The email subscription brands hesitate to send

Almost every subscription brand I work with talks about churn first. Acquisition is expensive, and each subscriber who leaves takes that investment with them.

One of the most common hesitations I hear is about the upcoming order notification - the message telling someone their next order is about to be processed. Brands that are newer to subscription are often reluctant to launch it, because if you remind people a charge is coming, some of them will cancel.

And some will. I won’t pretend otherwise.

Consider the alternative. A customer gets charged for something they’d forgotten about, meant to pause or no longer need. Most will cancel afterwards anyway, but now they also ask for a refund, contact support, or dispute the charge with their bank. They leave with a negative experience and may even leave a negative review about it.

They will most likely cancel afterwards anyway. The difference is that they now leave with a poor impression of the brand, and they are unlikely to come back. You have kept one order but lost the customer.

I see the upcoming order notification as a trust exercise. It tells the customer that the brand isn’t relying on them forgetting. A subscriber who stays knowing what is coming is far more likely to stick around than one who stays by accident.

Having built a subscription service from the ground up in-house, mostly from the CRM side (we were a team, but I managed CRM and also dipped into the CRO set-up and customer service), I know how tempting it is to hold back anything that might prompt a cancellation. But a subscription only works long-term if customers feel in control of it.

The notification doesn’t have to be a bare reminder. Done well, it’s one of the most useful emails in the programme. We often see customers use it to add extras to their order or upgrade to a bigger bundle, so it can grow order value as well as protect it.

Frame it as something to look forward to. Keep the tone exciting: show what’s in their next box, remind them of their perks and suggest add-ons that pair with what they already get, or a bundle that suits them better.

Give the customer control. Let them swap a product, change a date or add something to the order. Interactive email, like Zaymo, now allows customers to do this from their inbox without visiting the site. A customer who can easily swap or skip is far less likely to cancel outright.

Use loyalty where it exists. If the brand has a tiered programme, remind subscribers of their tier and what they have built up. This is cancellation prevention without pressure.

Test the timing and the message. How far in advance to send, what to lead with and how much to include will differ from brand to brand. The numbers will tell you what works for your subscribers.

Cancellations will go up a bit, especially in the first few weeks after launch. That isn’t the number to judge it on. Compare retention and revenue for the cohort over 60 to 90 days against a holdout or your pre-launch baseline. You’ll usually see skips rise and some cancellations arrive earlier than they otherwise would. What matters is whether net retained revenue holds.

When a reminder prompts a cancellation, it usually tells you who was already on their way out. Those who remain have chosen to, and that’s a far stronger foundation than a customer who simply forgot to leave.