Bear Market Coffee
Bear Market – Building a Subscription-First Growth Engine
By leveraging social ads, search ads and email marketing.
Project Overview
Bear Market, one of Dublin’s leading specialty coffee brands, approached Strike Digital with a clear goal: to shift their online sales model from one-time coffee purchases to a scalable, subscription-based revenue stream.
After a decade of success in retail cafés, Bear Market wanted to strengthen their eCommerce presence and create a more predictable, recurring revenue model that reflected their loyal offline customer base.
Their challenges included:
Heavy reliance on one-off online sales with minimal recurring revenue.
A Shopify store and checkout flow not optimised for subscriptions.
Paid media and email campaigns focused on short-term conversions rather than lifetime value (LTV).
Limited retention workflows or win-back automations for online customers.
Strike Digital’s task was to build and execute a performance marketing strategy that not only grew online revenue quickly, but also laid the foundation for long-term subscription growth — powered by the Recharge App on Shopify.
Project Execution
1. Audit & Strategic Planning
We began with a deep audit across all key platforms — Meta, Google, Klaviyo, and Shopify — to assess performance baselines, identify friction points, and map opportunities to introduce subscription-based messaging.
Our insights showed that Bear Market’s audience had strong repeat-purchase intent but lacked exposure to a seamless subscription option. This insight became the cornerstone of our strategy.
2. Shopify & Recharge Integration
We implemented the Recharge App to enable flexible subscription options (e.g., monthly and bi-monthly deliveries).
Our actions included:
Designing dedicated subscription landing pages with clear value propositions (convenience, savings, freshness).
Adding a subscription toggle on product pages and pre-selecting “Subscribe & Save” as the default option.
Simplifying checkout with one-click subscription setup and clear “pause, skip, or cancel anytime” messaging.
Setting up Recharge integrations with Klaviyo for lifecycle automation and churn prevention.
3. Paid Media Campaigns
We rebuilt Bear Market’s paid media structure around a subscription-first funnel:
Top of Funnel (Awareness):
Introduced audiences to Bear Market’s brand and story through lifestyle creatives and “Join the Coffee Club” messaging.Middle of Funnel (Consideration):
Highlighted the benefits of subscribing — freshness, convenience, and savings. Retargeted engaged users with testimonial ads and content featuring recurring customers.Bottom of Funnel (Conversion):
Focused on converting previous purchasers into subscribers with “Make it a monthly ritual” creative variations.
We also implemented Dynamic Product Ads that prioritised subscription products.
Campaigns were run across Meta and Google, with coordinated messaging and consistent subscription CTAs.
4. Email & Retention Flows
In Klaviyo, we redesigned Bear Market’s entire post-purchase experience to nurture subscription adoption and retention:
One-Time Buyer Flow: Encouraged repeat buyers to subscribe with incentive-based follow-ups.
New Subscriber Welcome Flow: Educated customers on managing their subscription through Recharge, emphasising control and flexibility.
Win-Back Flow: Targeted paused or cancelled subscribers with personalised reactivation offers.
Referral Flow: Encouraged existing subscribers to refer friends for rewards or free coffee bags.
All flows were deeply integrated with Recharge to automate triggers based on subscription status changes.
5. Data Tracking & Optimisation
We introduced new KPIs specific to subscription performance:
Cost per Subscription Acquisition (CPSA)
Subscription Conversion Rate (from PDPs and checkout)
Churn Rate and Retention Time
Subscriber Lifetime Value (LTV)
Weekly reporting and creative iteration allowed us to optimise for sustainable recurring growth, rather than short-term ROAS alone.
Results
In the first month following launch, Bear Market saw immediate and measurable success:
+82% growth in total online sales compared to the previous year.
+7% year-on-year increase in conversion rate.
+16% year-on-year increase in average order value (AOV).
Subscriptions (via Recharge) quickly became a core driver of eCommerce revenue, accounting for a significant and growing share of total sales.
Customer retention improved sharply, with subscription customers showing 3x the repeat purchase rate of one-time buyers.
The cost per new subscription (CPSA) came in under target within the first two months.
Projected subscriber LTV exceeded one-time buyer LTV by over 250%.
Beyond short-term sales growth, Bear Market’s Shopify store is now built around a subscription-first model — giving the brand predictable monthly revenue and stronger relationships with its most loyal customers.
Bear Market’s transformation highlights how combining Recharge + Shopify, a data-driven paid media strategy, and retention-focused lifecycle marketing can turn an established retail brand into a scalable, subscription-powered eCommerce business.
Strike Digital continues to partner with Bear Market to optimise and expand the program — introducing new subscription tiers, referral campaigns, and geographic expansion beyond Ireland.
