Unlock your loyalty potential in 2025
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Bubblehouse is the leading loyalty solution for brands and online stores.
The e-commerce subscription market has grown significantly over the past several years, and 2025 is predicted to continue that upward trajectory. It’s estimated to reach $539 billion this year, up from $326 billion in 2024.
It’s not hard to understand why e-commerce subscriptions are so popular among both shoppers and brands. Customers get convenience and cost savings, while retailers enjoy a retention driver and recurring revenue stream—provided those subscribers don’t churn.
Many brands that offer subscriptions struggle with churn, especially at predictable drop-off points. That’s the bad news. The good news? There’s a solution—offering a subscription milestone-based loyalty program.
Integrating subscriptions and loyalty offers brands a unique way to sustain customer engagement, boost retention, and drive long-term customer value. In this post, we’ll explore why subscription milestones matter, how they impact lifetime value (LTV), and best practices for implementing them effectively.
Subscription milestones combine two strong levers for customer retention—loyalty and subscriptions—into one powerful strategy for increased retention and revenue.
Subscription milestones are loyalty rewards given at key points in a subscriber’s journey, such as the 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month mark. They are designed to reinforce the subscriber’s commitment, and prevent churn before it happens.
Unlike static discounts or points-based rewards, milestones are time-based or triggered rewards. When displayed and highlighted, these rewards approach helps build subscribers' anticipation for upcoming orders and encourages them to think of their membership as a journey, not a transaction.
Effective milestone rewards include the following:
With the proper program structure and rewards, you can build subscription-based loyalty programs that set your brand apart, build deeper connections with your customers, and boost LTV.
Milestones keep subscribers active longer, which translates to more sales over time. But there’s another benefit—longer subscriptions mean more opportunities to upsell through personalized product recommendations and incentives.
Consider the LTV formula:
LTV = Average Order Value x Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan
By implementing milestones, especially during high-risk moments, you combat churn—extending total lifespan and even increasing purchase value through upsell engagements.
Milestones don’t just work on a mathematical level—they work on a psychological one as well. Rewarding subscribers at key touchpoints creates a sense of progress and achievement. This reduces friction when it comes time for the subscriber to make renewal decisions and encourages an emotional attachment to your brand, leading to long-term loyalty.
Ready to build a subscription milestones program that drives LTV? Here’s how to get started.
Do you tend to lose subscribers after the first month, or at the 6-month mark? Dig into your customer data to pinpoint where your most common drop-off points are—you’ll want to implement milestone rewards right before those milestones to reduce churn and encourage retention.
Next, you’ll want to decide on your milestone rewards. They should align with your brand, core product offering, and what your customers want. (Don’t know what they want? Ask them!) Consider a mix of tangible and experiential rewards, like products and exclusive access to perks.
The #1 mistake that brands make with loyalty is a lack of visibility. Ensure that subscribers know what rewards they’re working toward and how far they still have to go. Clear, concise communication is key. Keep subscribers updated and engaged through personalized emails, progress bars, the subscriber portal, and SMS reminders.
If these reminders don’t just work for active subscribers. If customers churn, stoking their FOMO by reminding them of the rewards they almost earned is an effective win-back strategy.
When customers have difficulty redeeming milestone rewards, they’re more likely to churn. Ensuring the redemption process is seamless and straightforward will help illustrate the value of your program and keep the subscription journey going. Subscribers should have the ability to redeem within their subscription manager for a frictionless experience.
New subscribers are more volatile, so you want to offer early rewards to keep them hooked. Offering milestone rewards between a subscriber’s first and fourth orders will drastically reduce your churn. By awarding perks early, you’ll help subscribers understand the benefits awaiting them and the overall value of your program.
Of course to build successful subscription-based loyalty programs, you need the right technology. Your loyalty platform needs to be highly integrated with your subscription solution and the rest of your tech stack, from your communication tools all the way down to your data. You also need to ensure that your loyalty program has the capability to offer unique subscription milestones that best represent your brand and products.
Subscription milestones aren’t just about rewards—they redefine your relationships with your customers. By implementing a milestone-based loyalty program, you can proactively fight churn, increase LTV, turn subscribers into long-term advocates, and see more recurring revenue.
Bubblehouse’s Subscription Milestones help brands grow LTV by more than 30% within six months. Our loyalty platform seamlessly integrates milestone-based rewards into subscription programs, helping brands create engagement-driven retention strategies that work. Request a demo to learn more.
