Product Subscriptions vs. Memberships: Which is right for your Shopify brand?

In 2025, Shopify brands are facing a tough reality: Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is through the roof, and customer lifetime value (LTV) isn’t keeping up. You’ve likely tried loyalty programs, dabbled with product subscriptions, or even tested a discount-heavy approach. But something’s still not clicking. 

That’s where Shopify brands start considering retention models like product subscriptions and memberships.

In this blog, we’ll break down the differences between these two popular strategies, share when each works best, and help you decide which one actually fits your brand. 

Spoiler: it’s not about which model is better, it’s about what aligns with your product, your customer behavior, and your growth strategy.

Memberships vs. subscriptions: What is the difference? 

Product subscriptions are recurring purchases of a specific product or bundle. Think monthly deliveries of razors, hygiene products, or pet food. 

Brands like Lola do this well, offering subscribers a regular, personalized shipment of essential goods. The value proposition is utility: save time, avoid stockouts, and save time by getting essential items each month automatically.  

Memberships, on the other hand, are recurring fees in exchange for access to perks—things like store credit, exclusive access, early drops, or VIP content. 

You’re not locked into one product; you’re buying into a relationship with the brand. Brands like Lululemon, Adore Me, and Savage X Fenty are defining this space with programs that feel like exclusive clubs, offering free products, classes, early access to drops, and members-only experiences.

Here’s how they compare:

Both models create monthly recurring revenue (MRR), but they cater to different shopper mindsets.

• Product subscriptions appeal to utility-driven shoppers who prioritize convenience and consistency. These customers want to receive products they regularly use without thinking twice.

   

• Memberships, by contrast, attract relationship-driven shoppers who value flexibility, variety, and the sense of being ‘in’ with a brand. These shoppers want VIP treatment, personalized perks, and access to a broader product experience. 

Now that you know the difference, let’s understand their pros and cons and which model is right for your Shopify brand. 

Pros & cons of product subscriptions for Shopify brands 

Product subscriptions perform best for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Direct to Consumer (DTC) brands with clear replenishment cycles—products that customers need on a predictable basis.

Advantages of ecommerce subscription model

Here are some of the advantages of adopting product subscriptions for Shopify brands. 

• Predictable recurring revenue: Once subscribers are onboarded, product subscriptions offer consistent revenue that helps brands better forecast and plan.
• Convenience for shoppers: Especially for items like vitamins, shampoo, or pet food, subscribers love the “set it and forget it” ease.
• Low initial friction: Promos like “subscribe and save 10%” are straightforward and easy for first-timers to understand.

Disadvantages of ecommerce subscription model

While it offers quite a lot of perks, product subscriptions also come with a set of disadvantages. Here are some. 

• Single stock keeping unit (SKU) limitation: Product subscription plans often tie customers to one product, limiting average order value (AOV) and cross-sell potential.
• Higher churn risk: Customers can cancel quickly if they feel overwhelmed by product volume or lack engagement with the brand.
• Less emotional connection: Most subscription programs are transactional—they need to be paired with loyalty or community initiatives to deepen engagement.

For example, SpoiledChild offers replenishable beauty products through subscriptions, while pet brands like The Farmer’s Dog or Jinx automate monthly deliveries. It works well until the customer wants to pause or explore other SKUs. 

And that’s where memberships shine. 

Pros & cons of memberships for Shopify brands 

Memberships are ideal for brands with a wide product catalog with 50+ SKUs, ideally 100+, consistent new drops, and high repurchase potential. Think fashion, wellness, beauty, and lifestyle.

Advantages of ecommerce membership model 

Here are some advantages of adopting a membership model for your Shopify brand. 

• Applies across the entire catalog: Instead of tying benefits to one SKU, memberships let customers use perks on anything, encouraging discovery.
• Builds brand connection: Exclusive content, early access, and personalized perks give members a reason to stay and feel valued.
• Highly customizable: Brands can tier their memberships, add credits, build VIP-only perks, and test new models without starting from scratch.
  

For example, Dossier, a perfume DTC Shopify brand, built a membership program
for $39/month. This payment becomes store credit that is redeemable sitewide. They also offer 10% off, early access to sales, and exclusive products, ensuring their members feel rewarded every time they shop.

Disadvantages of ecommerce membership model

While membership offers multiple benefits for Shopify brands, many of the challenges associated with it stem from the time and complexity involved in setting them up. Here’s why. 

• Requires shopper education: Product subscription models are very easy to understand and have been used extensively by Shopify brands over the years.
  
  However, memberships are still quite new. So brands need to clearly communicate benefits and show the value upfront through great UX and onboarding. Because if customers don’t understand the offer or value, they won’t convert.

   

• Complex to design: Effective Shopify memberships require strategy, clean data, and smart perk design to ensure profitability. Without thoughtful planning, it’s easy to overpromise or miss customer expectations.

   

• Longer setup time: Memberships can take longer to launch due to the planning and design work involved. 

But you can easily mitigate these challenges and launch your Shopify brand membership in under 2 weeks with the team at Subscribfy. Read our detailed guide on how to create a membership program to know how. 

Which one is right for your Shopify brand?

The decision between product subscriptions and memberships depends on how your customers shop and what your catalog looks like.

Product subscriptions make sense if you:

• Sell replenishable products that customers need consistently (e.g., vitamins, pet food, skincare).
• Have fewer than 50 SKUs or a narrow product catalog.
• Want to offer convenience and predictability with minimal setup.
• Operate in a category where usage is frequent and products run out on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Memberships are ideal if you:

• Have 100+ SKUs or drop new collections regularly.
• Want to create an emotional connection and community with your customers.
• Operate in verticals like beauty, wellness, or fashion where flexibility and variety matter.
• Have shoppers who value early access, exclusives, and feel rewarded by perks like store credit or VIP treatment.

Do you need to choose? 

You don’t have to pick just one. Many brands find success by using product subscriptions for specific replenishable SKUs (like cleansers or daily vitamins), and memberships across the broader catalog to boost LTV and deepen engagement.

But it’s rarely about running both equally across your store.

If you already have product subscriptions in place and they’re working well, you don’t need to tear that down. But layering on a membership can amplify value, without disrupting what already performs.

It’s not about doing everything. It’s about doing what fits your customers’ behavior and your business model, and having the flexibility to execute that without complexity.

And that’s where we can help. 

The all-in-one retention engine Shopify brands actually need

Customer retention isn’t one-size-fits-all, and it definitely shouldn’t be spread across five disconnected tools. Juggling product subscriptions, memberships, loyalty programs, and store credit in different apps leads to:

• Customers getting confused: They jump between portals, click through multiple steps to find perks, and abandon their carts when things feel too complicated.
• Teams getting overwhelmed: You’re syncing data, resolving bugs, managing billing errors, and manually piecing together fragmented insights.
• Poor customer experience: Offers don’t stack, perks aren’t visible at checkout, and support teams get flooded with questions.

What Shopify brands need is a unified, seamless retention experience for both their customers and their internal teams.

That’s where Subscribfy comes in

We bring all your retention levers—memberships, product subscriptions, loyalty, rewards, wallet passes, and chargeback prevention—into one platform that works natively within Shopify. We help you:

• Decide which retention lever works best for your specific brand.
  
• Launch new programs in weeks, not months.
• Manage everything from one dashboard.
• See real-time performance data to optimize fast.

And because we know retention is not a set-it-and-forget-it game, we support every launch with white-glove onboarding, strategic consulting, and performance-based pricing.

Here’s what Awe Inspired, a fast-growing DTC brand, has to say about using Subscribfy,

“If you feel like the traditional e-commerce tactics you’re doing are getting stale, take the chance on a membership program crafted by Subscribfy. The whole team are true experts in customer retention and will build a membership program truly unique to your business goals.”

Subscribfy isn’t just a tool. It’s the retention backbone for Shopify brands that want to scale smarter.

Talk to our experts to see which of these models, memberships, or product subscriptions is right for your brand and how you can leverage this to increase your MRR.