Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Subscription services have become popular among online shoppers, but those same shoppers are also abandoning these services.

Through these subscriptions, customers make recurring payments and receive order shipments at regular intervals, and they have become popular because they let consumers refill products they need to replenish often, such as health and beauty products.

These services typically personalize orders based on a shopper's interests and style, which the companies often learn through connected social media accounts and quizzes. This experience mirrors the personalized service customers would get inside brick-and-mortar stores from sales associates.

So interest in these services has remained high, as 10% of U.S. shoppers have enrolled in one, and another 33% would consider doing so, according to the latest UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper report.

But satisfaction in these services is dropping, as 61% of those who have signed up have since canceled. And there are four main reasons why....