What is subscription fatigue?

Subscription fatigue refers to consumers’ deteriorating interest in a subscription or service, resulting in their cancellation. This is often due to feeling overwhelmed by their numerous subscriptions or losing sight of the value each subscription brings. It goes hand-in-hand with churn, where uncertainty, mental exhaustion and subscription overload leads to diminished satisfaction with the subscription experience.  

What is causing subscription fatigue? 

With the ever-increasing number of subscriptions consumers have, decision overload is inevitable. Mounting costs, managing multiple accounts and the pressure to maximise each subscription all contribute to declining satisfaction. When value is unclear, questioning a subscription’s worth surfaces. 
 
Value must therefore be constantly reiterated and subscriptions models must be flexible enough to meet consumers’ unique needs. Signs of fatigue must be identified early on and actions to mitigate fatigue must be taken.  
 
CACI understands the challenge: people want convenience and personalisation, but they also want affordability and control. 

Over-subscription

Subscribing to and managing multiple subscriptions can be mentally draining. The simple fix in consumers’ minds is typically to unsubscribe, even if the service itself is not the problem.

Inability to reinforce value

If consumers feel that they are paying for a service they do not use, the feeling will quickly lead to subscription fatigue. When it comes to subscriptions, low perceived value or service underutilisation are often the driving factors behind cancellations. If value cannot be demonstrated, even your most loyal subscribers may be lost.

Lack of flexibility

When feelings of frustration or overwhelm creep up among the plethora of subscriptions a consumer has, offerings that do not feature flexibility are likely the first to go. Rigid plans will not appeal to already-fatigued consumers. If subscribers feel as though they maintain control over their subscription, they will be easier to retain and keep satisfied. Establishing tiered memberships, flexible pricing, pause options, add-ons or various payment plans can help rectify this.  

How can brands fight subscription fatigue? 

Subscription fatigue may be inevitable within an oversaturated subscription landscape, but understanding the origin of fatigue and the strategies that your organisation can implement to combat this will make a tremendous difference. Leveraging predictive modelling, customer insights and data and segmentation are among the most effective approaches.

Use predictive modelling

AI-driven predictive models forecast customer behaviours and guide the next best actions. Proactive retention and upsell strategies can therefore be developed, resources can be prioritised towards customers with the highest potential and a measurable performance uplift can be seen in metrics like LTV, conversion and engagement. 

Focus on customer insights 

By integrating transactional, behavioural, attitudinal and external data, CACI helps you attain a comprehensive view of your subscribers that will improve your decision-making across acquisition, retention and product development. 

These insights help you:

• Build strategic confidence by grounding it in real customer behaviour  
• Identify high value customers 
• Understand churn drivers 
• Uncover growth opportunities 
• Benchmark performance against your competitors 
• Better understand your position within the market  
• Spot underperforming segments or categories where competitors are gaining share

Grounding strategic decisions in external evidence also improves internal storytelling and stakeholder alignment. 

Focus on acquisition through segmentation

Poor segmentation drains budget by targeting low-value audiences. Without precise targeting, campaigns miss the mark and media mix decisions lack data-driven optimisation.  

CACI’s bespoke segmentation capabilities give you intuitive, data-rich segments reflective of the diversity of your customer behaviours, values and attitudes. This enables personalised marketing and CRM journeys, enhances media targeting and campaign ROI and bolsters strategic planning by revealing which segments to grow, retain or re-engage across three core areas: 

• Data: Curated, high-quality foundational data with diverse input lenses and no personally identifiable information (PII).  
• Segment simulation and validation: Segment-level data layer, validation to assess predictive accuracy with guardrails in place and performance audited.  
• Persona enhancement: Defined by segment characteristics and enriched with psychological and behavioural traits, every step is tested by experts to ensure it is structured, auditable and iterative.

Through this tailored approach, CACI equips you with segmentation that reflects your customers, leading to better decision-making, campaigns and long-term growth.

How CACI can help you overcome subscription fatigue

CACI helps subscription brands unlock growth by transforming fragmented customer data into actionable insight. Through advanced data science and AI-powered decisioning, we support acquisition, retention and personalisation at scale. 
 
We can help you:

• Build deeper customer understanding and target the right audiences 
• Forecast behaviour, improve retention and justify investment 
• Turn insights into action across media and CRM 
• Simplify data and bridge capability gaps

To find out more about how your organisation can successfully overcome subscription fatigue, get in touch with us.

What is subscription churn?

Subscription churn refers to the number of subscribers or customers that stop their subscription with your organisation within a specific period, measured against the overall customer base. Churn can be interpreted in several ways and organisations may have their own method of calculating churn depending on what suits them. However, the principle remains the same: churn shows how effectively you retain customers. 

A high churn rate means that customer retention may present difficulties, whereas a low churn rate is indicative of successful retention. 

Why is churn important in the subscription sector?

Subscriptions have embedded themselves into consumer behaviour, with 4 in 5 UK adults now signed up for at least one subscription service and nearly one-third subscribed to a subscription box delivery service. While this shows how appealing the convenience of subscriptions is, cost is a key barrier. As the cost of living rises, subscriptions are often the first thing customers look to cancel. 

In the subscription sector, churn directly affects revenue predictability, customer acquisition, lifetime value (LTV), growth and brand reputation. Even small churn rises can lead to longer-term financial instability. Understanding churn is therefore essential to uphold customer and subscriber satisfaction and retention. 

Types of customer churn

To mitigate churn, organisations must distinguish between its two types: voluntary and involuntary. Each provides a unique lens on customer behaviour and organisational performance, also requiring their own prevention and combative methods. 

Voluntary churn

Voluntary churn is when customers choose to end their relationship with a service or product. These are instances when they no longer recognise a service’s value, have opted for a competitor’s service, can no longer afford the service or other considerations.

Involuntary churn

Involuntary churn happens when customers unintentionally end their subscription with a service due to reasons beyond their control. Financial pressures are one of the most substantial driving forces behind churn, especially for discretionary spend on products that are optional rather than essential. 

Average churn rates for subscription sector

Customer churn can be expected to an extent but determining the amount of churn that your organisation can withstand and the maximum length of time in which losses can be made up will be critical for long-term growth. 
 
Churn rates also vary by customer segments. Through Acorn, our geodemographic segmentation, we found that younger Acorn groups like Tenant Living might avoid long-term subscriptions as cost is a hugely influential factor in their circumstances. Customers within Acorn’s Commuter Belt Wealth group might enjoy the convenience of subscriptions, but busy and irregular schedules can complicate commitment. We also found that subscription drop-off after discount periods is common across different segments. 
 
By recognising these behavioural differences, your subscriber retention strategies can be more effective.

Subscription churn reduction

To counter the effects of churn, organisations may turn to offering incentives that attract price-sensitive customers who churn post-offer. While this may remedy the situation to an extent, the following approaches will bolster your understanding and reduction of churn by combining proactive and reactive strategies with data. 

Bespoke segmentation

Poor segmentation leads to wasted budget on low-value audiences. Campaigns miss the mark without precise targeting and media mix decisions lack data-driven optimisation. 

CACI’s bespoke segmentation capabilities enable you to create intuitive, data-rich segments reflective of the diversity of your customer behaviours, values and attitudes. This powers personalised marketing and CRM journeys, improves media targeting and campaign ROI and supports strategic planning by revealing which segments to grow, retain or re-engage in three capacities:

• Data: Curated, high-quality foundational data with diverse input lenses and no personally identifiable information (PII). 
• Segment simulation and validation: Segment-level data layer, validation to assess predictive accuracy with guardrails in place and performance audited. 
• Persona enhancement: Defined by segment characteristics and enriched with psychological and behavioural traits, every step is tested by experts to ensure it is structured, auditable and iterative.

Predictive modelling

Through predictive modelling, AI-driven models forecast customer behaviours and guide the next best actions. This enables proactive retention and upsell strategies, prioritises resources towards customers with the highest potential and drives measurable performance uplift in metrics like LTV, conversion and engagement. 

Customer insights

CACI’s data offers a holistic view of customers that helps organisations better understand churn drivers. Customer insights are divided among: 

Core demographics

• Affluence 
• Disposable income 
• Age band 
• House size 
• Occupation 
• Number of children

Key behaviours

•  Price sensitivity 
• Loyalty 
• Motivated by premium/value 
• Convenience 
• Environmental attitudes

Digital behaviours

• Posts/reads ratings & reviews 
• Social networks 
• Influencers 
• Newspaper & magazines read

Brand engagement

• Websites visited 
• Loyalty cards 
• TV channels 
• Newspapers 
• Streaming sites 
• Magazines

An understanding of customers’ lifestyles is enriched through additional layers of their interests and hobbies, lifestyle attitudes and shopping behaviours. For subscription brands, this reveals not just who your customers are, but why they subscribe. Our insights showed that customers tend to be mindful of ethical and environmental issues and are concerned about their online security. They also tend to focus on provenance when it comes to shopping, considering where products are made/grown, the value they place on quality goods and those that make life easier. These motivations influence a subscription’s perceived value, a customer’s loyalty to a subscription and brand and what may sway their thought process in terms of staying or cancelling. 
 
Through this holistic view, you can also benchmark your organisation’s performance against competitors to gain a clear view of market position and competitive dynamics. This helps you understand where you stand in the market, who you are winning with, where you are losing and why. It identifies underperforming segments or categories where competitors are gaining share, enabling focused interventions. It also supports internal storytelling and stakeholder alignment by backing up strategic decisions with external evidence.

How CACI can help you navigate churn reduction

CACI helps retail subscription brands unlock growth by transforming fragmented customer data into actionable insight – driving acquisition, retention and personalisation at scale through advanced data science and AI-powered decisioning. 
 
We can support you in:

• Building deeper customer understanding and targeting the right audiences 
• Forecasting behaviour, improving retention and justifying investment 
• Turning insights into action across media and CRM 
• Simplifying data and bridging capability gaps

To find out more about how your organisation can successfully navigate churn reduction and strengthen customer loyalty, get in touch with us. 

A competitive, complex consumer landscape

Competition has never been more intense in the dynamic and growing consumer health and wellbeing sector. 2025 has seen new market entrants like hair loss treatment company Hair + Me, any number of weight loss services like Juniper and SheMed high on social media feeds and supermarket Morrisons in partnership with Phlo moving into the on-demand online healthcare space alongside existing high street giants Boots, Superdrug and Asda.

This new and intense competition also comes with a new reality: increasingly fragmented consumer behaviour that upends traditional marketing assumptions.

Younger age cohorts drive healthcare growth

Our Voice of the Nation (VOTN) survey examining consumer sentiment finds Gen Z and Millennials in the driving seat of the elective healthcare market. Weight-loss treatments like Mounjaro and Ozempic are expected to surge by 40% in 2025 due to these younger age cohorts.

Notably, Gen Z shows equal interest across genders, unlike older age groups where women dominate. Cosmetic treatments are also gaining traction, with well over 10% of Gen Z and female Millennials planning to pay for them, compared to less than 3% among Gen X and Baby Boomers.

While aesthetics is clearly playing a role, other deeper consumer motivations are also emerging.  Notably, survey respondents who consider health a top national issue are significantly more likely to self-fund treatments. Among Gen Z males in this group, 16.2% plan to pay for weight-loss treatments in 2025 — well above the average of 4.9%. And just as importantly, the VOTN data somewhat counterintuitively shows that demand for elective healthcare products and services in general spans both affluent and less affluent groups.

Age-related wellness and health products drive innovation

In short, our VOTN data reveals a complex blend of beauty, wellness, and proactive health management, with younger generations investing in elective healthcare to enhance both how they feel and how they look.

This trend is reflected in the innovation and increasingly digital activation seen in the fertility and female health space relevant to these age cohorts. Period care pioneer Daye is launching a new at-home hormone testing service for a host of biomarkers like reproductive hormones, thyroid function and Vitamin D. Male fertility company, testhim, which provides consultations, testicular scans, sperm DNA and other diagnostic testing, is also launching specialist fertility supplement testhim M+and a groundbreaking online monthly support group.

Complex, demanding consumers require sophisticated, multi-layered segmentation

So, with Gen Z and Millennials increasingly self-funding weight loss, cosmetic treatments and holistic wellness products and services of all kinds, DTC and e-commerce healthcare brands must truly rethink how they engage with this increasingly data-savvy, image-conscious audience. Informing integrated campaigns that blend social commerce, influencer marketing, paid advertising, organic and direct marketing content. Our VOTN survey also found that nearly two-thirds of Gen Z consumers (63%) have purchased goods and services via a social media platform like TikTok Shop and Instagram, making this a crucial channel for healthcare businesses to understand and potentially utilise.

But to do that effectively in practice, DTC and e-commerce healthcare brands need more than just surface-level insights. They need robust, layered data foundations that help them target the right consumer with the right kind of message at the right time in the right place. Even with first-party consumer data, it’s a significant challenge. Without it, reaching existing or identifying potential customers is almost impossible for brands.

You can see an example of this in our VOTN survey, which showed that for weight loss treatments, there appears to be greater levels of demand both at the more affluent end of our Acorn segmentation spectrum *and* at the least affluent end, potentially for differing reasons.

This requires integrating geodemographic, behavioural, lifestyle, and attitudinal data to move beyond ‘off-the-shelf’ consumer segments and into understanding consumers in a deep way that understands the likelihood of them engaging with specific healthcare products and services and why – enabling brands to drive efficient spend on the right customers – and remove disinterested or low-value ones – in a market with such broad appeal

It’s also only by taking this multi-layered data approach healthcare brands can build strategic data-driven campaigns that resonate on a genuinely personal level in the manner desired by younger generations. Critically, delivering on the perennial, somewhat paradoxical Gen Z demands for high levels of privacy, but also similarly high levels of personalised products and brand messaging.

Turn insights into activation for D2C and e-commerce health campaign success

But as we know, data, in isolation, holds limited value. Its real power is unleashed through activation – the transformation of insight into strategy. And in a world where consumer expectations are rising and attention spans are shrinking, the ability to deliver timely, relevant, and meaningful engagement is an outright competitive advantage. And it can only be achieved through a deep, data-driven understanding of people.

For D2C and e-commerce health brands, this understanding and successful activation requires them to:

• Identify high-value customer segments for targeted acquisition and retention
• Predict churn and retention patterns within subscription-based models
• Inform campaign messaging with real-world consumer behaviours and motivations
• Develop nuanced personas reflecting not just demographics, but attitudes, values, and lifestyle choices
• Personalise content across relevant digital channels, from email to in-app experiences
• Build lookalike audiences for acquisition campaigns on platforms like Meta and Google
• Optimise digital spend by measuring performance and refining segmentation over time

This is where the transformation power of comprehensive datasets, such as CACI’s Ocean database, which offers over 700 variables at an individual and household level, comes in. Ocean includes everything from financial situation, media consumption and digital behaviours to lifestyle preferences like veganism and exercise to whether consumers have a smart watch or fitness band.

When combined with geodemographic tools like Acorn – segmenting over 1.6 million UK postcodes using more than 800 variables – and supported by bespoke data analysis, brands can unlock a truly multidimensional view of their audiences wherever they are.

This approach allows brands to move beyond generic targeting and into a space where campaigns are not only more relevant but also more respectful of consumer expectations – a win-win for younger cohorts who dislike intrusive and irrelevant brand messaging but demand personalisation nonetheless!

Data insight for a dynamic healthcare future

As healthcare consumers’ expectations evolve and the consumer health and wellbeing market with it, so must the strategies brands use to engage them. Success for D2C and e-commerce healthcare brands doesn’t just hinge on understanding who consumers are today — it’s about being able to anticipate who they’re becoming even as new healthcare technologies, products and devices become available. By being able to able to identify and engage high-lifetime value customers as early as possible, brands also have a greater chance to capture markets as they evolve.

The effectiveness of multi-layered segmentation in improving marketing precision now – and as AI becomes more integrated – is well established. CACI’s ability to deliver on this today with our consumer data and bespoke strategic segmentation capabilities ensures brands are future-ready

Data isn’t just a tool – it’s a strategic asset. Brands that invest in sophisticated segmentation and activation today will be best placed to drive sustainable growth tomorrow.

Speak to our healthcare consumer segmentation specialists today.

At CACI, we have been supporting charities in optimising their data by supplying ongoing support through solutions, technology, tools and data that work in a more targeted and efficient way and ultimately help more people. Marie Curie, a leading charity dedicated to providing free palliative and end of life care and support to people living with terminal illnesses, has been making significant strides in enhancing its fundraising and supporter engagement strategies. Their work has been raising public awareness and influencing decision-makers across the UK on the issues affecting those reaching the end of their lives and the people closest to them, enabling more people to access high quality care and support when and where they need it most. 

In a recent webinar, we came together to share insights into their collaborative efforts of leveraging data for greater impact. In this blog, I’ll uncover the key takeaways from the webinar and the value of Marie Curie’s work with CACI, combining their own data with CACI’s to improve their supporter engagement and ultimately increase income. 

Building strong data foundations and data enrichment

I kicked off the webinar by emphasising the importance of building strong data foundations, highlighting common challenges faced by charities, such as siloed data and inconsistent supporter information. These challenges hinder the depth of data insights and the unification and linking of data, ultimately impacting improvements for the quality of end-of-life outcomes and gaining a granular view into supporters. By addressing these foundational issues, Marie Curie can better enrich their data and activate it for meaningful engagement. 

Why did Marie Curie embark on a data enrichment journey? 

Mark Lumby, Head of Fundraising Insight at Marie Curie, shared the charity’s motivation for embarking on a data enrichment journey: the necessity of understanding more about their supporters beyond basic demographics. The more data charities have access to, the more robust their engagement strategies can be shaped, resulting in more income from supporters. By partnering with CACI, Marie Curie aimed to gain these deeper, necessary insights into supporter profiles, affluence, interests and behaviours. 

CACI’s Acorn and Ocean data have played a crucial role in Marie Curie’s data enrichment efforts. Acorn is CACI’s powerful consumer classification tool that segments the UK population by postcode, enhancing the charity’s understanding of different types of people and places by analysing demographic data, social factors and behaviours. Ocean is CACI’s consumer database that offers lifestyle variables, further enhancing Marie Curie’s customer understanding through the ability to assess 100 variables that illustrate supporters’ profiles and interests to target them effectively. Together, these tools have enabled the charity to create detailed supporter profiles and uncover new engagement opportunities. 

What were the strategic objectives & key use cases?

Our collaboration with Marie Curie was driven by strategic objectives, including enhancing their product portfolio by identifying overlaps and opportunities for cross-selling. By understanding the profiles of their supporters through a lens enriched by data, Marie Curie could tailor their engagement strategies more effectively by engaging with supporters at individual or segment cohort levels and determine the best methods of interaction via online or offline channels. Through data enrichment, the type of content and messaging could also be crafted to appeal to the target demographic of supporters and personalise their experience.

What has worked well?

Steph Gray from Marie Curie’s insight team shared practical examples of how enriched data has been used to drive value. One notable success was the creation of a profile model for cash appeals, which significantly improved response rates and ROI. By targeting supporters who resembled existing cash donors, the charity improved engagement and secured higher second gift rates. 

Marie Curie’s efforts to cross-sell and acquire new supporters have also benefitted from data enrichment. By identifying key audience groups and tailoring their messaging, the charity has seen improved results in cold acquisition campaigns. This targeted approach has led to more effective use of resources and better overall outcomes. 

What’s next for Marie Curie?

Going forward, the charity plans to continue refining their data models and datasets and explore new variables for up-to-date, accurate supporter understanding. They aim to combine demographic data with behavioural insights to create even more robust supporter profiles, along with additional creative and channel selection testing. This ongoing commitment to data-driven strategies will help Marie Curie maximise their impact and influence supporter journeys.     

Our partnership exemplifies the transformative power of data in the charity sector. By enriching their supporter data and leveraging advanced segmentation tools, the charity has been able to enhance their fundraising efforts and engage supporters more effectively. By watching the webinar here, you can find out how data can drive meaningful change in the charity sector. To learn more about the continuous innovation and strategy refinement Marie Curie is undertaking, visit their Knowledge Hub.