OLLY grew their subscribers base by 73% in 12 months thanks to Ordergroove

OLLY – a six-year-old, break-out vitamin brand with legions of Millennial fans – is known for their brightly colored gummies, eye-catching packaging, and their mission to inspire lifelong healthy habits.

Brick-and-mortar stores, most notably Target, launched OLLY into the public eye. But like many other brands, the pandemic spurred them to ramp up their direct-to-consumer (DTC) eCommerce game. When consumers began returning to stores post-pandemic, OLLY continued investing in their online shopping experience to shore up the relationships they had built there.

Why keep investing in DTC? Because it gave OLLY better access to customer information, which led to more personalized experiences. For instance, customers with gut health issues could receive personalized content and offers that addressed their specific needs. The payoff was higher customer lifetime value (LTV) and better margins.

Subscriptions made up the core of OLLY’s eCommerce investments, especially since most vitamin-taking consumers pop a supplement on a daily basis. But when their initial subscription provider failed to deliver the convenience and exceptional experiences their customers craved, OLLY knew they had to look elsewhere.

Creating a ‘next-level relationship’ with customers

OLLY’s initial subscription experience only offered quarterly shipments, a rigid requirement that didn’t give customers the flexibility they desired. This “one-size-fits-all” subscription approach didn’t improve customer retention and LTV the way OLLY had expected.

“We learned pretty quickly that not all customers were ready to commit to a quarterly subscription. The higher cost was one issue. But customers also wanted more flexibility. We wanted to put the power back in the customers’ hands,” OLLY’s DTC Manager Jennifer Peters said.

This power meant giving customers more control over their subscriptions. OLLY wanted to offer customers the flexibility to skip a shipment if they had too much product. They also didn’t want to make customers cancel their subscriptions and re-enroll if they wanted to switch products.

The desire to give subscribers more control finally pushed OLLY to migrate to a new subscription platform. They turned to Ordergroove to give subscribers the control they wanted – a critical feature for building strong relationships over time.

Giving customers maximum control over orders

OLLY quickly found that Ordergroove checked all the boxes: customer control, seamless enrollment, and customizable value-adds for subscribers.

First, OLLY implemented Ordergroove’s Subscription Management Interface to give each subscriber a dedicated place to manage and adjust their subscriptions. Here, customers can pause or skip an order or easily add a new product to try.

Ordergroove’s Subscription Management Interface gave control back to OLLY’s subscribers and reduced the burden on OLLY’s small team. “Thanks to Ordergroove, we’ve drastically reduced the number of support calls from subscribers,” Peters said. And with Ordergroove’s robust analytics dashboard, OLLY was able to see how these enhancements impacted retention, among other metrics.

Then there was the goal of growing subscriber enrollment by turning more one-off customers into subscribers. OLLY rarely discounts their vitamins, so when they decided to give subscribers 15% off, they wanted this benefit to stand out.

With Ordergroove’s Price Transparency feature, OLLY’s customers can see how much they’ll save by enrolling in subscriptions compared to a one-time purchase, and they can easily set their shipping cadence with one click.

Peters was happy to make 15% off an acquisition tool. “Given how high customer acquisition costs are,” she said, “15% off is a small investment to grow more high-value customers.”

Ordergroove also enhances OLLY’s enrollment experience with an integrated checkout. The vitamin brand’s subscribers were no longer forced to switch from OLLY’s eCommerce platform to a separate subscription platform to pay. This feature spared OLLY customers from a disjointed experience that led to enrollment abandonment.

Driving LTV with better customer relationships

After a year of working with Ordergroove, Peters is convinced that “subscriptions drive the top metrics that matter to a business.”

Subscriptions, after all, are investments in better relationships for your best customers. In OLLY’s case, The ROI of this investment means higher customer spend over an extended period, resulting in a 3.5x lift in LTV. Moreover, their subscriber base is flourishing and has grown by 73%, with subscription orders increasing by 108% in only a year. No wonder subscriptions now account for 35% of OLLY’s entire business!

For OLLY, all this growth started with giving customers more control over their health and well-being. And that continues, thanks to a flexible subscription platform that puts customers in the driver’s seat.