A consumables subscription automatically delivers a product customers use up, such as coffee, tea, razors, vitamins, pet food or toilet paper, on a regular schedule, usually at a small discount. Customers get convenience and never run out. You get predictable orders and a much higher lifetime value than one-off buyers, as long as delivery costs and churn are under control.
Key takeaways
- Consumables work when the product runs out on a predictable cycle and customers hate shopping for it.
- Most subscribe-and-save discounts sit between 5% and 15%; Amazon funds 5% on orders of five or more items.
- A subscriber can be worth twice a one-off buyer even at a lower margin per order, because they order more often.
- Convenience alone is a thin moat. Dollar Shave Club and Who Gives A Crap both ended up in supermarkets.
I have a favorite brand of peppermint tea.
Every four weeks, a batch lands on my doorstep. I never think about it. I never run out. And I save 10% on what I'd pay if I bought it one box at a time from Amazon.
It's not exciting. That's the point.
Peppermint tea doesn't last forever, so I pay a subscription to keep getting restocked. That's the consumables model in a nutshell, and it's one of the easiest subscription models for a product business to add.
What Is a Consumables Subscription?
Customers subscribe to a product they use and deplete. Because they'll need to replace it anyway, you deliver it automatically on a schedule they choose.
The value to the customer comes from three places:
- Convenience. Delivery is included, so nobody has to go to the shop.
- Automation of a mundane task. Buying razors, tea, vitamins or dog food is boring and easy to forget until you run out.
- A small saving. Usually 5% to 15% off the one-off price.
The value to you is simpler. One customer becomes 10 or 12 orders a year instead of two or three, and you can see those orders coming.
Consumables Subscription Examples: Then and Now
In the book I used Vitable, Dollar Shave Club and Amazon's Subscribe and Save. Here's where they are now, plus one of my favorite Australian stories.
Vitable. A Sydney-based company founded in 2019 by Larah Loutati and Ilyas Anane. You complete a health and lifestyle quiz, get a recommendation, and receive 30 personalized vitamin packs each month. When it raised a $5.5 million Series A in June 2021, more than 250,000 people had completed its online quiz the previous year, and it had expanded into Singapore and New Zealand. The quiz is the clever part: it turns a commodity (vitamins) into something that feels made for you.
Amazon Subscribe and Save. Still the benchmark. Amazon funds a 5% discount on Subscribe and Save orders of five items or more, and sellers can add their own 5% or 10% on top. That structure is worth copying: a base discount everyone gets, and a bigger one for customers who consolidate their orders.
Dollar Shave Club. Michael Dubin's launch video made razors funny, and Unilever paid $1 billion in cash for the company in 2016. In October 2023 Unilever sold a 65% stake to private-equity firm Nexus Capital Management, keeping 35%. Terms weren't disclosed. By then DSC was also selling through Walmart and Target, not just by subscription.
Who Gives A Crap. Co-founder Simon Griffiths sat on a toilet for 50 hours in 2012 to crowdfund the first production run. The model was recurring boxes of 24 or 48 rolls, with 50% of profits donated to sanitation charities. Since 2023 it has moved into Waitrose, Whole Foods and, from July 2025, Tesco, and it's in more than half of Australian supermarkets. UK filings summarized in a 2026 case study show £51.7 million of revenue in the year to June 2025. Read the full Who Gives A Crap case study.
What Dollar Shave Club teaches every consumables brand
The video built awareness. On its own, it didn't build a moat, because anyone can put razors in a box and post them. It's the same point I made in the book with dog biscuits: just because you sell them on subscription doesn't mean I can't set up a website overnight and do the same. Read what happened to Dollar Shave Club for the full story.
Who Should Use the Consumables Model (and Who Shouldn't)?
It's a strong fit when:
- The product runs out on a predictable cycle (a bag of coffee every two weeks, a tub of dog food every month).
- Customers find shopping for it boring or annoying.
- The order value comfortably covers delivery. Heavy, cheap products need big boxes to work.
- You can add personalization or a unique product that a supermarket can't match.
It's a weak fit when:
- People want to choose each time (fashion, gifts, treats). Look at subscription boxes instead.
- Usage is irregular, so customers end up with a cupboard full of stock and cancel.
- The same product is cheaper down the road, and your only advantage is delivery.
A Sample Consumables Offer
Here's an illustrative offer for a specialty coffee roaster. Prices include GST and are examples only.
| Taster | Regular | Office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | A$22 per delivery | A$45 per delivery | A$129 per delivery |
| What's included | 250g, roaster's pick | 1kg, your choice of blend | 3kg plus 1kg decaf |
| Frequency | Every 2 or 4 weeks | Every 2, 3 or 4 weeks | Weekly or fortnightly |
| Saving vs one-off | 10% | 10% plus free delivery | 15% plus free delivery |
| Extras | Brew guide | Skip or swap any time | Free grinder service every 6 months |
The Office tier is where the money is. Higher order value, a business customer who hates running out, and a service benefit that makes switching roasters a hassle.
What is a subscriber worth to you?
Plug in your price, margin and churn and the LTV Calculator shows what each subscriber is worth over their lifetime.
How Do You Price a Consumables Subscription?
The mistake I see most often is comparing margin per order. Subscribers usually earn you less per order than one-off buyers. They earn you far more per year.
Worked example: the roaster's Regular plan (all figures ex-GST)
A one-off buyer pays A$50 for a 1kg bag plus A$10 shipping, which is about A$54.55 ex-GST. Beans cost A$15, packaging and postage A$11, card fees about A$1.20. Gross profit: about A$27 per order. If a typical one-off buyer orders twice a year, they're worth about A$54 a year.
A subscriber pays A$45 with free delivery, about A$40.91 ex-GST. Same costs, about A$1 in fees. Gross profit: about A$14 per order, half as much. But if subscribers stay for an average of eight monthly deliveries, each one is worth about A$112. That's twice the one-off buyer, and you could plan your roasting schedule around them.
The formula behind that is simple:
Subscriber lifetime gross profit = Gross profit per order × Orders per month ÷ Monthly churn rateLTV CalculatorCustomer lifetime value for subscription businesses.Open the free tool →
Use the LTV Calculator with your own numbers. Then sense-check your price after GST, payment fees and postage with the Subscription Price Calculator. For more on tax, see GST on subscriptions.
Three pricing rules for consumables:
- Discount less, include more. Free delivery often matters more to customers than an extra 5% off.
- Reward bigger orders. Amazon's five-item threshold is a lesson in raising order value.
- Price for your churn, not your hopes. If subscribers leave after four deliveries, not eight, your lifetime value halves.
Free Subscription Profit Review
Australian business owners can book a free 30-minute review with a BPAG Accountants adviser. An honest conversation about:
- whether a subscription model could work for your business
- how recurring revenue could cover your fixed costs each month
- how it could lift what your business is worth
No cost, no obligation. General information only until we understand your situation.
What Are the Risks of a Consumables Subscription?
Stock pile-up. The number one reason replenishment subscribers cancel is that they have too much product. Let them skip, delay or change frequency in one click, and remind them before each order ships.
Delivery costs creep. Postage rises every year. Review your delivery costs at least once a year and build the increases into your price before they eat your margin.
Copycats. If all you offer is "the same thing, delivered," someone will do it cheaper. Build your moat with your own product, your brand or your data.
Sign-up and cancellation rules. In Australia, the subscription-trap rules that start on 1 July 2027 require clear disclosure of key terms, notices during the subscription (expected to include reminders before trials end and before renewals, with timing set by regulations not yet made as at October 2026), and an easy way to cancel. Check your flow against Australia's subscription trap laws now.
Churn. Every consumables business lives or dies on retention. The churn rate calculator shows what each cancelled subscriber costs you.
How Do You Combine Consumables With Other Models?
- With member benefits. Amazon runs Subscribe and Save alongside Prime. Members get free delivery; subscribers get automatic restocking. See the member benefits model.
- With a service. The roaster's Office plan includes grinder servicing, a little insurance-style peace of mind.
- With minimum commitment. Business customers (offices, cafés, clinics) will often commit to a minimum monthly volume in exchange for a better price.
- With retail. Who Gives A Crap and Dollar Shave Club both used subscriptions to prove demand, then took the brand into supermarkets.
If you sell online, my guide to e-commerce subscriptions goes deeper on the tech and the funnel.
What to Do Next
- Pull your sales data and find the products customers rebuy most often. Work out the average gap between orders.
- Set your default delivery frequency to match that gap, and let customers change it.
- Model the subscription price against your real postage and packaging costs, ex-GST.
- Add one thing a supermarket can't copy: a quiz, a blend, a service or a cause.
- Launch to existing repeat buyers first. They're the people most likely to say yes.
What do your customers run out of? Start there.
Frequently asked questions
How much discount should a subscribe and save offer give?
Enough to tip the decision, not so much that it wipes out your margin. Amazon funds a 5% discount on Subscribe and Save orders of five or more items and lets sellers add 5% or 10% on top. Many independent brands land at 10% plus free delivery. Test a smaller discount paired with a stronger benefit, like a free sample in every third box.
Should customers be able to skip or pause deliveries?
Yes. A skip button is one of the best churn-prevention tools you have. Customers who feel buried in stock cancel. Customers who can skip a month usually stay. Make skipping, changing frequency and changing quantity easier than cancelling, and send a reminder a few days before each order ships.
What products are worst for a consumables subscription?
Products people want to choose each time (fashion, gifts), products used irregularly (party supplies), and cheap, bulky goods that cost more to ship than they're worth. Who Gives A Crap made bulky toilet paper work by shipping 24- or 48-roll boxes, so the order value covered the freight.
Can a cafe or local shop run a consumables subscription?
Yes, and local businesses have an advantage: delivery or pick-up can be cheap. A cafe can sell a weekly bag of its house blend, a bakery a Saturday bread order, and a pet store a monthly food drop. Start with pick-up to avoid postage, then add local delivery once you have enough subscribers on one route.
How do I stop competitors copying my consumables subscription?
You can't stop them copying the delivery mechanism, so build something they can't copy: your own formulation, personalization based on customer data, a community, or a purpose customers believe in. The Subscription Playbook calls this digging your moat. Without one, a replenishment subscription gets competed down to commodity margins.
Get both books free
The Subscription Playbook (ebook + audiobook) and Feed a Starving Crowd, instantly. In Australia? Claim the free hardcover.
Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- Amazon: Subscribe & Save for sellers
- Business News Australia: Vitable raises $5.5m Series A (16 June 2021)
- Unilever announces the sale of Dollar Shave Club (26 October 2023)
- The Guardian: Who Gives a Crap co-founder aims for 'world domination' (27 July 2025)
- Causeartist: Who Gives A Crap impact business case study (secondary, 2026)
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.