5 ways to play the holidays exactly correctly to power subscription & retention all year long.
Bonjour Millionaire,
Black Friday is November 28th.
Cyber Monday is December 1st.
But, 2025 doesn’t end until December 31st. And these dates are starting whistles, not finish lines.
Since I know we are ALL preparing for holiday peak season, today’s newsletter is about what happens AFTER BFCM.
Now, we know to treat this time like its OWN quarter. Call it holiday peak, call it “Q5”: the point is, it’s the most important 3.5 weeks of the year in ecom.
We all know this, and yet – I notice we aren’t setting ourselves up for recurring success the way we should.
On repeat.
Q5 is NOT the time to close your laptop, sip eggnog, and forget your troubles work.
Q5 is the time to DOUBLE-DOWN on retention, so holiday shoppers become subscribers and loyal customers. While sipping eggnog.
If you coast through Q5 on all the prep you’ve done (congratulations in advance), you’ll spend Q1 REacquiring the same shoppers you just paid a holiday-season premium to acquire.
But, execute correctly, and you’ll turn them into subscribers. That means bigger baskets, higher LTV, and a forecast that doesn’t give everyone heartburn.
I’m going to show you how to pull it off.
But full disclosure, I’m also going to do what I’ve done since literally 2017: use Recharge. My yearlong retention MVP is extra powerful and even more essential in Q5 (you’ll see).
—By the way, if you want to hear straight from brands already crushing this: Recharge is doing a subscription-focused roundtable on how to turn BFCM into year-long results on October 8th at 1pm ET. Brands that like to win will be taking notes. Brands ALREADY winning, like Oats Overnight & Carpe, will be sharing their secrets.
Register here, & keep reading for common subscription fumbles, and quick-win tactics you should start using now, and take into Q5 & beyond.
That’s a W for LTV. You down with LTV? YEAH YOU KNOW ME
A LOT OF BRANDS DROP THE BALL IN Q5.
Every holiday season, new, discount-driven shoppers flock to your site, ready to spend. The traffic AND the intent is high, and it doesn’t end on Black Friday.
If you’re not converting these newbies into subscribers, you’re dropping the ball (and sending your CACs through the roof, since these are typically very expensive acquisitions).
And, if you’re not keeping these subscribers, you’re passing the ball to your competitors. Or getting it swiped out from under you.
TLDR: Q5 is your make or break. Your job is simple:
- Convert these 1-time buyers → subscribers.
- Stop them from churning.
- Clock their data to set up Q1.
Recharge goes into overtime helping us turn what could be a 1-time customer—a holiday fling, if you will—into a subscriber.
Once the customer and your brand have taken things to the next level, Recharge keeps the subscription romance alive.
Let’s tackle it together:
5 THINGS NOT TO DO IN Q5 (AND WHAT TO DO INSTEAD)
❌ FUMBLE: Benching subscriptions and chasing 1-off purchases from new customers.
🏈 TOUCHDOWN: Putting subscriptions in the starting lineup.
Single sales during BFCM are cool, but have you ever made a recurring sale, indefinitely, via subscription?
Most shoppers will never notice your subscription option unless you put it on the field.
My 2 must-have spots to feature:
📣: On the PDP, with bold perks.
📣: A 1-click upgrade at checkout.
Test your upgrade placements now, so they’ll be game-ready by Q5. They are, frankly, effortless to customize, set up, & A/B test using Recharge.
Proof: Tools like Recharge’s subscription widget + Checkout Upsell gave Puracy a 102% lift in subscription CVR. Score.
❌ FUMBLE: Sidelining your current subscribers.
🏈 TOUCHDOWN: Rewarding loyal customers consistently, so they just can’t quit you.
Brands spend so much energy ($$$) courting new customers that they sometimes take their day-1s for granted.
BIG mistake.
Your loyal subscribers still want deals. They’ve EARNED them. And it’s much cheaper to get your existing customers than to go find new ones.
With Recharge, you can give your best offers to your best customers. Early access, exclusives, bigger credits, etc.
And, you can show appreciation for subscribers all year long with mix and match rewards and incentives, like bonus periods, referrals, and the cutest digital punch cards.
Because one-size-fits-all is NOT for the big leagues. And we do not treat our MVPs like the second-string.
They must be surprised and delighted at every turn. And, don’t forget to remind them how often they are saving because they’re your subscriber.
I personally love Recharge’s credits-over-points approach to loyalty, because the value is more tangible and integrated in the consumer journey. Who really wants to do MATH when online shopping, anyway?
Maybe I only needed one thing, but now that I have a credit waiting for me, I’m adding to cart so fast you’ll need instant replay.
❌ FUMBLE: Punting on AOV.
🏈 TOUCHDOWN: Running up the score with a cross-sell strategy.
Your hero SKU’s the quarterback, but “Shop All” is a team sport.
Every product’s got a position to play. You just need to know where to put them on the field – and don’t do deep discounts without a plan for cross-selling.
Recharge has cross-selling on lock with insights-driven checkout and post-purchase cross-sells that recommend complementary products at the PERFECT moment.
Plus, flexible bundling makes it easy to create curated bundles without SKU bloat. AOV 📈📈📈
For example, Oats Overnight combined Recharge’s dynamically-priced bundles features with subscriber discounts and saw a 152% increase in recurring orders! BOOM!
❌ FUMBLE: Accepting churn as inevitable.
🏈 TOUCHDOWN: Pulling out all the stops to keep ‘em happy.
Did you know 70% of churn happens by the 3rd order?
You need to FIGHT for possession in the delicate time between orders 2 & 3.
This might look like:
📣: Smart retries for failed payments.
📣: Multiple save offers instead of 1 so-so discount.
📣: Doing ^^ & more with concierge-level SMS.
I do all of the above with Recharge. They win in my tech stack because they are always on defense, whether it’s through failed payment recovery or delivering VIP service and fighting friction with SMS Concierge.
When subscribers even consider wandering off the field, Recharge changes their minds with dynamic cancellation offers that flex based on subscriber behavior, traits, and shopping history. Smart.
And, let’s say a subscriber does churn. Recharge has winbacks that actually work.
Kollo Health saved 65% more cancellations with Recharge. LFG!
Think: password-free activation and built-in drip campaigns that make it easy for brands AND subscribers to get back together.
Love this for us! DE 👏 FENSE 👏
Q5 DATA → YOUR 2026 PLAYBOOK
Reminder: holiday peak isn’t just about squeezing every drop out of the last 3-4 weeks of the year. It’s you getting the film you’re going to study all year.
Recharge captures all your subscription data, ready to slice & dice. The churn drivers, the offers that converted, the placements with the most juice, even cohort analytics.
With Recharge, there are so many ways to score subscribers and increase AOV and LTV. And through every play, you’re gathering data to inform your next strategy.
So it’s not just about immediate revenue – though you’ll definitely see immediate revenue.
With Recharge you’re playing the long game… and WINNING. Because championships are won in the off-season.
YOUR NEXT PLAY
IF YOU LIKE $$$, HUDDLE UP!
Consider this a pep talk from Coach Ari. (All these football references have me fighting for my life. We’re almost through. Stay with me. Go Bearcats.)
Ahem.
You’ve been working on your BCFM strategy for months now.
This is the most traffic your brand will get all year.
DO NOT SELL YOURSELF (OR YOUR BRAND) SHORT!
I want you to get in there, register for Recharge’s BFCM webinar on October 8, and hustle. Hustle like Thrive, Oats Overnight, Vital Proteins, Dr. Squatch, and the rest of the D1 roster.
Remember: every new holiday shopper is a subscriber you haven’t converted… YET.
Every existing subscriber is a gift you’ve got to keep earning. RIGHT NOW.
Clear eyes, Recharge, can’t lose.
Yours in LTV,
Ari
