Dollar Shave Club shifts from proprietary subscription platform
Dollar Shave Club is migrating its subscription technology from an in-house-developed solution to a third-party provider.
The digitally native, direct-to-consumer (DTC) razor delivery subscription service known for its irreverent brand positioning and viral YouTube videos is adopting the Ordergroove subscription management platform in partnership with Shopify Plus.
By partnering with Ordergroove, Dollar Shave Club is shifting away from building and maintaining its own subscription management capabilities to developing personalized customer experiences through Ordergroove. The retailer will manage one-off, non-subscription purchases utilizing the Shopify Plus enterprise e-commerce platform.
“There is no one better equipped to handle Dollar Shave Club’s scale, depth, and innovation than Ordergroove,” said Ranil Wiratunga, chief digital officer & Global GM of DTC at Dollar Shave Club. “As a subscription-first brand, our mission is to deliver exceptional consumer experiences that help men and women take better care of their bodies so they can be their best selves. To deliver on that promise, we partnered with the most powerful and flexible subscription platform out there.”
According to Dollar Shave Club, it selected Ordergroove to manage its subscriptions because of platform capabilities such as a flexible incentive framework that makes it easier to test and optimize promotions to maximize performance.
The retailer also leverages Ordergroove’s application programming interfaces (APIs) that support customization, and found that the platform can migrate and
support the size of its subscriber base, order volume, and operational scale.
“Dollar Shave Club is the godfather of DTC subscriptions,” said Greg Alvo, CEO and founder of Ordergroove. “From amazing razors to captivating content, Dollar Shave Club understands that delivering an exceptional subscriber experience is key to fostering long-term brand loyalty. Its decision to partner with Ordergroove shows their commitment to their customers, and we’re thrilled to help them redefine the subscription space once again.”
Subscription retail had a healthy year
Subscription retailers grew their overall customer base by an average of 31% year-over-year, according to an analysis of more 12,000 subscription retailers and more than 25 million subscription customers during 2021 (the last full-year data set) from subscription payment solution provider Recharge.
This overall growth figure included 25% year-over-year growth in the beauty and healthcare segment. Across all subscription retailer cohorts analyzed by Recharge, consumers purchased 28 million one-time products, skipped a shipment over 12 million times, and swapped products over 7 million times. The most engaged customers took those actions on average three times throughout the course of the year.
Founded in 2011 as a DTC startup, Dollar Shave Club was purchased by Unilever in 2016.