The Absorption Company Quadrupled Subscription Opt-In with Skio's Customizable Buy Box

Solving the Problem Nobody Talks About

Most supplements don't work, not because the ingredients are weak, but because your body never absorbs them. That's the problem Ian and Nikki Somerhalder set out to fix when they founded The Absorption Company with Zeke Bronfman and Nate Medow. The stats: 84% of most supplements aren't absorbed by the body.

Their solution is Capsoil technology, which converts oil-based nutrients into water-soluble particles through liposomal delivery and boosts absorption by up to 5x. More absorption equals more benefits, which is the value proposition wrapped into one promise.

The brand built pharmaceutical-grade supplements for energy, sleep, calm, and hydration, with "The Essentials Set" bundling all four solutions in stick packs that became their bestseller within months. Customers wanted a wellness system they could throw in a gym bag or suitcase.

By early 2025, the brand was growing, but Zeke and his team hit a wall when their subscription program wasn't converting the way it needed to. Subscriptions deliver higher lifetime value than one-time purchases, and recurring revenue was critical to their growth model. That's when they partnered with DTCPG, a subscription growth agency specializing in building "Buy More, Save More" strategies for DTC brands. Together, they migrated to Skio to get the infrastructure needed for discount stacking and incentive strategies.

The One-Time Purchase Trap

Here's what was happening: Absorption Company's subscription opt-in rate was stagnant, with their bestseller funneling most customers toward one-time purchases that never came back.

The strategy focused on converting one-time buyers first, then nurturing them into subscribers later, but those customers bought once and disappeared. The purchase journey for "The Essentials Set" lacked a subscription path, discount messaging was murky, and customers couldn't see the savings they'd get by subscribing versus buying one-time.

Worse, the platform they were on made it difficult to stack incentives the way they wanted. Welcome offers couldn't combine with subscription discounts, free gifts couldn't layer in over time, and the discount display showed percentages that forced customers to calculate their savings instead of making the choice frictionless.

Without stackable logic, DTCPG couldn't execute the "Buy More, Save More" strategy the brand needed. The buy box code was hard to modify, so adding subscription options to the bestseller page required development work that turned every change into a weeks-long process.

The brand's tagline became ironic: "Effort doesn't equal outcome." They were driving traffic and converting customers, but without the subscription infrastructure, most of that potential went to waste because the funnel had friction, the value proposition wasn't visible, and the backend couldn't support the incentive strategy they knew would work.

Why Skio's Buy Box Made It Possible

DTCPG needed a platform that could execute their "Buy More, Save More" strategy, and Skio had three things most subscription platforms don't:

• Buy box code you can modify without a developer - changes take hours, not weeks

• Discount stacking that shows customers their savings - total value visible at checkout

• Subscription logic that handles complex incentives - welcome offers, volume discounts, and free gifts stack automatically

Start with the buy box. Skio's code is built to be modified within hours, which meant DTCPG could add subscription options to "The Essentials Set" product page without weeks of dev work and turn subscription into the primary path instead of a buried option.The discount transparency fixed the mental math problem by displaying savings compared to one-time purchase instead of showing customers a percentage that required them to calculate everything themselves. Welcome offer plus subscription discount plus volume incentive, all visible with no confusion about the value.

The stackable logic let welcome offers stack with subscription discounts, free gifts layer in over time, and volume-based incentives shift customers toward larger pack sizes with higher discount tiers. The platform gave Absorption Company the flexibility to run the incentive strategy they'd designed instead of fighting platform limitations.

DTCPG implemented the changes within the first month after migration, getting discount messaging live on-site and in emails within days while the team started testing multi-month supply options to improve retention. They could iterate because the platform let them make changes.

Subscription Opt-In Quadrupled in Six Months

Between March and September 2025, subscription opt-in rate more than quadrupled, transforming "The Essentials Set" from a one-time purchase funnel into a subscription-first powerhouse. The brand now has recurring revenue and higher customer lifetime value flowing through their bestseller.

The funnel friction disappeared once customers could see the value of subscribing and the stacked incentives made the decision straightforward instead of requiring mental math and comparison shopping. What used to be a confusing purchase decision became the default choice.

But the subscription opt-in growth was the headline metric. The infrastructure unlocked improvements across the retention stack, with cancel flow save rates improving, dunning getting smarter, and email communication becoming more effective. The team introduced products including supplements that sold out in the first week, and built a bundle builder that gave customers more control while maintaining recurring revenue.

Volume-based incentives worked as designed, shifting customers toward pack sizes and discount tiers from the first order and increasing average order value from day one. The brand went from struggling to convert one-time buyers into subscribers to driving subscription adoption on the first purchase, which changed their unit economics.

What DTCPG and Absorption Company Are Building Next

The partnership between DTCPG and Absorption Company is getting started. With the foundation of stackable discounts and buy box messaging in place, the next phase focuses on optimization and automation.

DTCPG is working with the Absorption team on website optimization to automate savings and remove the need for manual discount codes, which will reduce friction in the purchase journey. They're diving into subscriber personas to identify the highest-value customer segments and reduce churn by tailoring retention strategies to subscription behaviors.

The team continues testing multi-month supply options as they replace smaller pack sizes with bulk offerings that maximize both customer lifetime value and operational efficiency. The goal isn't to maintain the opt-in rate, but to continue improving retention metrics across month two, month three, and beyond.

What makes the partnership work is alignment on strategy. DTCPG understands the "Buy More, Save More" model because they've built it before, and Skio's infrastructure gives them the flexibility to execute without compromise. Absorption Company gets a partner who can implement subscription strategies, not manage a platform.