repeat Raises $6 Million Series A to Simplify Reordering

The Shift Away From Traditional Subscriptions

Digital service subscriptions, such as those offered by Netflix and Spotify, have gained widespread acceptance. However, applying this model to the regular repurchase of everyday items and household necessities has proven less successful.

Despite attempts by retailers, including Amazon, to incentivize subscription-based purchasing with discounts, consumers have generally resisted the concept of automatically scheduled reordering.

Repeat: A New Approach to Replenishment

A company named Repeat proposes a different solution to the challenge of recurring purchases. Rather than enforcing subscriptions, Repeat analyzes a customer’s buying patterns to determine the optimal time to suggest a reorder.

This system delivers a customized shopping cart, streamlining the reordering process and making it efficient for the consumer.

Growing Adoption in the CPG Market

Currently, 67 companies within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector utilize Repeat’s service. These include well-known brands such as By Humankind (personal care), Jot (coffee), Vegamour (haircare), Youth to the People (skincare), Osea (skincare), hydrant (rapid hydration packets), Twice (toothpaste), and lemon perfect (flavored water).

$6 Million Series A Funding

Repeat recently announced a $6 million Series A funding round, spearheaded by Battery Ventures. Seed investors Mucker Capital and Harlem Capital also participated in this investment.

Neeraj Agrawal, a general partner at Battery Ventures with expertise in enterprise software-as-a-service, will now join Repeat’s board of directors following the round’s completion.

From Apparel Startup to Replenishment Solution

The genesis of Repeat lies in the experiences of co-founders Kim Stiefel and Sarah Wissel. They initially launched their own direct-to-consumer apparel brand, UNDR, which focused on essential clothing items like socks, t-shirts, and underwear.

Leveraging their backgrounds in marketing and advertising technology, they aimed to apply their expertise to build a successful business.

The Challenges of Forced Subscriptions

After introducing a quarterly t-shirt subscription, the founders quickly realized the difficulties of establishing a new brand and securing customer commitment to ongoing purchases.

Customer feedback revealed a general dissatisfaction with the rigidity of scheduled reordering, as consumption rates for household products vary.

The Flaws of a Fixed Schedule

Unlike services like Netflix, which provide access to a catalog, household product usage isn’t consistent. Subscriptions can lead to receiving items prematurely or, conversely, running out before the next delivery arrives.

This can be both inconvenient and environmentally unfriendly.

Recognizing Consumer Preference

“We should have known that,” Stiefel, now Repeat’s CEO, reflects on the negative customer response to subscriptions. “We questioned whether we ourselves subscribed to any products, and the answer was ‘no.’”

This realization prompted the founders to abandon the subscription model in favor of a more flexible approach.

The “Nudge” to Reorder

Instead of mandating subscriptions, Repeat focuses on “nudging” customers to reorder at the most appropriate time, determined by their past purchase history.

Evolution into a Service for E-commerce Brands

Following a year of testing personalized reminders for their own brand, Stiefel and Wissel decided to transform their startup into a service available to any e-commerce CPG company.

How Repeat Works: Personalized Shopping Carts

Repeat enables brands to convert one-time buyers into repeat customers. The service analyzes a company’s purchase data to understand typical replenishment intervals for each product (SKU).

It then sends personalized reminders via email or text, linking to a “replenishment cart.” Customers can postpone the reminder or proceed to checkout.

Customization and Flexibility

The replenishment cart is tailored to each customer, pre-filled with the products they need, and offers additional suggestions. Crucially, customers can modify the cart contents – selecting different flavors, sizes, or other variations.

Continuous Learning and Future Vision

As customers interact with Repeat, the service learns their individual reordering patterns, refining its recommendations over time. Repeat’s long-term goal is to create a universal cart allowing customers to reorder from multiple CPG brands in a single location.

Impressive Cart Conversion Rates

“There’s a lot of logic that goes into making that cart experience work as well as it does,” Stiefel explains. “The cart typically achieves a 25% conversion rate, with some brands seeing rates of 40% or 45%.”

She adds that customers often complete checkout in under 15 seconds, highlighting the efficiency of the system.

The Importance of Accurate Timing

A key challenge for Repeat is ensuring the timing of its reminders is accurate. Poorly timed notifications could be perceived as intrusive, leading customers to opt out.

Repeat’s Revenue Model

Repeat generates revenue through a monthly SaaS fee, combined with a percentage of the revenue driven by its replenishment carts.

For brands with fewer than 2,000 monthly non-subscription orders, the fee is $99 per month plus 5% of cart revenue. For brands exceeding 10,000 monthly non-subscription orders, the fee is $499 per month plus 5% of cart revenue. The company has not disclosed its overall revenue.

Future Growth and Expansion

Based in Los Angeles, Repeat plans to use the new funding to expand its team across all departments, including engineering, product development, sales, marketing, and growth.

The company has grown from three employees at the start of the year and aims to reach 15-20 by year-end, with a distributed team across the U.S.

Scaling the Business with QR Codes

Repeat is also focused on scaling its business, recently introducing QR codes that redirect users to a Repeat cart, even for first-time shoppers discovering a brand through referrals.

Reimagining CPG Subscriptions

Repeat envisions a future where CPG subscriptions are more flexible and responsive to individual consumer needs.

The Limitations of Current Subscription Models

“The problem with subscription today is that it’s fixed, and time-based and rigid, and not rooted in any kind of real consumption cadence,” Stiefel states.

Leveraging Data for Dynamic Subscriptions

“Because Repeat focuses on that all a carte reordering experience, and because we’re looking at repeat behavior across individual product SKUs, we actually know a tremendous amount about consumption behavior across every category of CPG. I think what you’ll see from us in the future is being able to leverage that data to offer more flexible dynamic subscription experiences,” she concludes.