What's better than winning a new customer? Having that same customer buy from you automatically, every single month. This is the power of recurring revenue, and for sellers of consumable products, Amazon's Subscribe & Save (S&S) program is the ultimate tool to build a loyal and predictable customer base.
This guide will explain how the programme works, its powerful benefits, the eligibility requirements, and how you can strategically manage it for long-term, sustainable growth.
1. How Does Subscribe & Save Work?
Subscribe & Save (S&S) is a programme that allows customers to receive regular, scheduled deliveries of products they use frequently.
- For the Customer: The value proposition is twofold: convenience and savings.
- They choose a product and a delivery frequency (from every two weeks to every six months).
- They instantly receive a baseline discount (funded by you, the seller).
- They can unlock a much larger discount (up to 15%) once they have five or more different products arriving in their scheduled monthly delivery.
- For the Seller: You offer a small discount on your product in exchange for a long-term, recurring purchase. This transforms a single transaction into a stable, ongoing revenue stream.
2. The Powerful Benefits for Sellers
Enrolling your products in S&S is one of the most effective long-term growth strategies on Amazon.
- Massively Increased Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): This is the single biggest benefit. Instead of a one-time £15 sale for a bottle of supplements, you gain a customer who may spend £180 with you over the course of a year, automatically.
- Predictable, Recurring Revenue: Subscriptions create a stable, predictable baseline of monthly sales. This makes it far easier to forecast your revenue and, crucially, your inventory needs.
- Improved Organic Ranking: The consistent, reliable sales velocity generated by subscriptions is a powerful positive signal to Amazon's A9 search algorithm. Over time, this can significantly improve your product's organic search ranking for its main keywords.
- Enhanced Brand Loyalty: When a customer subscribes to your product, you have effectively taken them out of the market. They are no longer searching for "coffee beans" or "dog food" every month, which means they are not being exposed to your competitors' advertising and listings.
3. Eligibility and How to Enroll
The programme is primarily designed for FBA sellers with a strong performance record.
- Seller Requirements: You must have a Professional Seller account in good standing, with a feedback rating of 4.7 stars or higher, and have been selling for at least three months.
- Product Eligibility: The programme is for replenishable, everyday items in categories like Grocery, Beauty, Health & Wellness, Pet Supplies, and Home & Kitchen. Your product must be fulfilled via FBA.
- The Enrollment Process: Enrolling eligible products is simple. You can navigate to the Subscribe & Save page in Seller Central, where Amazon will show you a list of your ASINs that are eligible. From there, you can enroll them and choose the discount levels you wish to offer.
4. How to Manage Your S&S Program Strategically
- Funding the Discount: You, the seller, fund the base discount. You can choose to offer 0%, 5%, or 10%. To remain competitive and encourage sign-ups, offering at least a 5% discount is highly recommended.
- The Cardinal Rule: Never Stock Out. This is the most important operational requirement. If a customer's subscription is scheduled to ship and you are out of stock in FBA, the order is cancelled. The customer is not charged, their trust is broken, and you have likely lost that subscriber forever. Flawless inventory management and forecasting are absolutely essential to a successful S&S strategy.
As a full-service Amazon agency, Sitruna helps you build the robust forecasting and supply chain systems needed to support a thriving subscription business. We ensure you can meet your subscriber demand without fail.
Useful Resources
Conclusion: Build a Predictable Business
Subscribe & Save is more than just a discount programme; it's a powerful engine for transforming your business from one that simply makes sales to one that builds a predictable, recurring revenue stream. For brands with the right consumable products and the operational discipline to always stay in stock, it is one of the surest paths to long-term, sustainable success on Amazon.
Need to ensure you're always in stock for your most valuable customers? Schedule a free discovery call with the Sitruna team at www.sitruna.com/meet to build a reliable and scalable inventory strategy.
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