Smoothie King Launches Subscription as Restaurants Leverage Memberships to Drive Loyalty

For restaurants, subscription programs offer the opportunity to create an ongoing relationship with consumers, deepening their connection to the brand.

Smoothie chain Smoothie King announced Wednesday (April 13) the launch of its “Nourish Daily” subscription program, allowing consumers in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area to order custom ingredient boxes for them to blend the smoothie at home. The boxes can be ordered for pickup or scheduled delivery in quantities of seven, 14 or 21.

“Nourish Daily saves our guests time, money and effort by giving them great-tasting purposeful smoothies straight from their freezer to blender to cup,” Rebecca Miller, chief marketing officer of Smoothie King, said in a statement.

There is significant untapped demand for subscriptions. Research from PYMNTS’ February/March study “Digital Divide: Restaurant Subscribers and Loyalty Programs,” created in collaboration with Paytronix, found that 17% of consumers who are not currently members of any restaurant subscription services are “very” or “extremely” interested subscribing in the future. Additionally, 42% of U.S. consumers are curious about them but have yet to sign up.

Read more: Four in 10 Consumers Open to Restaurant Subscription Services

Moreover, the study also found that those who are members of restaurants subscription programs are more likely to engage with restaurants’ loyalty programs. In fact, they are twice as likely as the overall population to use these programs at both full-service restaurants (FSRs) and quick-service restaurants (QSRs).

For restaurants, subscriptions offer a way to deepen relationships with customers, embedding their offerings further in consumers’ lives.

“There isn’t a company that we talk to today that isn’t thinking about in some way offering a recurring model for products that traditionally had not been purchased that way,” Trace Galloway, chief strategy officer at Vindicia, told PYMNTS in an interview. “A good loyalty or membership or club concept will build brand affinity and loyalty in a way that, long term, will serve those businesses very well.”

See more: Subscription Merchants Challenged to Create ‘Ideal Experience’ to Reduce Customer Churn

Notably, Smoothie King’s subscription offering stands apart from many other restaurants’ programs in that it provides a service to consumers at home. Other brands have been using subscriptions to draw customers back into the restaurant itself, presenting further opportunities to drive purchasing.

Take, for instance, Panera Bread’s “Unlimited Sip Club” subscription, offering consumers a free beverage every two hours in stores. Other brands have leveraged these sorts of subscription programs as limited-time promotions. For instance, earlier this year, Taco Bell ran its “Taco Lover’s Pass” daily taco subscription program, and Sweetgreen announced a pilot of its daily credit “sweetpass” subscription program.

Read more: Taco Bell Rolls out ‘Taco Lover’s Pass’ Nationwide as Restaurant Subscriptions See Mixed Results

In an interview with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in December, Paytronix CEO Andrew Robbins discussed the potential of these types of subscription programs to drive visits, citing the example of a Mexican chain the company is working with.

“They’re doing free salsa and guac,” he said. “It’s a small amount of money, but those people who sign up for that come in 30% more frequently than people who don’t. It locks them in. And so, instead of coming 1.7 times a month, they come in 2.7 times a month.”

See more: Restaurants Lean on Loyal Customers to Navigate Omicron, Inflation Impact