Skylight · B2C · digital family calendars and frames
Change how you show what's in the subscription bundle
Rarely moved the share of buyers who subscribe
No effectpaywallexperimentation
What they did
Tried several changes to how the Plus bundle's contents are merchandised to buyers at purchase/setup.
What happened
Changes 'often don't change the attach rate ... very much'; buyers who are excited about the product take the whole bundle.
“we have tried changing the merchandising of how do we show what is in the bundle to users. And those changes often don't change the attach rate, what we call the attach rate, what percent are subscribing, very much.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Skylight: Raise the yearly plan from $39 to $79, not the $99 tests favoredMinimal loss of subscribers or retention; ARR curve 'transformative'; no exact numbers
- Skylight: Keep old customers on the old price, and honor it for anyone who asksGave up an estimated couple million dollars for goodwill; no measured effect
- Skylight: Send the device's QR code to an Apple in-app purchase instead of a web checkoutOver 100% more conversions, on a small slice of users
- Skylight: Knock money off the device when people buy it with the subscriptionMuch higher subscription attach on the own website than on Amazon or in stores; no numbers
- Skylight: Test a free trial, with and without asking for a credit cardNo extra subscribers; trial takers were people who'd have subscribed anyway
- Skylight: Make every first purchase cover what you paid to get the customerEvery order in company history paid back on day zero; grew without VC money
- Skylight: Borrow from risk-tolerant lenders at 15-20% to buy holiday inventory, not raise VCStayed bootstrapped and profitable; paid 15-20% a year at times
- Skylight: Keep what people bought the device for free; charge for new add-ons like meal planningPhotos-on-calendar paywall 'just worked' for years; now some customers want it free
- Skylight: Don't mark which features are premium once someone has subscribedRenewal rates high even for light users of paid features; no numbers
- Skylight: Survey customers on whether the product is life-changing, and build to raise that shareAbout 20% say life-changing today; goal is 50%
- Skylight: Push marketing spend on a new calendar product before the product was goodDidn't work; nearly killed the product; took off only after product fixes in fall 2022
- Skylight: Sell the device everywhere: your own site, Amazon, Costco and Best BuyCalled very successful; retail acts as a quality stamp, but lowers subscription attach