How SmartyPants reached 130% of its recurring revenue goal with Ordergroove and Shopify

SmartyPants had national retail distribution, a loyal customer base, and a DTC channel ready to grow — but earlier subscription efforts had fallen short.

Two years earlier, SmartyPants shut down its first DTC subscription offering after poor performance across the board. It delivered a poor customer experience, became operationally heavy to manage, and proved difficult to justify as a scalable business lever.

“We wanted to be a subscription-first company, mainly because vitamins work better if you take them every day,” said Tina Persky, Ecommerce Manager at SmartyPants.

The opportunity was clear, but the original setup hadn’t translated that into an operationally sustainable model. The team needed an enterprise‑ready foundation that reduced day‑to‑day overhead and could support the brand at scale without recreating the same operational drag.

SmartyPants chose Ordergroove and relaunched subscriptions on Shopify with a clearer on-site offer, stronger retention touchpoints, and more flexible subscriber management.

The relaunch turned subscriptions from an operational burden into a performance driver. Since launch, SmartyPants has seen:

• 130% of its 2025 recurring revenue goal
• 57% of checkouts come from subscribers
• 75% first-order retention rate, 33% above the vitamin category benchmark
• 33% increase in average order value

Why SmartyPants chose Ordergroove

The decision to partner with Ordergroove was reinforced by a direct recommendation from OLLY, a sister brand within Unilever’s wellness portfolio and an existing Ordergroove customer that had already increased its subscriber base by 73% in 12 months.

“OLLY spoke really highly of Ordergroove, in terms of both the capabilities and the hands-on service,” Tina said. That internal endorsement gave SmartyPants confidence that Ordergroove could deliver at the operational level and not just in a sales conversation.

Ordergroove’s native Shopify integration complemented SmartyPants’ existing tech stack and reduced the need for developer resources, enabling a faster, more efficient launch. For a brand that had already been burned by the operational burden of running subscriptions in-house, the ease of use mattered.

But the ongoing partnership proved just as important as the technology.

“Constant suggestions from Ordergroove on new and different ways to impact the business has been one of the biggest benefits we’ve seen,” Tina said. For a lean team of two, managing a full DTC relaunch, having a proactive strategic partner made the difference between a working subscription experience and a high-performing one.

What SmartyPants rebuilt and how Ordergroove made it possible

With the right foundation in place, SmartyPants strengthened the subscription experience across three key areas: conversion at the point of purchase, retention through lifecycle messaging, and order value through tiered incentives.

How PDP clarity improved subscription enrollment

The first change was on the product detail page. SmartyPants made subscriptions the default option and redesigned the layout so the value of subscribing was clear at a glance, replacing vague “auto-ship” language with a direct subscribe-and-save value proposition.

The team used Ordergroove’s enrollment tools to make subscriptions the most compelling option on the PDP, giving the offer stronger visibility and making the value clear from the start.

“We want our customers to get the best deal. So, showcasing the subscription and the discount clearly is a win for the customer and a win for us,” Tina said.

That clarity turned the PDP into a stronger acquisition point for higher-value customers. Today, 57% of SmartyPants checkouts come from subscribers, a checkout mix that reflects how well the subscription offer is landing and that the brand is on the right path toward becoming subscription-first.

How lifecycle messaging became a retention lever

SmartyPants used Ordergroove’s native Klaviyo integration to activate one-click delay and reactivation directly inside subscriber emails, turning lifecycle messages into retention touchpoints rather than simple reminders.

Instead of sending subscribers back to their accounts to manage upcoming orders, SmartyPants made key actions available directly in email, reducing the steps customers needed to take to adjust their upcoming orders.

“Our subscription reminder email drives a lot of revenue for us, which surprised me,” Tina said. “Emails have been a big way for us to push the idea of subscriptions.”

Paired with Ordergroove’s cancel flows and the self-service tooling in Subscription Manager 2.0, which lets customers delay, swap, or reactivate orders without contacting support, SmartyPants removed the friction that had contributed to churn in its previous program.

Rolling out each capability was straightforward for the team. “The cancel flows, the one-click actions, it’s all been super easy,” Tina said, noting that the reference documents and instructions were navigable without developer support.

The result: 75% of subscribers reach a first recurring order, a cohort retention rate that significantly outpaces the vitamin category benchmark.

How tiered incentives lifted AOV by 33%

To improve both conversion quality and basket size, SmartyPants introduced a tiered Buy More, Save More model through Ordergroove’s Flex Incentives. The tiered structure gave subscribers a stronger reason to commit to larger supply quantities, and the Flex Incentives engine handled the discount logic dynamically, so the team didn’t have to build or maintain custom pricing rules.

“We were really shocked to see that the majority of our customers weren’t just purchasing the one-month subscription. They were purchasing two- or three-month subscriptions because of the better value,” Tina said.

That translated directly into a 33% increase in average order value and improved the economics behind each subscriber by shifting demand toward multi-month subscriptions, reducing order frequency while increasing value per shipment.

The result: a subscriber experience built to scale

The team rebuilt the full subscription journey so each piece worked harder: the PDP improved enrollment, lifecycle messaging reinforced value after purchase, and tiered incentives increased order value. Self-service account management and churn-reduction tools reduced friction for both customers and the internal team, making the experience easier to scale without adding headcount.

Within months of the relaunch, SmartyPants had already surpassed its full-year 2025 recurring revenue target and ended the year 130% above goal. That milestone validated both the business case for re-entering subscriptions and the pace of the rollout.

More importantly, the relaunch moved SmartyPants’ DTC business beyond transactional subscribe-and-save toward a relationship-based model built to grow alongside the nationally recognized vitamins brand.

What’s next

SmartyPants is now layering loyalty economics on top of its subscription model through Smarty Perks, a LoyaltyLion-powered initiative that rewards subscribers for staying enrolled. By tying loyalty points to subscription behavior, SmartyPants is adding another reason for subscribers to stay and turning retention into something customers actively want to participate in.

It’s the next phase of what the team is building: a DTC subscription model that reinforces value over time through loyalty, flexibility, and a better ongoing experience.