, as a coffee or tea merchant, can use to acquire more customers and retain your existing ones for longer.
Key Takeaways
- Research shows that the coffee subscription industry has seen enormous market growth in recent years.
- Coffee and tea merchants considering launching or offering subscriptions should focus on providing flexible subscription management, customizable bundles, and a personalized customer portal.
- In doing so, they can stand apart from the competition and reap the benefits of increased AOV, improved customer satisfaction, boosted retention, and reduced churn.
Three marketing & sales strategies to grow your tea or coffee subscription business
Are you considering launching subscriptions for your tea or coffee business? Or would you like to optimize your existing subscriptions? There are many ways to add value to your business through your marketing strategies.
Below, we cover three critical tactics—subscription management, product bundles, and the customer portal—and their associated technologies and tools.
1. Reduce churn with flexible subscription management
Regardless of the product, today’s subscribers require flexibility around their orders. Our State of Subscription Commerce report found that in 2022, 35% of subscribers adjusted their orders, like swapping an item, changing the quantity or frequency of their order, or skipping a delivery.
For your customers to stick with your business, they need to be able to make these types of changes quickly, easily, and independently. Without engaging your Support team, they should be able to intuitively figure out where and how to make changes to get exactly what they want.
For tea and coffee drinkers, these flexible subscription management actions might include:
- Changing up the flavor or style of coffee delivered in a subscription
- Adjusting the frequency of their order if they’re finding they have too much or too little tea in each order
- Reducing the number of coffee bags in their order if they’re trying to cut back on caffeine or a tighter budget
- Adding a one-time product—like specialty coffee filters or a bar of chocolate—to a coffee subscription order
- Skipping a delivery if they’re going out of town
The right subscription management platform can empower you to offer this type of flexibility to your customers. While subscribers may still need to contact your Support team for specific issues, investing in your subscription management can make it significantly easier for them to make most changes. This reduces churn, increases customer satisfaction, and cuts back on Support tickets for your team.
Regardless of your flexible options, you can learn much about your customers by tracking their frequent changes. By measuring this over time, you can hone your approaches to product development and marketing to increase sales and retain your customers better.
2. Boost retention with a personalized customer portal
As the home base where your subscribers go to manage their orders with you, the customer portal is a critical element of your site. This is where they’ll go to make changes to their orders with you, as described above—but it’s also where they may regularly engage with your brand, especially since their charges with you naturally recur.
Therefore, optimizing the customer portal, not only in its functionalities but also in your communication and branding, is crucial. Ensure that this page of your site looks and feels consistent with your brand identity to make the most of it as a significant customer touchpoint. Include personalized communication elements, like greeting your customer by name.
If your coffee subscription program has a loyalty program, this is an excellent place to showcase it. Here, you can show subscribers how many points they’ve accumulated, any rewards they can choose, or any other elements pertinent to your program.
3. Increase AOV & customer satisfaction with bundles
Product bundles are a natural fit for coffee subscription companies. These can take the form of build-a-box bundles, where the customer selects the items they want to go in their bundle, or curated bundles, where the merchant organizes the items in the bundle around a specific theme.
For example, several coffee subscription providers offer curated bundles of their bestselling coffee bean bags. Some may sell curated bundles focused on the style or roast of the coffee beans. They might also provide build-a-box bundles where a customer adds three different flavors or types of coffee to their box for a set price and then selects the frequency and quantity of each delivery.
Bundles can be offered either as subscription offerings, one-time purchases, or both. Some coffee subscription services may even provide a combination of the two.
One popular type of curated bundle to offer is a variety pack, which customers may be interested in trying as a one-time purchase to determine which types of coffee they like the best before committing to a subscription.
Depending on your product bundling solution, you can bundle products directly within your existing subscription platform and add discounts and other adjustments to your bundles.
When created effectively, bundles don’t just increase AOV. They can also enhance trust in your business, boost brand loyalty, and streamline your internal processes.
Going above & beyond with tea & coffee subscriptions
Subscriptions are a robust business model for coffee enthusiasts and coffee roasters. As home-based coffee consumption continues to gain momentum, merchants must invest in the proper tools and tactics to set them up for success.
By carefully researching the market, implementing these tea and coffee marketing strategies, and tracking the results over time, merchants pave the way for increased AOV, retention, customer satisfaction, and reduced churn.