It’s no secret that subscription commerce is a huge opportunity for Shopify merchants. And most will also be aware of the opportunity that gifting and gift products offer, especially in the run up to major holidays. So, it’s time to combine the two.
Bold Commerce powers thousands of Shopify merchants’ subscription strategies, and now you can integrate Bold with Govalo to take your subscriptions to the next level with gifting.
Much like gift cards, until now sending a subscription as a gift through Shopify required workarounds or custom solutions. Now, the power to design a real gift subscription for your store is straightforward, easy, and fast to achieve. Using our integration, customers can buy a gift subscription and send it directly to their recipient who can then redeem and manage their own account as they would any other subscription. It streamlines the process, making it a better experience for your customers and improving opportunities for retention.
How to connect Govalo and Bold Subscriptions
Let’s get your Bold gift subscription set up! It’s easy to get started, and takes only a few simple steps.
From within Shopify Admin, navigate to Govalo’s dashboard, and then to “Integrations”. Then, click “Connect Bold”, which will then redirect you to your Bold account to complete the connection.
Once complete, you can navigate back to Integrations in the Govalo app, and click “Configure Bold”.
Note: If you also have Govalo integrated with Klaviyo or Drip, be sure to set up your email template for subscriptions gifts before you start selling them. You can find more information on Klaviyo here, and Drip here.
On the next screen, click “Add subscription product”.
Then, select the product you want to sell as a subscription. This will create a new product based on the existing product within your store with “gift” in the title. This helps to differentiate between which product is a gift, and which is a regular subscription.
And that’s it - you’re all set! If you need a hand in getting your product fully set up, you can always get in touch with our team for assistance.
Here are some additional support resources to help you along the way with your new subscription:
Customizing your email template
Configuring your language settings
3 questions you need to ask before you offer gift subscriptions
Gift products always speak to a unique and very varied audience. Some may know very little about your products but know their recipient is a fan, whereas some may be expert long-term customers looking to share your brand with a likeminded friend. Whether it’s the level of product knowledge, budget, or even just the desire for a simple gift, the best way to supercharge your gift subscription sales is to create a unique experience for gift subscriptions.
Here are the 3 questions you’ll need to have answers for before you launch your new Bold gift subscription.
#1 - Will your subscription options be different for gifts?
Your subscriptions are designed for your target audience. However, with gift subscriptions you want to design options to appeal to the customer buying on behalf of your target audience. Not only that, but more often than not a gift buyer will have a budget in mind that they’ll want to stick to. If your subscription options start at 3 month bundles, for example, this may be out of budget for a gift buyer and you lose out on that sale.
So, you want to consider what options you’ll have available to gift buying customers. It may be offering slightly different cycle options, so if you typically offer 3, 6, and 12 months then gift options could instead be 2, 3, 4 months, and so on, as well as the option to purchase a one-off taster box. You could also give customers the option to add bonus items to the recipient’s first delivery.
Consider then which options will best suit gift buyers. You can set up several options, and later analyze sales data to determine which appeal most to gift buyers. From there, you can consolidate the number of options you have, and focus on promoting those in future.
#2 - How will the experience be unique for gift subscribers?
First impressions count for everything, especially with subscriptions. You’ve got a unique opportunity where the subscription has already been purchased, so the recipient is essentially getting a “free trial” of your product. If you want to make them carry that forward past the gifted period, you need to give them a great experience.
In order to make that experience stand out, it needs to be tailored and unique to the fact they’ve received the subscription as a gift. They may not have heard of your brand before, or they may have but haven’t put in the research and time to decide to purchase a subscription. Therefore, you have additional work to do in educating them and getting their buy-in to your brand.
Think about how you’ll make the experience unique for the subscriber. Here are some suggestions:
- Have a gift specific quiz flow when they redeem their subscription that asks questions about their experience with other brands or similar products.
- Create an onboarding email and SMS series that gives them all the brand and product education they need to enhance their experience.
- Add material to their boxes that speak to it being a gift e.g. “Your first gift has arrived!” on printed material included in their first box, or gift wrapping.
Small details make a big impact, and could be what tips the scale in favor of a gift recipient becoming a long-term subscriber.
#3 - How will you promote your gift subscription?
It sounds obvious, but like any product, if customers don’t know about your gift subscription then you won’t see sales. Promoting your gift subscription comes down to communication, promotion during key periods, and site placement.
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Communication - You want to let customers know through channels like email and social media that you’ve launched gift subscriptions. This means next time an occasion or holiday rolls around, they’ll be aware that the subscription is an option. If they’re a long-time subscriber, then this will be an attractive option if they want to share your experience with a loved one.
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Promotion during key periods - As you approach key sales periods for gifting such as the holidays, you want to ramp up your promotion of gift subscriptions. This includes adding them to gift guides, highlighting them on landing pages, and sending dedicated promotional emails as you get closer to a key date. Similarly to gift cards, gift subscriptions can be bought right up until the day of an occasion so don’t rely on shipping deadlines. This gives you something extra to promote alongside gift cards, giving your customers even more flexible options for gifts.
- Site Placement - Make sure your gift subscription product page is easily accessible and visible throughout your site at all times, and especially in the run up to the holidays. This may be by including it in your primary navigation, on your homepage, or in a specific “Gifting” category from your main menu. You can also include it as an internal link on product pages for your regular subscription product, i.e. “Want to send this as a gift? Click here!”.
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We’re delighted to be partnering with Bold to give Shopify merchants the ability to design a better, customer-led gift subscription experience.