Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) usually brings more first-time shoppers to consumer packaged goods (CPG) sites than any other stretch of the year. Many of them buy once and never return. For brands that sell products customers use up and reorder, like sauces, snacks, supplements, and skincare, subscription is how a holiday purchase can become a repeat one.
Most brands limit their subscription offer to a single toggle on the product page. On September 23rd, Barrel's Director of Strategy Val Geisler and Design Director Christine Carforo hosted a live user experience (UX) audit of Momofuku's mobile site, selected from 82 brand submissions. Momofuku offers subscription on its product pages, and Val and Christine found several more places in the shopping journey to reinforce it. Below, we walk through each one. To see the full walkthrough, download the free recording of the live audit.
Subscription works best for products that fit into a routine. While reviewing Momofuku's Chili Crunch, Christine made the case in one line: "If this is part of your weekly dinner routine, subscribing to this product would be a great idea." Look at your repeat purchase data to find the products customers reorder most, and focus your subscription messaging there.
Momofuku's product detail page (PDP) defaults to one-time purchase. Christine suggested A/B testing a subscription default, where you show two versions to different shoppers to see which performs better. "We've worked with different brands that sometimes don't want to do that," she said. "That's a great thing to do an A/B test on."
If you test a subscription default, label it clearly and make switching to one-time purchase easy. Shoppers should always know what they're signing up for. A subscriber who feels tricked cancels quickly and doesn't come back.
Momofuku lists its subscription benefits right on the PDP, which gives shoppers a clear reason to subscribe. The trade-off is space. Christine noted that the benefits copy runs long enough to push the add-to-cart button further down the mobile screen.
Tighten your benefits to the few that matter most, like savings and flexible delivery, so shoppers see the value and the buy button together.
According to Val, Momofuku does this very well: "I love that you can change your frequency right there on the PDP." Letting shoppers pick a cadence that fits their routine, before they commit, makes subscribing feel low-risk.
During the session, an attendee asked why Momofuku lists subscription second, when it's the cheaper option and the one the brand wants shoppers to choose. Val explained that shoppers read the options differently. Some treat the first option as the priority. "For me, it's the one closest to the button to add," she said.
There’s no universal right answer, which is exactly why it’s important not to assume. When we tested filter layouts for Mack Weldon, the “obvious” fix of making filters more visible ended up performing worse, and hiding them by default lifted conversion rate by 6.06%. Test your options to understand how your customers shop for the best performance.
When Christine added Chili Crunch to her cart as a one-time purchase, the mini cart, the slide-out cart drawer that appears when a shopper adds a product, gave her no option to switch to subscription. Shoppers who skim past the PDP toggle never see the offer again.
Christine recommended a small moment that nudges shoppers to upgrade to subscription and save, using the savings your brand offers. "Maybe this is the moment you capture someone before they leave the site," she said.
The same goes for subscribed items. Momofuku's cart doesn't let shoppers change frequency, so a shopper who wants a different cadence has to remove the product and add it again. Editable frequency in the cart removes that friction.
Val shared an example from another brand's site. With one product in her cart, she was $7 away from free shipping. When she switched the item to subscription in the cart, the shipping bar jumped to free shipping. "And so that told me, if I subscribe, I get free shipping," she said.
If subscribers get free shipping, let shoppers toggle subscription in the cart and watch the bar move. The cart demonstrates the benefit without any extra copy.
After the mini-cart, Momofuku's checkout doesn't include a subscription upsell for eligible products. Christine recommended adding one as a last chance to convert. "Get them to subscribe, show them the savings for that," she said. Shoppers who were on the fence at the PDP may say yes once they see the savings at the point of payment.
"We are not our customers. That's the most important thing to remember: test everything, because ultimately what you think might work well isn't what works for your customers." — Val Geisler
Each of these moments catches a different shopper: the one who decides on the PDP, the one who skims to the cart, and the one who hesitates until checkout. Track subscription conversion at each step so you know which placements move the needle with conversion. Then keep testing through the holidays, as Val recommended throughout the session.
For more cart tactics that pair well with subscription, read our guide to cart and checkout changes that raise AOV.
The full recording covers Momofuku's mobile site from homepage to checkout. On subscription, you'll see:
Download the free recording of the full audit.
Use this to review your subscription experience before peak season:
Test it. Some brands see higher subscription rates with a default, while others prefer to lead with one-time purchase. If you default to subscription, label it clearly and make switching easy.
It depends on how your customers read the options. Some shoppers treat the first option as the priority, while others focus on the option closest to the add-to-cart button. An A/B test will tell you which works for your brand.
Base it on your margins and the lifetime value of a subscriber. During the audit, Christine used 10% and 15% as examples of savings brands commonly highlight. Test your offer and track retention, since a bigger discount only pays off if subscribers stay.
Many subscription apps support cart-level subscription changes, including switching from one-time purchase and editing frequency. Check what your current subscription app supports before planning the change.
Focus subscription messaging on products shoppers buy for themselves. Gift buyers usually want a one-time purchase, so keep gifting paths simple and save subscription offers for the shoppers most likely to reorder.
Barrel is a commerce agency that works with CPG brands on strategy, design, and performance across every channel, including subscription and retention. As a Shopify Platinum Partner, we've worked with 300+ CPG brands, including McCormick & Company, Waterloo, KIND, OneSkin, and Instant Pot.
If you want our team to review your subscription experience before your BFCM code freeze, reach out at barrelny.com/contact. To see the full live audit, download the free recording.
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