Loyalty that keeps subscribers through their next order
Background
At Recharge, we’re always exploring ways to help merchants succeed. Preventing their most valuable customers (subscribers) from churning is a constant challenge.
So we asked: How might we give merchants the tools to retain subscribers through their next order?
Opportunity and goal
Recharge's existing loyalty offering was an early MVP, limited, rigid, and not driving real impact on retention or LTV. To fix this, we rebuilt Recharge Loyalty as a flexible offering designed to retain subscribers and convert one-time buyers.
Our goal: Reach 12% merchant adoption, 3 months post general release. The prior MVP sat at 8% adoption.
Challenges with existing tools
Insights discovered from 50+ merchant interactions via events, check-ins, and sales calls
Existing tools didn’t offer enough customization:
Merchants had limited flexibility in configuring reward incentives, creating an inability to tailor experiences for different customer needs
Lack of emphasis on acquiring new, and retaining current subscribers:
No targeted incentives to convert one-time buyers into subscribers.
Few offerings to engage or retain active subscribers.
What I delivered
Driving engagement through instant rewards
I designed a new credit account page that gives merchants a clear financial overview of issued credits. Each credit assignment is logged with key details, such as type (Manual, Referral, Reward, or Gift), expiration date, and remaining balance.
To boost engagement and prevent credit hoarding, I designed an interaction that allows customers to automatically apply credits to their next order, making the reward feel instant and valuable, rather than allowing them to pile up and lose impact over time.
Experiences specifically designed to increase loyalty
Continued engagement around a customer's subscription, increases the likelihood of them staying subscribed through to their next order. To facilitate this engagement, I designed experiences that merchants can set up to highlight the benefits of staying subscribed. These included showcasing upcoming rewards, availing free gifts, or new discounts.
The experiences are set up using flows, and can be customized to trigger at any time of a subscriber's journey.
Reduce churn with unused rewards
I addressed the challenge of reducing subscription cancellations by leveraging unused rewards and crafted an experience that encourages customers to redeem rewards when considering cancellation. This experience increased subscription retention and turned potential churn into rewards engagement.
In one use case, this feature prevented over 150+ customers from churning by incentivizing them to apply credits and retain their subscriptions, in a span of 3 months.
A holistic rewards experience
One-size-fits-all rewards experiences don’t hit the mark. To fix this, I designed templates that let merchants pick whatever experience works best for their customers.
Merchants can create tiered rewards, milestone-based rewards, rewards on one-time purchase, among others, supporting nearly any loyalty strategy.
Over 1 million customers rewarded!
Where we’re at currently
Eight months since general release, adoption reached 35%, 3x our 12% goal. And 48% of subscribers now stay through their third order, a new high.
The typical subscription retention rate in e-commerce is around 31% [Source: Shopify's annual commerce reports, Gorgias report].
Our ongoing goal: Increase adoption to 50%.
Let's collaborate
Got something cooking? Whether it’s just a sketch or fully scoped, I’m happy to help.
Shoot me a note: zaidalirasool@gmail.com
Zaidali Rasool, Rhizhome (C) 2026