Last week our team joined SUBTA (Subscription Trade Association) in New Orleans for their 2nd annual Subscription Summit, the largest event dedicated to the subscription industry.
Subscription merchants are a valuable partner for Refersion. We also partnered with some of the most popular recurring billing and subscription technology providers. SubSummit is a great event to meet some of these merchants and technology partners in person, and make new connections within the industry.
In case you haven’t noticed, the subscription business is booming! If you can think of it, there’s probably a monthly subscription box for it (and an influencer waiting to tell people about it). Subscription boxes have really grown in popularity in the past few years with breakouts including Birchbox, Dollar Shave Club, and Blue Apron — all of whom attended SubSummit. This year there were about 1,200 of subscription merchants converging in New Orleans to learn from each other.
This three-day event was packed full of speakers and had informative sessions for new and experienced merchants alike. Sessions included everything from “Retention Marketing 101” to “The Virtue of Pissing People Off,” offering attendees plenty of new ideas to take back to their teams.
One noteworthy session included a panel discussion on how hard it should be for a customer to cancel their subscription. In this session, KitNipBox co-founder Jordan Salvit, Succulent Studios founder Melissa Murphy, and The Gentleman’s Box co-founder John Haji advised on how to approach cancellation and what methods worked for them.
Rene Villegas of Amazon Subscription Boxes and Christopher George of SUBTA discussed Amazon’s success with subscription boxes and how you can learn from them.
And Joe McCarthy of Klaviyo shared expert tips on how to accelerate growth and reduce customer churn. Attendees learned about everything from data collection, analytics to automation, and content strategies.
After the first day was over we walked over to the Bombay Club in the French Quarter with a few of our partners for dinner, drinks, and live music. It was great spending time with the people we work with at Gorgias, Octane Al, Klickly, Klaviyo, Bold Commerce, Sublytics, and Prodege. SubSummit is fun!
Each day there was plenty of time for networking and exploring the exhibit hall, which was full of companies offering all types of services to support the subscription business.
USPS and FedEx even offered custom designed boxes for your subscription.
On the third and final day of the conference, Bulu, Crayola, Miracle-Gro, and Clorox took the stage and gave the keynote panel titled “Big Brands Build Boxes”. Attendees heard about how these companies are using subscription boxes as a marketing tool — and what their results have been so far.
And BattlBox cleaned house at the Cube Awards!
If you’re a subscription merchant — or you work with them — this is a beneficial event to attend. The dozens of sessions and expansive networking opportunities made it worth it.
And if you are looking for help with your influencer or affiliate program, contact us today to learn how Refersion can help you manage, track, and grow your network.
