Dollar Shave Club to Outsource Subscription Technology
Dollar Shave Club has announced plans to migrate their in-house solution and outsource their subscription-based technology to a third-party platform provider. The move comes at a time of rapid expansion for the DTC brand, leading to an increased need to find a provider to help them scale at speed.
Since their foundation in 2011, Dollar Shave Club has kept their subscription technology in-house. With this new arrangement, the subscription-first men's grooming company will now use Ordergroove’s platform, in partnership with Shopify Plus. Dollar Shave Club was one of the first DTC subscription-based shave brands in the market, and has leaned into this model throughout their development, including through their 2016 acquisition by Unilever.
Ordergroove’s platform includes an incentive framework that allows for rapid testing and optimizing of promotions and deals, along with more advanced APIs allowing for greater customization, which Dollar Shave Club hopes will drive innovation and facilitate growth. Ordergroove’s capacity to migrate a large subscription base and order volume at scale was also reportedly a key component of Dollar Shave Club’s decision to partner with the membership tech platform.
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Commenting on the news, Ranil Wiratunga, chief digital officer & global GM of DTC at Dollar Shave Club stressed the importance of partnering with a provider that could handle their brand’s “scale, depth, and innovation,” adding that “[a]s a subscription-first brand, our mission is to deliver exceptional consumer experiences.”
Subscription and membership services are an area of growing interest for many CPGs, with the model offering a chance to lean into DTC, build brand loyalty, improve the overall customer experience, and gather valuable data. Major brands like Adidas have recently beefed up their membership offerings, rebranding under the AdiClub name, and providing a host of new features, including free shipping, free personalization, and access to members-only products and special events, including meet-and-greets with Adidas athletes.
In October 2022, Mars partnered with membership platform, Fetch, to launch a new loyalty program giving consumers a means to earn rewards upon purchasing certain eligible products.
