Subscription preselected on product page: +50% subscription rate
Test run byBlend CommerceCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsPreselecting the subscription option on Jackson's product pages lifted the subscription rate by 50%.
Blend Commerce ran this A/B test for the snack brand as part of a six-month CRO programme.
Add-to-cart rate rose 23% and average order value 10%, and new visitors converted 16% better.
- Subscription rate: +50%, the main goal of the test.
- Add-to-cart rate: +23% across all visitors.
- Average order value: +10%.
- New visitors: +16% conversion rate and +33% average purchase revenue per user.
The change
The purchase widget opens with subscription selected instead of one-time.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The product page loaded with one-time purchase selected. Shoppers had to pick the subscription option themselves.
Variant
The subscription option was selected by default when the page loaded. Shoppers could still switch to a one-time purchase.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Defaults are sticky. Many shoppers keep whatever option is already chosen.
- Earlier work had already put the subscription savings and discounted price inside the widget, so the default showed a lower price on load.
- A lower price shown at first glance may have made adding to cart feel easier, which fits the add-to-cart lift.
Caveats: Sample size, test length and statistical confidence were not shared. Subscription churn after the test was not reported, so the long-term value of these extra subscribers is unknown.
Who ran it
Blend Commerce ran this test for Jackson's and published the results (Blend Commerce case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Blend Commerce →
How to run this test on your store
- Hypothesis
- If we preselect the subscription option on product pages, then subscription rate will rise without hurting conversion because many shoppers keep the default and see the lower subscriber price first.
- Primary metric
- Subscription rate
- Guardrails
- Conversion rate
- Subscription cancellations in the first 90 days
- Refund and complaint rate
- Who should test it
- Brands selling consumables people reorder, such as snacks, coffee or supplements, with a clear subscriber discount. Skip it for one-off or infrequent purchases, where a preselected subscription can feel like a trick and drive cancellations.
Questions
Should subscribe and save be the default option?
In this test it lifted subscriptions by 50% and add-to-cart by 23%.
It works best when the subscriber discount is clear and switching back to one-time is easy.
Will a preselected subscription increase churn?
It can, because some buyers subscribe without meaning to.
Track cancellations in the first few months, not just sign-ups.
Is preselecting a subscription legal?
Rules vary by country, and some places require clear consent for recurring charges.
Make the recurring terms obvious and check local rules before you test.
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