Wednesday was the third and final day of Subscription Show 2021, the best subscription conference in the industry! It has been an amazing week with too many highlights to capture in print, but here are a few key takeaways from Day 3.
Day 3 welcome from Kathy Greenler Sexton
Subscription Insider CEO Kathy Greenler Sexton welcomed everyone to Day 3 of Subscription Show 2021 which featured roundtable discussions; sessions about subscriber data; recurring payment processing; subscription marketing; payment processing; voluntary and involuntary churn; why subscription companies succeed or fail; a Mastercard fireside chat; and a wrap up panel discussion to talk about key conference takeaways and issues.
“I want to thank all of you for attending. Being here and seeing everybody here has been amazing. It’s been invigorating – learning, meeting and seeing old friends and colleagues has been so wonderful,” Kathy said.
Subscription Show keynotes, sessions and briefings
The “unconference”: roundtable discussions hosted by John Sullivan, Partner, Paul Larsen Consulting; Robert Skrob, president, Membership Services, Inc.; and Mark Stiving, Ph.D., Chief Pricing Educator, Impact Pricing. Topics included recurring payment processing optimization; active vs. passive churn; subscriber onboarding; and subscription pricing and packaging
Session: Jesus Luzardo, Head of Growth, Vindicia: “Be Smart: How Subscriber Data Boosts Acquisition, Engagement and Retention”
Session: John Pearce, Senior Director of Product Management, Chargebee: “Grow Confidently with the Right Revenue Infrastrucure”
Session: John Sullivan, Partner, Paul Larsen Consulting; Jim Cho, Executive Director – Business Development, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Kimberly Miller, Senior VP, Payway; Will Lawrence, Director, eCommerce, Worldpay by FIS; and Emily Roccheggiani, SVP, Enterprise Sales, Adyen: “Recurring Payment Processing: Achieving Approvals and More”
Session: Sharon Gross, Director of Client Success, Paul Larsen Consulting; Kimberly Peyton, Vice President, Product Specialist Team Lead, Mastercard; and Neel Master, VP, Head of Tokenization: “Mastercard Fireside Chat”
Session: Sarah McCredie, Integrated Marketing, Recurly: “Subscription Marketing: The Latest on KPI, Trends and Best Practices”
Session: Brendan O’Brien, Chief Innovation Officer, Aria Systems and Errol Glasser, Partner, Triangle Capital LLC: “Transformation: Why Do Only 30% of the Companies That Start Succeed?”
Session: Robert Skrob, President, Membership Services: “How to Build a Cancellation Process that Increases Retention”
Session: Jay Myers, co-founder/VP Growth, Bold Commerce: “Relationship Building: Turning Your Subscribers Into Your Community”
Session: Tony Gaglione, Director – Engineering, AT&T | WarnerMedia: “The Journey to Digital Efficiency”
Session: Darryl Hicks, Founder & CEO, FlexPay: “Optimizing Failed Payment Recovering Using AI and Machine Learning”
Session: John Sullivan, Partner, Paul Larsen Consulting; Geoff Coleman, Chief Product Officer, Gotransverse; Bill Tull, Head of Subscriptions, ACI Worldwide; Dmitriy Yakubov, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Checkout.com; and Brian Reid, Vice President of Sales, Gotransverse: “Subscriptions on a Global Scale”
Session: Robert Skrob, President, Membership Services; Mark Stiving, Ph.D., Chief Pricing Educator, Impact Pricing; ; Jay Myers, Co-Founder/VP Growth, Bold Commerce; Jack Bullock, Chief Revenue Officer, Vindicia: “Wrap-Up Panel Discussion”
Subscription Show extras
- Mobile App
- Meeting Concierge
- Exhibit Hall
- Roundtable Discussions
- Networking Opportunities
- Ability to watch replays and on-demand for any sessions you missed
For other highlights from Subscription Show 2021, check out our Twitter feed and search for our Subscription Show hashtags: #SubscriptionShow2021 #SubShow21 #SubShowNYC
Key takeaways
- When choosing a payments service partner, select a partner that (a) has experience in subscription and recurring payments, (b) has relationships and integrations with the other functions in your tech stack, and (c) has experienced, responsive customer service and technical support to help you quickly and satisfactorily resolve any problems.
- Monitor subscription intelligence to boost acquisition, engagement and retention. If your goal is faster conversions and reduced subscriber fatigue, simplify. Make it easy for consumers to sign up for your service and change payment methods.
- Consumers are more socially and politically conscious than ever. Tie your company values to your internal and external business decisions. It matters to your customers.
- Reduce voluntary churn by creating a thoughtful cancellation experience, including offering the option to pause a subscription. Research shows that 30% of subscribers will resume their subscriptions after pausing.
- Successful subscription brands aren’t just replenishment, curation or access brands. They offer a component from each area, creating a “subscription value stack.”
- Most subscription companies focus their attention on three primary drivers of churn: customer fatigue, competitive loss and customer service issues. However, they don’t always focus enough attention on involuntary churn – failed payments which are the biggest cause of churn, representing up to 48% of all customer churn in North America.
- Failed payments can have an almost emotional impact on a subscriber, turning involuntary churn into voluntary churn.
- There are so many technology, management and billing platforms available. Each company needs to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and identify partners that are the right solution for their business. Bonus tip: Do a regular review of your vendors to be sure they are a good fit for your subscription company as your company evolves.
Thank you to our co-host, sponsors and speakers!
We couldn’t have put on such a great show without the support of our co-host BillingPlatform; Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors; our streaming sponsor; our wireless sponsor; and the Subscription Insider Team, some of whom you got to meet this week and some who were supporting us virtually. Thank you, all! We can’t wait to see you next year. Stay tuned for details!
