Bharat Ayyar is the General Manager at Sunsoil, the leading organic CBD oil brand in the Northeast and the largest independent CBD brand nationwide. 

We sat down with Bharat to unpack how the Sunsoil team designed and deployed a best-in-class subscription-based business model, diving deep into:

• His seamless migration and onboarding with Skio
• How to design user-friendly subscription experiences
• Gaining a 30% reduction in subscription CS tickets

“As Sunsoil increases sales volume and slowly reduces prices, we’ll push that boundary even further with subscription. And, once we migrated to Skio, we were able to double down on that core subscription channel.”

Making the Jump to Digital Commerce

Before joining Sunsoil in March of 2020, Bharat had been a long-time customer and a firm believer in the company’s products and mission: to dramatically lower the price of CBD and make it accessible to all.

The pandemic created a massive shock for Sunsoil’s retail business. Declining foot traffic to natural food stores, Sunsoil’s primary customers, meant lower sales across the board.

So, Sunsoil decided to focus its efforts on building out eCommerce.

Bharat points out that growing the company’s eCommerce presence would help Sunsoil build the scale it needed to reduce prices. As a result, it was critical to the future of the brand. 

Notably, they shifted ad strategies to emphasize subscription models in 2020. Now, most of their revenue comes from subscriptions, which make up nearly 80% of top-line revenue.

“Subscriptions are a key part of our revenue and growth strategy. So, we must provide a delightful subscriber experience from end to end.”

Designing Customer-First Subscriptions 

Sunsoil’s strategy is to take a highly utilitarian approach to serve its core customer. They aim to have a simple, straightforward purchasing experience, free from the bells-and-whistles of many modern eCommerce experiences.

Their core customer typically uses CBD to help with pain, aches, and recurring inflammation issues. A subscription-based product is ideal for their needs.

Sunsoil’s audience is unique in three ways:

• The vast majority of their customers are over 50
• New shoppers tend to be skeptical of online subscriptions
• Active subscribers are extremely reliant on on-time replenishment for their wellbeing

With a product that is so integral to their customer’s daily life, Sunsoil was dedicated to working out all the kinks that came with setting up a subscription. And, because their customer base is less tech-savvy, Skio’s integration helped them easily spin up a simple and intuitive offering.

“Sunsoil customers are using our products every single day. For us, subscription isn't just nice to have or a bolt-on to our business model. It genuinely makes sense for our customer, so we had to nail that experience.”

Making the Jump from ReCharge to Skio

Before Skio, Sunsoil used ReCharge for their subscription needs. Bharat drives home the point that when using ReCharge, Sunsoil recorded a wildly high rate of subscription-related requests. 

Because 80% of their orders were coming through subscription, Bharat knew that this was the volume of customer service issues and tickets weren’t scalable. So, he began researching alternatives that could seamlessly sit on top of Shopify’s native integration.

After meeting the Skio team and deciding to pull the trigger on migrating, his team at Sunsoil knew they’d found a partner that would grow with them over the long term.

Bharat specifically points out that the Skio team was:

• Immediately responsive to any requests for resolving issues
• Committed to developing a best-in-class subscriber experience
• Always open to feedback, specifically regarding new functionality

Because signing up for a subscription was the core experience of a Sunsoil customer, Bharat appreciated that Skio’s service was trustworthy, adaptable, and enjoyable to use.

“Skio’s responsiveness to feedback and speed of turnaround on requests, fixes, and improvements just made sense. We wanted to invest in a platform that could grow alongside us and serve our needs as we scaled. Skio was the perfect fit.”

Seamless Onboarding and Rapid Migration

Over the past few years, not many digital payment processors were willing to work with CBD brands. Bharat explained Skio was instrumental in conducting all the back-end payments work to complete Sunsoil’s migration from Recharge.

He adds that Skio stayed on top of the manual migration in three ways:

• Skio ensured all site references to ReCharge within their site were updated
• Using Skio’s Shopify native checkout, Sunsoil could easily access subscriber profiles
• Skio resolved Sunsoil’s recurring login issues by implementing passwordless logins

Bharat notes that Skio’s dedication to a seamless onboarding directly lowered their customer’s friction to subscribing. Critically, after migrating to Skio, Sunsoil has seen a massive 30% reduction for subscription-related CS tickets, thus allowing his team to get back to building.

“Skio’s hands-on, almost white glove type approach to onboarding was not only helpful but incredibly refreshing. I see them as a true partner that we'll be able to grow with over time as we continue to refine our core subscription offering.”