Health supplements subscription case study

Client context

A wellness brand specializing in vitamins and supplements had built a substantial subscription base on a legacy subscription platform. Subscriptions represented 60% of their revenue, making subscriber retention their most critical metric.

However, their current platform had limitations. The customer portal was clunky, leading customers to cancel rather than pause or adjust. Subscription data lived separately from their NetSuite ERP, requiring manual reconciliation for financial reporting. The platform's costs had increased significantly, and integration options were limited.

The brand also offered personalized supplement bundles based on health goals, but the current platform made customization difficult to manage at scale.

The challenge

The migration needed to preserve their subscription base while improving the subscriber experience:

• Migrate existing subscribers without payment interruption or requiring customers to re-enter payment details
• Implement a customer portal that reduced friction for skip, swap and schedule changes
• Integrate subscription data with NetSuite for unified revenue recognition and reporting
• Support personalized bundles with customer-controlled product selection
• Reduce churn through proactive retention features
• Maintain compliance with health and wellness content requirements

Migration risk was significant: any disruption to billing cycles could cause subscriber loss that would take months to recover.

What Starcodia delivered

Starcodia designed a careful migration with subscription experience improvements at its core.

Platform migration. The brand's Shopify store was rebuilt with a focus on subscription conversion and management. Product pages clearly presented subscribe-and-save options alongside one-time purchase. Landing pages for new subscriber acquisition were optimized for conversion.

Recharge implementation. Recharge was configured as the subscription platform, with a custom customer portal that made subscription management intuitive. Subscribers could skip a delivery, swap products, change frequency, pause for vacation, or update payment methods without contacting support.

Subscriber migration. Existing subscribers were migrated from the legacy platform with their billing dates, payment methods (where supported) and subscription history preserved. The migration was phased by billing cohort to manage risk and allow monitoring.

Personalized bundles. For the brand's personalized supplement bundles, a custom flow allowed subscribers to adjust their product selection each cycle within their plan. Changes synced to Recharge and flowed through to fulfillment.

NetSuite integration. NetSuite integration was implemented to include subscription orders alongside one-time purchases. Subscription revenue recognition was configured for accurate MRR reporting and financial consolidation.

Churn reduction. Cancellation flows were redesigned with save offers, pause options and feedback collection. Dunning sequences for failed payments were configured to maximize recovery before involuntary churn.

Results

The migration and platform improvements delivered measurable retention and operational benefits:

• 18% reduction in subscriber churn. Improved customer portal and flexible management options reduced voluntary cancellations significantly.
• Zero billing disruption. Subscriber migration completed without payment failures or customer complaints about interrupted service.
• Unified financial reporting. Subscription and one-time revenue now flows into NetSuite together, eliminating manual reconciliation and improving MRR visibility.
• 12% improvement in failed payment recovery. Better dunning sequences recovered more failed payments before cancellation.
• Reduced support load. Self-service subscription management reduced support tickets related to subscription changes by 40%.
• Platform cost savings. Combined Shopify and Recharge costs were lower than the legacy platform, improving unit economics.

Services and capabilities demonstrated

• Subscriptions and membership
• Shopify migration
• NetSuite integration
• Health and wellness expertise
• Subscription platform migration (Recharge)

Discuss a similar project

If you are migrating a subscription business to Shopify or looking to improve subscriber retention, Starcodia can share more details and discuss how the approach would apply to your situation.