7 Questions to Ask Before Adding Merch to Your Subscription Rewards

by Emilia Rose

Adding merchandise to your online store can be difficult. But adding merch to your subscription can prove to be even more challenging, because rewards (typically) happen on a monthly recurring basis. Today we’ll dive into what to expect and to consider when offering merchandise through your subscription.

Where will you store your merch?

If you expect to deliver any type of merch that’s not print-on-demand (POD), you need a place to store it in your house, an assistant’s house, or–if money allows–a warehouse. Do you have an extra room to store the items away from pets and smoke?

What do your readers want? What will keep them in your merch tier?

If you’re sending new merch every month, you need to constantly have new designs and items that your readers want. What will keep them in your subscription? Do they like stickers? Clothing? Water bottles? Make sure that these items are in your price range and won’t cost more than what your tier price is set at. Always do your research on cost.

Shipping

Shipping books within the United States through media mail is fairly cheap, but when you begin shipping items that aren’t media through USPS, UPS, FedEx, or DHL, shipping costs increase drastically, especially for international shipping.

You need to take shipping costs into account when pricing your tiers. I would recommend not sending merchandise monthly at $10 or under, unless you can ship it inside a small envelope with a stamp.

A great place to find the best shipping prices is https://www.pirateship.com/.

Sizes

Are you offering clothing? Make sure that you take clothing sizes into account. You can’t send everyone a small, medium, or even large shirt. Some females prefer oversized male clothing to female clothing too. Some countries don’t size clothing the same either.

Time

If you’re sending items, you need to set aside time to print labels, correctly label every package, pack the box, drive to the post office to ship it out, and then drive home. Every single month. Make sure you have time in your schedule to do everything.

One-Time Rewards

While you might consider only offering merch as a one-time reward for joining a specific tier, it might not be the best reward for keeping your subscriber in that higher tier.

If they are getting an exclusive one-time benefit, they might join for a month and then leave that tier or your subscription entirely because the order has been fulfilled. Or if you have merch on your website too, they might decide that they’ll buy your merch there instead as a one-time purchase.

To get around this, you can offer merch rewards after a subscriber has been in a specific tier for a set length of time (i.e. three months).

Research

Research what other authors are offering through subscriptions, like CJ Primer (steamy paranormal romance author), Elisabeth Wheatley (fantasy author), K Webster (steamy romance author), and more!

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