Ugmonk is a design studio that creates and curates products that combine form and function.

Ugmonk first launched Analog on Kickstarter where they raised an impressive $450,000 within a few days. Since then, they’ve been growing faster and faster. Notably, Ugmonk’s Analog card set is sent out to subscribers once a quarter, giving Ugmonk a critical subscription revenue stream. 

We sat down with Ugmonk’s Founder and CEO Jeff Sheldon to dive deep on:

• The challenges of switching pre-order sales to recurring subscription memberships
• Ugmonk’s experience with Skio’s onboarding process and the platform’s benefits
• How switching from Bold to Skio quickly alleviated customer service headaches

The Early Days: Endless Challenges with Bold 

After spending hours sorting through the Shopify App Store for a subscription management app, Jeff settled on Bold out of necessity. The other option on the market that Jeff was aware of was ReCharge which wasn’t even accepting new customers at the time. 

It didn’t help that Jeff had only ever heard complaints about ReCharge.

So, Jeff opted for Bold as an interim solution but quickly began experiencing serious issues with its functionality.

As a company rooted in design, it was crucial that Ugmonk’s subscription experience mirrored the brand’s simple and clean interface. Unfortunately, Bold’s backend and UI served as a stark contrast to Ugmonk’s design sensibility. It was bare-bones, raw, and far from user-friendly. 

Bold’s Clunky Backend Design

As a design-forward company, the lack of visual appeal in Bold’s backend platform was a major turn-off and left a sour taste in Jeff’s mouth from the get-go. 

Not only did Bold have little visual appeal, but it also failed to deliver many of the practical components that the team had become accustomed to as Shopify users. The platform lacked the functionality that Ugmonk wanted and needed from a subscription management service. 

From a data retrieval standpoint, it was nearly impossible for the team to pull information that would allow them to forecast or make projections, let alone access basic customer data.  

“To be blunt, Bold’s backend didn’t allow us to do much of anything. We were especially annoyed because we weren’t able to see how our subscribers were interacting with our products and subscriptions on our own website.” 

Critical Customer Service Shortcomings

In short, Bold’s platform forced Ugmonk subscribers to create a Shopify account to save their orders or change their product plan. As a result, the company’s growing subscriber base stalled.

• If an Ugmonk customer didn’t go through the process of creating an account, they had to email the Ugmonk team in order to make any kind of change to their subscription. 
• Ugmonk was getting hundreds of support requests related to their subscriptions in addition to normal customer service requests. 
• To support this influx of requests the Ugmonk team was working long hours to help customers cancel or pause their subscriptions. 

“Bold would only work if we weren't driving a serious volume of subscriptions. So, as our subscriber base grew, we also began to outgrow Bold. We weren’t able to expand and offer subscribers exclusives, one-time upsells, or more access to their accounts. It just wasn’t working for us, and we knew we had to leave.”

Pulling the Trigger on Skio

As a founder, Jeff always believed in talking with other founders about the tools they loved. 

So, when other eCom merchants constantly shared reviews of Skio on Twitter, Jeff was excited to learn more. He turned to his friend Jarod at Muddy Bites to learn more about his experience working with the Skio team.

Within minutes, Jarod sent over a couple of screenshots of Skio’s backend UI, and Jeff was immediately convinced. Jarod personally walked Jeff through how their issues were solved by switching to Skio, one of which was a similar desire to move towards a clean subscription tool. 

Not only was Skio offering compelling solutions to problems Bold failed to address, but the platform also fit perfectly into what Ugmonk was looking for from a visual and UX perspective. 

Once Jeff saw the functionality and ease of onboarding, he was convinced that Skio was the best move for his company, especially as their subscription offering was gaining momentum.

“As soon as I saw the Skio backend that Muddy Bites was working with, I was sold. Everything was clean, easy, and intuitive from the user’s perspective. At that point, the cost was irrelevant and I knew I had to make the switch to Skio.”

Skio: Seamless Onboarding from End-to-End

The process of switching from Bold to Skio was smooth and painless for Jeff’s team, freeing up valuable time to focus on other parts of the business. More importantly, Skio gave Ugmonk the tools it needed to grow its offerings through subscriber exclusives and one-time upsells.

Critically, Jeff points out that Skio made it incredibly easy for his team to transition the Kickstarter pre-orders to standard subscriptions once the Analog product went live. 

Every touchpoint with the Ugmonk brand needed to be rooted in high-quality design. By making the jump to Skio, the brand was able to maintain its rigorous design standards while also giving its customers seamless and enjoyable shopping experiences from end to end.

Since switching to Skio, Ugmonk’s subscriber count has increased by 4x, and scaling up has been super smooth.

Jeff adds that making the switch to Skio did just as much, if not more, for their subscribers and an improved customer service experience. After onboarding, Ugmonk customers could now:

• Manage their subscriptions without creating a separate account and new password
• Directly make changes to their subscriptions with one click of a button
• Track when their next shipment is arriving through a clean portal

“We optimize every touchpoint with the Ugmonk brand and how our customers associate that brand with their experience. Our job is to drive a positive feeling through our products. Ultimately, that’s exactly what Skio allowed us to do.