Subscriptions — the 96% churn problem

Current state

• 26 subscriptions created in the lifetime of the store
• 1 currently active
• 16 cancelled · 9 on-hold
• MRR: £51.98 (from that 1 sub)

Root cause

All 26 used a generic "Card" payment method — not branded WooPayments. Strongly suggests an old Stripe integration broke silently at some point, renewals failed, customers couldn't self-serve, and they all churned.

Fix: migrate to Stripe Billing

Why Stripe Billing over Woo Subscriptions:

Capability	Woo Subscriptions	Stripe Billing
Smart Retries on failed cards	❌	✅
Dunning emails	Manual	✅ Built-in
Customer Portal (pause / skip / cancel)	❌ Have to build	✅ Hosted link
Swap-a-fruit before renewal	❌	✅ (via metadata)
Works in a native iOS app	❌ (cookie-coupled)	✅

The Customer Portal alone fixes half the churn: today, to cancel a sub, a customer has to log in to WP and find the right page. With Stripe's portal, it's one link.

Migration plan (Phase 2)

1. Set up Stripe Billing Products + Prices for the 3 tiers:
   • Tropical Box Subscription — £42.49/week
   • Exotic Box Subscription — £59.99/week
   • Plug-In Box Subscription — £82.49/week
2. Migrate the 1 active subscription with customer consent (email + £10 credit incentive).
3. Add a Stripe webhook customer.subscription.* → creates a fresh Woo order on each renewal via the fruitplug-api plugin.
4. Deactivate Woo Subscriptions (leave installed for a month as rollback).
5. Win-back campaign to the 25 dead subs: personalised email + £10 Stripe credit redeemed on signup.

PWA UX to support retention

On /account/subscription:

• Current plan + next charge date
• Skip next box (one tap)
• Pause up to 4 weeks (one tap)
• Swap a fruit (3 days before ship)
• Cancel (via Stripe Customer Portal link — stays in-app via next/link to the Stripe-hosted URL)

Targets

Metric	Today	6-month target
Active subs	1	300
MRR	£52	£15,000
Churn rate	96% lifetime	<15% monthly