Boka Oral Care Subscription Case Study: Month 3 Retention From 41% to 63%

Boka sells oral care on subscription, and month 3 retention sat below 50%. We rebuilt the moments that decide it: the renewal, the failed card and the cancel. Month 3 retention went from 41% to 63%.

Same brand, same products, better retention.

The brand and the problem

Boka sells non-toxic, fluoride-free oral care on monthly subscription, and too few subscribers stayed to month 3. Boka is for adults who want nature-based oral care that works, with the routine kept stocked by subscription.

We onboarded Boka in May 2024 through the digital brand platform Heyday, the same month as FreshCap and ZitSticka. Boka wanted more people on its subscription, and more of them to stay. Month 3 subscription retention sat below 50%.

What we found

Boka's subscribers decided to stay or leave at three moments: the renewal, the failed card and the cancel. Those three needed their own emails, built on Recharge events.

Retention was low and did not lead to many repeat buyers. The email list had over 344K people on it, and the brand was not sending regular campaigns to them.

What we built

We rebuilt Boka's renewal reminder, failed payment emails and cancel flow on Recharge, and put the subscription pitch in every flow.

The subscription offer

Every core flow made the case for subscribing. Buyers with two or more orders and over $100 spent got a VIP offer of their own. One in four campaigns each month had a section for the subscription.

Platform: Recharge events start the flows

The renewal reminder, the failed payment emails and the cancel follow-ups all start from Recharge events. Active subscribers were left out of the regular campaigns.

The renewal reminder

Three days before each renewal, the subscriber gets a simple "your subscription is due" email. Right under it sit the options to skip, pause or swap products. We didn't call them that. We called it "Need to make an adjustment?" Below that, four cross-sells: mouthwash, tongue cleaner, toothpaste packs and bundles. The copy changes with tenure, with one version for a first renewal, one for the third and one after that.

Failed payments

When a Recharge charge failed, three plain text emails went out, 2, 3 and 4 days apart. Each one was written around why the card failed, because a bank decline and an expired card need different fixes.

Cancel and winback

A cancelled subscriber gets a short survey first. Then two or three reminders with a free gift and a discount to restart. An extended winback flow and a last active buyer flow reach people who drifted without cancelling.

Lifecycle flows

In 2 months we built 7 core Boka automations: welcome, browse abandonment, cart abandonment, incomplete checkout, extended winback, canceled subscription and last active buyer.

Campaigns, pop-ups and SMS

We planned a monthly campaign calendar around the best-selling products. The copy was educational, but not patronizing. Welcome pop-ups named the visitor's pain point and what Boka offered for it: a solution and a discount. As the list grew, SMS carried the limited-time offers.

Results

Boka's month 3 retention went from 41% to 63%. We read it from the month 3 column of Boka's Triple Whale cohort table, cohorts before the work against cohorts after it.

• Month 3 retention: 41% to 63%, Triple Whale cohort table.
• Churn after the new renewal reminder: down 18% in 90 days.
• AOV per renewal cycle: up $12.

Email numbers from the first month

In the first month, email made $192K: $121K from automations and $70.6K from campaigns. Campaign AOV went from $44.87 to $57.88, up 28.99%. Deliverability rose 83.51%, with 1.39M emails delivered. The open rate was 47.28%, 11.16% higher than the month before.

What you can copy

Fix the renewal, the failed card and the cancel before you touch anything else.

• Send the renewal reminder three days before the charge, and put skip, pause and swap right under the date.
• Call those options "Need to make an adjustment?" instead of skip, pause and swap.
• Add a few add-ons below. Boka used four.
• Change the reminder copy by tenure: the first renewal, the third, and after.
• Write failed payment emails around why the card failed. A bank decline and an expired card need different fixes.
• Ask a cancelled subscriber why before you offer a gift or a discount.

The full reminder build is in the subscription reminder email guide. The card side is in failed subscription payments.

FAQs

What results did Boka get from its subscription program?

Boka's month 3 retention went from 41% to 63%, read from the Triple Whale cohort table. Its new renewal reminder cut churn 18% in 90 days.

Which subscription app does Boka use?

Boka runs its subscriptions on Recharge. The renewal reminder, the failed payment emails and the cancellation follow-ups all start from Recharge events.

What does Boka's renewal reminder include?

It goes out three days before the charge, with skip, pause and swap options under the line "Need to make an adjustment?" and four add-ons below. It cut churn 18% in 90 days and added $12 of AOV per renewal cycle. The build is in the subscription reminder email guide.

What happens when a Boka subscriber cancels?

They get a short survey first, then two or three reminders with a free gift and a discount to restart.

Find where your own subscription program leaks

The free Subscription LTV Scorecard finds the leaks in your subscription program. It scores your program on 48 checkpoints across 8 dimensions, from public data, and lands in your inbox within 24 hours.

About the author

Rahi Jain

Rahi Jain is a subscription LTV specialist who helps $1M to $10M DTC brands reduce subscription churn and maximize LTV on Recharge, Skio, Stay AI and Loop.

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