Guest: Thomas Lalas
Subscription Is Not an Afterthought: Growing Your Customer Lifetime Value with Thomas Lalas
"You don't fix a leak in a bucket by adding more water."
This thought kept rattling around my head during my recent chat with Thomas Lalas, a self-described "subscription whisperer" who helps million-dollar eCommerce brands keep their customers coming back for more.
In a world obsessed with new customer acquisition, what happens after someone buys from you often becomes an afterthought. But should it be?
The Leaky Bucket Problem
Most eCommerce brands I speak with share a common frustration - they spend increasingly more on customer acquisition while watching those same customers slip away after one or two purchases.
Thomas puts it bluntly: "Brand operators want somebody to fix their retention leaky bucket. That's how they call it - leaky retention, leaky bucket. You spend all this money, all this effort to acquire a customer... and in order for most businesses to make their money back and break even, they need to have each customer buy multiple times."
It's a simple but powerful analogy. You can't solve retention problems by simply pouring more customers into a leaky system.
What's even more interesting? Thomas believes the first two weeks after purchase are critical:
"Think of the first two weeks post-purchase as a part of the product, not as an afterthought. It needs to complement the product, the experience, the ads, the website, and to educate the first-time buyer so they can actually stop having objections, regrets... to be educated about the product, how it works, and to make it a part of their lifestyle."
I wonder how many of us truly treat that post-purchase period as part of the product experience rather than just the aftermath of a transaction?
The Subscription-First Model: Beyond "Subscribe and Save"
One particular aspect of our conversation that struck me was Thomas's passionate belief in subscription-first models.
"I specialize in subscription only. And I think that's the smartest thing to do - to create a powerful subscription offer and to prove to your customers that they need your product again and again, and remove any objections from their head," Thomas explains.
But he quickly dismisses the most common approach:
"Just slapping the button of subscribe and save is not a subscription offer. This is the laziest thing you can do. And honestly, if you try to acquire customers purely on lower prices, you're going to be outspent by the competition."
So what makes a good subscription offer? According to Thomas, it's about creating a complete experience that adds value to the customer's lifestyle - not just delivering the same product on autopilot.
This requires thinking differently about your offer structure. Perhaps the most fascinating insight was about spacing out incentives over time rather than front-loading all the value:
"What I've seen working really well is spacing out the freebies month over month. So they have something else to be excited about. And basically they gamify the experience."
By creating anticipation for each delivery, you transform a mundane subscription into an ongoing journey worth staying on.
The Subscription Fatigue Challenge
I shared with Thomas my personal experience with subscription fatigue - that sense that we've all reached our limit of monthly commitments.
"We've now got to the point where we don't want any more subscriptions. So to take on a new one, we have to cancel an old one," I noted during our conversation.
This creates a fascinating dynamic where your subscription deodorant might actually be competing with Netflix for a spot in someone's subscription budget. It's no longer just about being better than your direct competitors - it's about being worthy of staying in a customer's limited subscription portfolio.
Research backs this up, with studies showing that 47% of consumers cancel services due to "bill shock" or overlapping subscriptions[^1]. This underscores the importance of continually demonstrating value rather than relying on inertia.
Increasing Average Order Value in Subscription Models
One question that's always troubled me is how to increase average order value (AOV) in a subscription model. With one-time purchases, it's relatively straightforward to offer upsells during checkout. But how do you achieve this with repeat subscription orders that happen automatically?
Thomas offered several innovative approaches:
Bite-sized premium masterclasses: Create educational content that helps customers get more value from their products, with upsell opportunities embedded at the end.
Post-purchase surveys: Use tools like Typeform to learn more about customers' needs, then tailor cross-sell offers to address their specific concerns.
Bundle offers at strategic moments: Present relevant product bundles before key subscription renewal dates.
The masterclass approach particularly caught my attention:
"I take existing information and turn it into master classes, usually on Typeform, where they see a few words in each slide with visuals and they click next and they get spoon-fed small bits and pieces of the education we want them to get... At the end of each masterclass, that's where the magic happens. I upsell them."
The results? According to Thomas: "33% of people that complete at least one master class, they take the upsell or cross-sell, which is huge."
I wonder how many of us are leaving money on the table by not creating these educational touchpoints in our customer journey?
Building Community Around Your Subscription
Beyond individual education, Thomas emphasized the power of community in retention marketing:
"If you bring customers from Facebook, from Meta, build a Facebook group and put these people in there. You will generate a lot of UGC, a lot of social proof. They will do the selling for you because if there are a hundred thousand people on the Facebook group that love the product, you might think these people know something that I don't."
This creates a powerful retention engine - customers stay not just for the product, but for the community experience surrounding it.
Data shows that brands with active communities achieve customer retention rates up to 5x higher than those without community engagement programs[^2]. The social proof and sense of belonging create powerful psychological barriers to cancellation.
The Email Communication Gap
Perhaps the most surprising insight from our conversation was how few brands are taking full advantage of email in their retention strategy.
I've been guilty of this myself, wondering if we're sending too many emails. Thomas firmly rejects this concern:
"Brands don't send enough email. They don't communicate with the customers enough. That is a big takeaway. And if you're sending three or four emails post purchase, you're doing it all wrong. Sorry to say, but you are leaving so much on the table."
He compares email to a spoon - a simple but timeless tool that will never become obsolete:
"We might still send email to people when we go to space because it's the most reliable tool. We will never stop using email. So if brands are afraid of sending email, like would you be afraid of like eating with a spoon? It's a proven tool. Just use it."
Research supports this view, with studies showing that personalized post-purchase email sequences can increase repeat purchase rates by up to 73%[^3], yet most brands limit themselves to transactional emails only.
What Makes a Product "Subscription-Worthy"?
Not all products are ideal for subscription models. Thomas makes an interesting point about product categories that work best:
"People that drink coffee will never stop drinking coffee. People that take sleeping pills, they will never stop taking sleeping pills or they will find something that helps them sleep. All we do is basically try to fulfill our existing needs with a better product."
The takeaway? Subscriptions work best for products fulfilling ongoing needs rather than one-off desires or pure luxuries.
Research from McKinsey supports this, finding that replenishment-based subscriptions (items customers regularly repurchase) have a 45% higher retention rate than discovery or curation-based subscriptions[^4].
Practical Steps You Can Take Today
Based on our conversation with Thomas, here are some immediate actions to consider for your eCommerce business:
Map out your post-purchase experience: Pay particular attention to those critical first two weeks. Are you turning anxiety into excitement?
Re-evaluate your subscription offer: Is it truly compelling or just a discount? How could you space out value over time?
Create a post-purchase education sequence: What do customers need to know to get maximum value from your product?
Add strategic survey touchpoints: Use tools like Typeform to gather insights that enable personalized upsell opportunities.
Experiment with a community component: Could a Facebook group or other community platform enhance your customer experience?
As Thomas reminds us, "Retention is not an afterthought. It should be a part of the product itself."
Final Thoughts
After speaking with Thomas, I'm convinced that the future of eCommerce belongs to brands that master retention marketing - particularly through thoughtful subscription models that deliver ongoing value.
The mathematics are simple: in a world where customer acquisition costs continue to rise, the brands that can afford to pay the most to acquire customers will win. And those brands will be the ones with the best retention rates and highest customer lifetime values.
I wonder - is your retention marketing getting as much attention as your acquisition efforts? If not, perhaps it's time to rethink that balance.
You can listen to my full conversation with Thomas Lalas on the eCommerce Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms or at ecommercepodcast.net.
[^1]: Boosting e-commerce success with video reviews and educational content - Vajro (2023) [^2]: How Your DTC Brand Can Win With Educational Content - LinkedIn (2024) [^3]: Ecommerce personalization: benefits, challenges, and how to implement - Algolia (2024) [^4]: Subscription e-commerce market: 2025 update - McKinsey & Company (2025)