Episode 15: Adapting to the Changing Subscription Space with Jordan Salvit, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of KitNipBox

In this episode of the Subscriptions: Scaled podcast, Nick Fredrick, President of Rebar Technology Solutions, is joined by Jordan Salvit, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of KitNipBox. Jordan dives into his experience working in subscription over the last seven years and shares valuable insight around leveraging subscriber feedback, prioritizing acquisition strategies, and retaining customers.

What is KitNipBox?

KitNipBox is a subscription box for cats that first started in 2014. Subscription was not a popular business model at the time, and there were less resources, information, and knowledge available around subscription. Because of this, Jordan and his team had to build out KitNipBox entirely from scratch.

Leveraging Subscriber Feedback

When KitNipBox first began, customers were only able to subscribe to boxes with both toys and treats. However, Jordan shares that multiple customers began reaching out to them to express concerns over their cats having sensitive stomachs or picky tastes, and requesting a box with only toys. KitNipBox pivoted to accommodate their subscribers’ requests, and subscribers can now choose from either a $19.99 box with toys and treats, or a $29.99 box with toys and the option to sub-out treats for more toys.

Jordan emphasizes the importance of both keeping an open channel of communication between the business and subscribers, as well as taking action on their feedback and implementing changes accordingly. He also highlights the power and impact of allowing subscribers a greater level of customization and control in their subscriptions.

Prioritizing Acquisition Strategy

When KitNipBox first started, their marketing efforts were focused almost entirely around search. As they grew, they realized that they needed to start expanding into other marketing channels. 

Jordan explains that to help sort through the plethora of marketing channels available and identify which ones to actually target, the team created a list of all the marketing channels, as well as a series of considerations for each. For example, when considering email marketing, the team would ask questions around what the email channel would need to look like overall, what their email cadence would be, how they would go about optimizing it, and so on. 

This helped KitNipBox narrow down which channels to explore, and after analyzing the performance and impact of each, identify the specific channels to focus their marketing efforts on. 

Optimizing Customer Retention

Some subscription businesses opt to make their subscription cancellation process as difficult as possible in order to retain their subscribers. Jordan shares that at KitNipBox, they take the opposite approach and make it as easy as possible for subscribers to cancel their subscription. He explains that by doing this, there is a higher chance that subscribers who churn will return to the subscription later on because they believe it will be just as easy to reactivate as it was to cancel. They will also be left with a positive last experience with the company, rather than a negative experience filled with frustration and annoyance. 

Balancing Build vs. Buy

When Jordan first co-founded KitNipBox seven years ago, the subscription space was incredibly young. There weren’t as many third party out-of-box software solutions available, and KitNipBox had to build out most things from scratch. Because of this, Jordan found himself being more selective with what they built and would ensure that the company genuinely needed these things before dedicating the time and resources to building them out.

While there are many more tools and out-of-box options available today, Jordan still emphasizes the importance of making sure that everything that is either built or bought is core to and directly contributing to the business.

To hear more from Jordan, tune into this episode of the Subscriptions: Scaled podcast.

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