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Chewy does this really well, and follows this same advice. I get pet food on subscription. Chewy sends me a notice my order is about to ship. I can skip or can

Chewy does this really well, and follows this same advice. I get pet food on subscription. Chewy sends me a notice my order is about to ship. I can skip or cancel if I want. Shopify on the other hand is hostile. I have a small store there I've deprioritized. They have a $9 / mo inactive plan, where they keep your stuff but customers can't buy. If you want to stop paying, they delete all of your stuff & domain: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/pause-deactivate-store#close-your-store https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/pause-deacti...

yeeyeeyee 4y ago
It makes sense, it could look really bad for Chewy. Say your cat got eaten by a pit bull, and then a week later you're reminded what happened by a box of cat food they automatically shipped to your door.
- valarauko 4y ago
  tbf I doubt you'd forget about your mauled cat in a week
- lupire 4y ago
  Chewy is famous for sending condolence gifts to customers whose pets died.
bena 4y ago
Yeah. Chewy's autoship is pretty nice. We have two cats and we've got the quantities and timing to where just as they're going through the last of their current food, the next shipment arrives. That and we have a subscription box from Meowbox for them as well. We used to get treats, but they didn't like the majority of them so it's just toys now.
yesUgotit 4y ago
Amazon subscribe and save is the same thing. I use it for toiletries and other routine consumables at home. Amazon trucks are going to be on the road anyway; may as well save my car trips for actually interesting trips.
- notimetorelax 4y ago
  Yup, at first it seems wasteful to order delivery, but if you go shopping yourself you still end up driving.
  - tertius 4y ago
    I drive car wagon with a large spacious rear area. I limit my shopping trips, I buy in bulk. You have to be very disciplined to get as efficient with Amazon. It's probably not really possible.
    - noisycarlos 4y ago
      Amazon day is probably similar. There's a designated day of the week where they deliver everything I've ordered that week. I don't have hard data, but it makes sense that if more than one person in my building/block/etc does the same (thus sharing the same delivery vehicle), it's probably less driving/gas overall.
    - brewdad 4y ago
      I have 6 neighbors in my cul-de-sac. The Amazon truck probably visits 5 out of 7 days a week. I never worried about whether my Amazon purchases were wasteful based on trucks and fuel. They were quite wasteful in the sense that I bought a lot of cheap crap I didn't actually need.
      - patates 4y ago
        This is the worst thing about it. Holding something and deciding if it's worth your money is a much longer process than clicking "buy now", and you've probably don't even remember doing it when the goods show up in front of your door.
        tertius 4y ago
        Just shop with a list and don't break the rule of not buying anything not on the list.
gremlinsinc 4y ago
This is why I recommend Woocommerce over Shopify, I already have hosting, if I'm gonna try and make some money in ecommerce, might as well try it without having limits. I can have unlimited products/choices on WooCommerce. WP is a shit show, but so is Shopify's subscription model. Personally, I'd like to see them move to a model where it's completely free until you have 100 sales, then you have to upgrade or something. That would encourage more people to use/try it, plus give them a chance to actually see success and start their small business, rather than fail because they're running out of money for their business.
- Something1234 4y ago
  Yeah that would just encourage the scammers out there. Atomic Shrimp on youtube covers a lot of these scammers. I would say 100 views of the cart by distinct ip addresses to cover people just randomly opening shopify accounts.
medion 4y ago
Actually they retain store data for years. I shut my store down and didn’t pay for a year or two, as I had too much other work on. I later re-opened my account and voila my entire store and data appeared. I was rather grateful.
- tluyben2 4y ago
  But you can’t really count on that right? Maybe they stop doing that at some random time and after that cancelled users are not so lucky.
bombcar 4y ago
I suspect those "reminder emails" from Chewy/Amazon etc actually get them MORE sales than they lose by people delaying/cancelling the subscription. You get an email and you remember you wanted to add something, and you go ahead and buy it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- brewdad 4y ago
  I've certainly done it both ways. Pushing a shipment back or outright canceling it. I've also added a whole bunch of additional things. In the long run, they still get most of my pet food/toy money.
  - Xylakant 4y ago
    I’m really reluctant to have a subscription for items where you can’t exactly predict the usage - it’s either too little or accumulates. Having the option to skip deliveries is a must.
awillen 4y ago
Why should Shopify store all your information if you stop paying them? You can export everything you need from your Shopify account. They never offer a free tier to anyone, so it's not like they trick with you a free service and then force you to keep paying to store stuff you created while it was free. The $9/month is a very small amount and a meaningful discount from their cheapest option at $29/month. How is that hostile?
- yunohn 4y ago
  We’re on HN - we both want free services, but also don’t want them to ever become paid. It’s a fine line.
- lupire 4y ago
  Will they also import your data again if you want to reopen store in future?
- tluyben2 4y ago
  They could store it on aws glacier or something and it would cost them cents per month. They probably do something like that anyway when you cancel as someone said they could restore their shop after having cancelled two years before that. $9 is quite a lot for something that does nothing. I often have side projects ‘I need to come back to some day’ and then 3 years later I think ah… not good if that was 3x12x9. Export is great if you are guaranteed to be able to just import and it will work as before. I don’t see that much; usually exports from years back give a nice ‘your export was done with an older version, sorry’. How does that work with shopify export/import?
  - awillen 4y ago
    None of this is really relevant - Shopify is a paid service, has always been a paid service, and clearly markets itself as a paid service. Just because it's cheap for them to store information doesn't mean you should expect them to do it for you. They only want to deal with paying customers, so when you elect to stop being a paying customer, they get rid of your information. That is a perfectly reasonable business practice - not "hostile" as the comment I was responding to called it.

yeeyeeyee 4y ago

It makes sense, it could look really bad for Chewy. Say your cat got eaten by a pit bull, and then a week later you're reminded what happened by a box of cat food they automatically shipped to your door.

valarauko 4y ago
tbf I doubt you'd forget about your mauled cat in a week
lupire 4y ago
Chewy is famous for sending condolence gifts to customers whose pets died.

bena 4y ago

Yeah. Chewy's autoship is pretty nice. We have two cats and we've got the quantities and timing to where just as they're going through the last of their current food, the next shipment arrives. That and we have a subscription box from Meowbox for them as well. We used to get treats, but they didn't like the majority of them so it's just toys now.

yesUgotit 4y ago

Amazon subscribe and save is the same thing. I use it for toiletries and other routine consumables at home. Amazon trucks are going to be on the road anyway; may as well save my car trips for actually interesting trips.

notimetorelax 4y ago
Yup, at first it seems wasteful to order delivery, but if you go shopping yourself you still end up driving.
- tertius 4y ago
  I drive car wagon with a large spacious rear area. I limit my shopping trips, I buy in bulk. You have to be very disciplined to get as efficient with Amazon. It's probably not really possible.
  - noisycarlos 4y ago
    Amazon day is probably similar. There's a designated day of the week where they deliver everything I've ordered that week. I don't have hard data, but it makes sense that if more than one person in my building/block/etc does the same (thus sharing the same delivery vehicle), it's probably less driving/gas overall.
  - brewdad 4y ago
    I have 6 neighbors in my cul-de-sac. The Amazon truck probably visits 5 out of 7 days a week. I never worried about whether my Amazon purchases were wasteful based on trucks and fuel. They were quite wasteful in the sense that I bought a lot of cheap crap I didn't actually need.
    - patates 4y ago
      This is the worst thing about it. Holding something and deciding if it's worth your money is a much longer process than clicking "buy now", and you've probably don't even remember doing it when the goods show up in front of your door.
      - tertius 4y ago
        Just shop with a list and don't break the rule of not buying anything not on the list.

gremlinsinc 4y ago

This is why I recommend Woocommerce over Shopify, I already have hosting, if I'm gonna try and make some money in ecommerce, might as well try it without having limits. I can have unlimited products/choices on WooCommerce. WP is a shit show, but so is Shopify's subscription model. Personally, I'd like to see them move to a model where it's completely free until you have 100 sales, then you have to upgrade or something. That would encourage more people to use/try it, plus give them a chance to actually see success and start their small business, rather than fail because they're running out of money for their business.

Something1234 4y ago
Yeah that would just encourage the scammers out there. Atomic Shrimp on youtube covers a lot of these scammers. I would say 100 views of the cart by distinct ip addresses to cover people just randomly opening shopify accounts.

medion 4y ago

Actually they retain store data for years. I shut my store down and didn’t pay for a year or two, as I had too much other work on. I later re-opened my account and voila my entire store and data appeared. I was rather grateful.

tluyben2 4y ago
But you can’t really count on that right? Maybe they stop doing that at some random time and after that cancelled users are not so lucky.

bombcar 4y ago

I suspect those "reminder emails" from Chewy/Amazon etc actually get them MORE sales than they lose by people delaying/cancelling the subscription. You get an email and you remember you wanted to add something, and you go ahead and buy it.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
brewdad 4y ago
I've certainly done it both ways. Pushing a shipment back or outright canceling it. I've also added a whole bunch of additional things. In the long run, they still get most of my pet food/toy money.
- Xylakant 4y ago
  I’m really reluctant to have a subscription for items where you can’t exactly predict the usage - it’s either too little or accumulates. Having the option to skip deliveries is a must.

awillen 4y ago

Why should Shopify store all your information if you stop paying them? You can export everything you need from your Shopify account. They never offer a free tier to anyone, so it's not like they trick with you a free service and then force you to keep paying to store stuff you created while it was free. The $9/month is a very small amount and a meaningful discount from their cheapest option at $29/month. How is that hostile?

yunohn 4y ago
We’re on HN - we both want free services, but also don’t want them to ever become paid. It’s a fine line.
lupire 4y ago
Will they also import your data again if you want to reopen store in future?
tluyben2 4y ago
They could store it on aws glacier or something and it would cost them cents per month. They probably do something like that anyway when you cancel as someone said they could restore their shop after having cancelled two years before that. $9 is quite a lot for something that does nothing. I often have side projects ‘I need to come back to some day’ and then 3 years later I think ah… not good if that was 3x12x9. Export is great if you are guaranteed to be able to just import and it will work as before. I don’t see that much; usually exports from years back give a nice ‘your export was done with an older version, sorry’. How does that work with shopify export/import?
- awillen 4y ago
  None of this is really relevant - Shopify is a paid service, has always been a paid service, and clearly markets itself as a paid service. Just because it's cheap for them to store information doesn't mean you should expect them to do it for you. They only want to deal with paying customers, so when you elect to stop being a paying customer, they get rid of your information. That is a perfectly reasonable business practice - not "hostile" as the comment I was responding to called it.