Dose #148: Better Tech, Better Subscriptions

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

I’ve seen it over and over - the strongest lever for retention is how you acquire a subscriber. In this week’s dose, we dive into how deep discounts attract the wrong kind of subscriber, the power of bulk subscriptions, and making offers for the right subscriber.

This week’s dose is an interview with Wes Buchwalter, the founder of Seamonster Studies. Listen to our incredible discussion on tech, branding, and ecommerce on YouTube, Apple Podcast, or Spotify:

Landing Page Template Designed for Subscriptions

Many of our clients use Replo to scale up their offer testing.

You can quickly iterate through different tests and options without completely overhauling the design of your site.

The Replo team created a custom template just for me that incorporates all of our learnings on what will drive higher conversions, higher AOV, and better retention with bulk subscription options.

This is what it looks like:

Easy to swap out content and immediately start improving how you offer subscriptions! You can use the template through Replo and immediately start offering those bulk options I keep talking about.

🧭 Better Tech, Better Subscriptions
Why the right platform, data clarity, and customer flows can make or break your subscription business

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about how we build — and more importantly, rebuild — the systems that support our subscription programs. Whether you're on Shopify Plus, on WooCommerce, or flirting with a custom build, one thing I’ve learned over the years is this:

👉 Tech decisions are retention decisions.

I want to walk through three ideas I keep coming back to when helping brands build smarter, more scalable subscription programs. These aren’t sexy hacks, but they’re real levers — the kind that separates the brands with churn headaches from the ones quietly stacking LTV like pros.

1. Spend Less Time Customizing

One of the biggest arguments against Shopify is the limitations around customizations. On top of that, brands are constantly looking for apps to be configured to fit into their workflows and particular ways of doing things.

In my experience, however, Shopify continues to grow and dominate e-commerce because of the guardrails they place around you. The platform is more stable, apps are easier to integrate (and build), and partners (like agencies) are more effective with their expertise.

The irony is that, in most instances, those little quirks for your business are not significant revenue drivers. They end up costing you more time and money in the long run. Brands that constantly fight fires because something stopped working can’t focus on growth.

If you regularly wonder how to make something work with how you do it, you may find yourself in this trap. Break out of it and embrace the guardrails to focus on what’s making you money - product, positioning, and people.

2. Centralizing your data is a growth unlock, not a cost center

Too many brands still treat data infrastructure as a nice-to-have. The reality? Most of your biggest levers for improving subscriber LTV are hiding in plain sight — but you’ll only see them if your data is centralized and accessible.

We’ve had clients where the simple act of pulling data into a single dashboard unlocked retention wins overnight. One brand caught a churn spike tied to a specific cancellation reason, updated their exit flow in a few hours, and stopped the bleeding. Those things can go unnoticed for too long without clean data.

If your idea of reporting still involves digging through pivot tables across five platforms, you’re not ready to optimize. You’re still just trying to keep up.

Furthermore, data doesn’t need to be perfect to be effective. You need to know what’s going on to make decisions, but that’s it.

3. Post-purchase experience is where your subscription margin is won (or lost)

There’s so much talk about AOV and CAC at the point of purchase — but your margins are built after the sale.

This is where most brands fall short. They forget that keeping a subscriber costs less than acquiring one. So they build beautiful landing pages and clever bundles… and then send a transactional order confirmation and hope for the best.

Your tech stack should support:

• Letting subscribers self-manage — push them to skip, delay, or swap instead of canceling.

• Using SMS where appropriate — it’s faster, more personal, and actually gets opened.

• Offering cash-back credits instead of confusing loyalty programs — it’s simple, intuitive, and builds stickiness.

• Don’t just send “reminder” emails — use that moment to re-sell the value and offer options.

If you approach every touch point after the point of purchase as an opportunity to keep winning that customer, you’ll be more successful. The best part is that you don’t have to work on these things constantly; they can be built and optimized monthly or quarterly.

Tech that doesn’t support and enhance the subscriber experience, it’s probably not a tool you need to keep around.

The bottom line: smarter infrastructure leads to stronger retention

You don’t need to rebuild your site from scratch. But you do need to think about whether your current stack, your data practices, and your post-purchase experience are actually supporting your growth goals.

Good tech doesn’t just make things work. It makes it easier to do the right things.

So take a moment this week — not to launch a new feature — but to ask whether the systems you’re running are built for what’s next.

That’s it for this week’s dose.

Until next Tuesday, that’s your Subscription Prescription. 💊

 - Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc