How ecomm subscription services are breaking all the UX rules | by Beth J

Enticing discounts encourage more sign-ups, but a lousy user experience leads to surprise charges and frustrated customers.

Last month, I sat down on the couch with my morning coffee to casually check my email and was blind-sided by one in particular that read, “Congratulations, your order has been processed!” What order? I hadn’t placed an order. At first, I thought it was a fraudulent charge, but it was not. It was a legit order from my go-to health and beauty company, totaling over $400. Yikes!

I may have shrieked out loud… or spit out my coffee. I don’t remember. But I definitely cried. The tone in the email was enthusiastic, but I was anything but that. I felt defiant. I didn’t want this order. I couldn’t afford this order, and I’d not received any prior notification to inform me these items were about to ship automatically. Honestly, I’d forgotten entirely about them, TBH. The last thing I wanted to do was have a talk with my wife about $400 worth of facial cleaners and lotions on their way.

This is the issue with how many e-commerce and service companies operate product subscriptions, and it has to stop.

They incentivize consumers to sign up for subscriptions left and right by offering 15–25% discounts at the cost of a one-time purchase. They are getting more sign-ups but are also creating a whole group of individuals who, like me, forget they even enrolled in a subscription the second after the order is placed.

Users rely on the company and the website platform to notify them when their order will ship next so they can either cancel or choose the right time for the next shipment. But that’s not always happening, and in many cases, that’s on purpose.

A forgotten recurring subscription, charged automatically and not refundable, works well for a company but poorly for the user.

Right after I read the order confirmation that morning, I went to the website to see if I could cancel it, and I saw this message: “We work to get your orders out as fast as possible, so orders can not be canceled or refunded once placed.”