Most Amazon sellers spend their money winning a customer once. Then they spend it again to win the same customer back. If you sell something people use up, like vitamins, coffee, pet food, or cleaning supplies, there's a better way: let customers subscribe.
That's what Amazon Subscribe & Save does. Customers sign up for repeat deliveries on a schedule, and you get orders you can plan around. But it comes with eligibility rules, discount choices that cut into your margin, and an in-stock standard you have to keep up.
In this article, you'll learn how Subscribe & Save works, who qualifies, how the discounts are split between you and Amazon, how to enroll, and how to grow subscriptions without losing money.
Repeat sales start with a product launch done right. This free checklist is used by Bubba Academy students to launch faster and avoid costly rookie mistakes.
According to Amazon's Subscribe & Save guide for sellers, the program lets customers sign up for recurring deliveries of products they use regularly. They choose how often items arrive, and orders keep coming until they change the schedule or cancel.
Customers get a discount of up to 15%. They can also change their delivery date or frequency and cancel at any time.
For you, Amazon lists these benefits:
Amazon also says, based on its internal data, that Subscribe & Save products with a 10% to 15% discount can drive up to a 1.8x increase in conversion on average. Treat that as a ceiling Amazon reports, not a promise for your product.
Amazon's guide lists these requirements for all sellers:
Your product also needs to be in an eligible category. Amazon's list includes Beauty, Grocery, Health & Baby Care, Automotive Parts & Tools, Electronics, Home Tools & Home Improvement, Industrial Supplies, Kitchen, Lawn & Garden, Musical Instruments, Office Supplies, Outdoors, Pet Supplies, Sports, and Toys.
If you use FBA, eligible products can be enrolled automatically. On its Subscribe & Save program page, Amazon says eligibility is based on category, average selling price, sales performance, fulfillment history, and in-stock rate.
If you fulfill orders yourself (Fulfilled by Merchant), you have to ask to enroll each product. Amazon's guide says your offers must meet all of these for at least three consecutive months:
The program page tells merchant-fulfilled sellers to contact Seller Support, while the guide says to submit a request in Seller Central. Either way, it's done one product at a time.
This is the part that affects your margin. Amazon says you choose a base discount of 0%, 5%, or 10%, and Amazon funds an extra 5% when a customer gets five or more subscription items in one delivery:
Products are enrolled at a 0% seller-funded discount by default. You can raise that to 5% or 10%.
Amazon says the program has no extra selling costs. You pay your normal selling fees and FBA costs. But any discount you fund comes out of your price.
Here's an illustrative example (not real data). Say you sell a product for $25.00. At a 10% seller-funded discount, a subscriber pays $22.50, so you give up $2.50 per unit. Before you pick 10%, ask whether your profit per unit can absorb that and still leave room for fees and ads. Our FBA fee calculator guide shows how to find your true per-unit cost first.
Amazon's guide says you can stack promotions:
Stacked discounts add up fast. If you're comparing promotion types, our guide to coupons, deals, and Prime Exclusive Discounts covers what each one costs.
Repeat buyers come from the right product, steady stock, and smart pricing. Bubba Academy's step-by-step program shows Amazon sellers how to build all three.
Based on Amazon's program page, here's the path:
On the Manage products tab, you can change your default enrollment discount and set the discount for each product. If an FBA product wasn't enrolled automatically, Amazon says the self-service eligibility check there can show you why. For more help, Amazon suggests sharing your marketplace ID, seller ID, ASIN, and SKU when you contact support.
Amazon calls keeping products in stock a key consideration for the program. That makes sense: a subscription is a promise to deliver on a date. If you run out, the order can't ship, and the 90% in-stock rate is part of eligibility.
The Dashboard tab in the Subscribe & Save tool has four sections, according to Amazon's guide:
Use the forecast to plan your reorders. Our post on the reorder point formula shows how to time restocks so you don't run out or overstock.
Amazon's guide recommends these steps:
Subscribe & Save can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers, but only if the discount fits your margin and your stock stays steady.
The key takeaways:
Your next step: Open the Subscribe & Save page in Seller Central, check which of your products are enrolled, and run the margin check above before you change any discount.
Bubba Academy trains sellers on product research, Brand Registry, listings, FBA, ads, and pricing, including how to pick products customers reorder and keep them in stock.
Join Bubba Academy Today →Amazon says there are no additional selling costs for the program. You pay standard selling fees and normal FBA costs. If you choose to fund a 5% or 10% discount, that discount comes out of your price.
Yes. Amazon says your products need to be part of a brand enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry, and you need to be a Brand Representative for that brand.
FBA products can be enrolled automatically. If you fulfill orders yourself, Amazon says you can ask to enroll each product. Your offers also need to meet delivery and performance targets for at least three months in a row.
You choose 0%, 5%, or 10%. Amazon adds a 5% discount when a customer gets five or more subscription items in one delivery. That means customers can get up to 15% off.
Yes. Amazon says you can create Subscribe & Save coupons that apply to the first delivery of a new subscription, and they can run for up to three months. You can also add deals on top of the subscription discount.