If you’re new to the subscription industry and are trying to make sense of all the terms, formulas, etc, never fear! Our ultimate subscription tech term glossary will guide you through. It’s written in plain English, so you’ll understand the meaning of the most commonly used terms in the subscription tech industry instantly.
A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a way to determine which version of a web page or email gets better results. Both variants are published and presented to visitors simultaneously and results are tracked to see which one produces a better rate of conversion.
Active Subscriptions
All customer subscriptions that are current, being re-billed and shipped.
ARPU
ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per User. It’s a way to measure revenue based on the number of subscribers in a certain timeframe.
Automation
A process that automatically modifies the properties of a ticket after it's updated.
Average Daily Growth
A measurement of the rate customers are acquired.
Average Duration
A measurement of the length of time customers remain subscribed.
Average Subscription
A measurement of a subscriber's active days.
Best Practices
The procedures and activities that are considered the most correct and effective methods of operation.
Box Manufacturer
The third-party vendor a subscription service hires to produce custom packaging.
Brand
The sum of all the attributes of a product that provides representation of a company to customers, creating an emotional and psychological understanding and response.
Bulk Process or Operation
Actions that are carried out on multiple orders or multiple customers, such as changing the status of a batch of orders to “shipped” or sending an email newsletter.
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost is the total cost of acquiring a new subscribing customer.
Call to Action
Specific instructions to encourage viewers to take a tangible action, such as “join now” or “sign up today.”
Canceled
Indicates that a subscription has been canceled by the customer.
Churn
Also known as the attrition rate, churn indicates the rate at which customers cancel their subscriptions.
Closing the Box
This phrase indicates that the monthly procurement is complete and variations have been set.
CMS
A Content Management System is the software platform that provides an interface for managing website content and e-commerce options.
COGS
Cost of Goods Sold is the total cost of the product and any fulfillment costs.
Cohort
A segment of an audience that shares a certain feature, which is used for analysis of the customer base.
Color Psychology
The study of how human emotion and behavior can be affected by different colors.
Commission
A percentage or flat rate that is paid to an affiliate at the time of a sale or subscription.
Conversion Rate
The rate that a specific page, ad or email leads to a new sale or subscription.
Coupon
A special offer using a discount code that is provided to customers.
CRM
Customer Relationship Management is used in procurement to track contacts and schedule follow-ups in order to assist in sourcing products.
Culture
Culture is the sum total of the beliefs and behaviors that are shared by a specific group. Company Culture refers to the specific mission statement, standards and best practices put in place by a company.
Curation
Curation is the process of selecting relevant items for a collection — in this case, a subscription box that may have a monthly focus or theme.
Current
Current shipments are open orders for the current period that require shipping.
Custom Domain
This refers to the specific domain name (URL) that identifies your website, such as “websitename.com.”
Customer Experience
Customer experience is the combined sum of all interactions between a customer and the company over the entire course of the customer's engagement with the company.
Customer Support Platform
A third-party system for organizing and executing management tasks that supports the customer relationship including emails, phone calls and other customer service requests.
Cut-off Date
The last day that customers are able to subscribe to receive the most current offering.
Delivery Confirmation
A service that shipping carriers offer to inform companies when their shipments are delivered.
Expired
Subscriptions whose payments have failed over a 10-day period.
FAQ
A Frequently Asked Questions page helps customers find answers to common issues that they may have.
Financial Planning
The process of reviewing a company’s financial situation, including an analysis of metrics such as Churn or Attrition Rate, Average Revenue per User, Cost of Goods and others.
Fulfillment Center
A third-party vendor that provides a workforce to package products, prepare shipments and accept deliveries.
Fulfillment Cost
The company's total cost for shipping and handling including any packing costs such as fulfillment center rates or internal labor.
Gamification
The process of adding game-like elements, such as points, prizes and tiers to a business model.
Gross Profit
The total profit remaining after subtracting COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) from revenue.
KPI
Key Performance Indicators are the specific metrics that define the success or failure for a specific department, based on that department's function, such as CAC, Churn Rate, Replacement/Damaged Box Rate or Average Ticket Response Time.
Launch Page
A stand-alone page with a focused sales message and single call to action used to gather subscribers, often during a pre-launch campaign.
Lean-Testing
The process of carrying out testing for various practices and assumptions at the lowest possible cost to the business.
LTV
Lifetime Value is the gross revenue generated by a customer over the entire life of their subscription, which can be averaged across all customers. Sometimes, this is also called Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
Macro
A pre-recorded set of actions that can be executed with a single click or button press.
Mission/Mission Statement
The formally stated values and purpose of a company.
Stripe's mission statement:
"Our mission is to increase. the GDP of the internet. Stripe is a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet. Businesses of every size—from new startups to public companies—use our software to accept payments and manage their businesses online".
Momentum
Momentum is the degree of continued movement. It refers to the quality of business growth. More momentum indicates a faster growth rate.
Net Profit
Total profit after subtracting all working expenses that were not already subtracted from Gross Profit calculations. (Also referred to as Net Earnings, Net Income or Bottom Line.
Niche
A small set of easily identifiable and well-defined needs or interests.
Organic Traffic
Website visitors who find the site through unpaid means, such as search results.
Past Due
Subscriptions for which the most recent payment has failed.
Payment Processor
A third-party that handles financial transactions from debit and credit cards and other sources.
Period Churned Customers
The total number of customers lost during a specific time frame, including expired subscriptions and cancellations.
Period Total Active Subscribers
The total number of customers that had an active subscription during a specific time frame.
Positioning
The place a product holds in the market and in consumers' minds in relation to other competing brands.
Power Editor
A Facebook advertising campaign and ad set management tool.
Pre-Launch
The phase of product launch before it reaches the market, involving beta-testing and early consumer feedback to make any final changes to product offerings and sales models.
Price Sensitivity
A measurement of how product prices affect consumers' purchasing behavior. Price sensitivity varies based on products and individual consumers.
Printing Die/Die Cut
A large tool that is used to cut packaging shapes out of a sheet of cardboard.
Printing Plate
A large stamp-like tool that transfers images onto cardboard or paper.
Procurement
The process of sourcing, purchasing and receiving products that will be included in a subscription box.
Product Cost
The total cost to the company for all items including in a shipment, including the products themselves, as well as any packing materials.
Re-Billing
Re-billing refers to both the practice of charging active subscribers at a specific time and the date on which you renew your customers' subscriptions.
Referral
A referral is the acquisition of a new customer via an existing customer or an affiliate's recommendation.
Retained Profit
This is the portion of profit that comes from previously acquired subscribers, excluding new subscribers in that period.
Retention
The retention rate is the rate at which customers maintain active subscriptions.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization is the process of using specific techniques to increase a website's ranking in search engines' unpaid results.
Shipment
A shipment refers to a customer order that requires shipping.
Shipped
This status indicates that the shipment has successfully been shipped.
Skipped
This status indicates that the customer has skipped an upcoming renewal.
Social Marketing
Social marketing includes all activities on social media by a company, including advertising and sponsored posts as well as normal interaction.
Social Presence
Social presence refers to a brand's social media activity, including how they interact with users, frequency of posting and engagement, such as likes and follows.
Subscribe Flow
The subscribe flow is the process that leads customers to a subscription, starting with their initial exposure to the brand, through all their interactions, and finally their signing up to be a subscriber.
Target Audience
Individually referred to as a Target Customer, this is the particular group of people that are the desired customer for a product or service, determined by the product's niche and targeted by marketing campaigns designed to appeal to them.
Template
A document or file that reduces workload by including formatting and pre-filled information to serve as a starting point for a new project.
Ticket
An individual customer support request that is managed through the Customer Support Platform.
Transactional Email
Transactional emails are individual messages that are sent based on specific actions or inaction from a customer, such as a subscription confirmation or a request for updated payment information.
Trigger
A trigger causes an action to automatically be performed under certain conditions, such as the creation of a new ticket or a ticket status update.
Value Proposition
A value proposition presents the selling points for a product to consumers or business partners.
Variations
Variations are different product options for a subscription box that customers may choose from for their shipment.
Vendor
A third-party that provides services for your business or provides the products for your subscription box.
View
A view is a collection of tickets that is filtered based on parameters set by a user to only show tickets that match certain criteria.
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