We are SIRKA – a full-cycle DTC agency
Time to read:
8 min
Publication date:
September 29, 2026
There's no single formula. Brands mix subscriptions, discounts, gifts, guarantees, bundles and upsells in different ways. To see which approaches the market actually uses, we analyzed the offers of 50 DTC brands across 8 niches in the US, from sports, stress relief and longevity to women's health, metabolism boosters and cognitive supplements.
No. An offer is the whole structure of what you're selling: the product, the purchase format, the subscription, the discount, the gift, free shipping, the guarantee, the bundle and any other bonuses.
It answers several questions at once: what the customer gets, how much it costs, what the options are and why one of them is a better deal than the others. That's why two similar products can end up with completely different offers.
A subscription. 98% of DTC brands in our sample offer a subscription or auto-delivery, and 95% give a discount for it.
Still, although almost every brand offers a subscription, most customers don't take it. We explained why, and how brands build big businesses on subscriptions anyway, in our article "91% Don't Subscribe".
Probably not. "Subscribe and save 15%" is something almost everyone does. So brands make the subscription clearly better than a one-time purchase: they add free shipping, raise the discount for longer plans, or include gifts. Others are especially generous only on the first order, because what matters is getting the customer to subscribe.
Moon Juice gives 30% off the first subscription order, then 10%. IM8 gives 20% on the 30-day plan and 30% on the 90-day plan, plus a welcome kit and gifts in the following months. Grüns sells the first subscription box for $29.99 instead of $66.65 and the following ones for $49.99. The renewal price appears in small print under the button.
The subscription becomes an offer within the offer: the brand isn't selling a jar of supplements, it's selling a good deal on buying regularly.
Monthly subscriptions are the most common in our sample, since that's the format customers know best. Three months comes second. Two-month plans are rare, and 6–12 months is the exception: at that length "save 25%" isn't enough, and the customer needs a strong reason to commit to a brand for six months or a year.
Timeline lets you choose 1, 2, 4 or 12 months and marks the 4-month plan as clinically recommended. Elysium keeps two options, monthly or a full year up front, and explains the bigger annual discount by the fact that longevity supplements need to be taken long term. MindBodyGreen offers 1, 3 or 6 months: the savings grow with the plan length, and longer plans come with gifts.
For a first purchase, one month is still the easiest way in. Three months already encourages long-term use. Six to twelve months needs a strong argument: a noticeable discount, a clear reason for long-term use, or extra perks.
Most brands give 10–30% off for subscribing, but there's no single "right" percentage. We saw three models:
So the question isn't really the percentage. It's what behavior you're rewarding: subscribing at all, buying more, or staying longer.
The most common bonus is free shipping: 80% of brands offer it, often tied to a subscription or a larger order. On top of that, brands strengthen the subscription with gifts, loyalty points, early access to new products and other perks.
Create Wellness gives up to 25% off, free first shipping and VIP perks. Lemme offers points, exclusive deals, the chance to get a gift or swap a product, and a double chance to win a prize. Nutrafol builds a support program into its subscription: consultations with a naturopathic doctor, a hair analysis for a personalized plan, a Headspace subscription and an app for tracking progress.
Free shipping has become almost a baseline for subscriptions. Everything else gives customers a reason not to cancel.
When it complements the main product instead of looking like a random extra. 43% of brands in our sample use gifts and bonuses.
Moon Brew includes surprise gifts in subscriptions, so every box is something to look forward to. Magna makes its subscription feel like a starter kit, with a water bottle and flavor samples. Primal Queen puts together a whole package (a free third pack, a glass jar, a travel case, a mystery gift and free shipping) and shows the value of each gift so customers can see how much they save.
A gift needs a clear job: helping the customer commit to the first order, making an expensive plan more attractive, or making the purchase feel special.
Offer a second product. 38% of DTC brands use bundles, cross-sells or upsell blocks with extra products on the product page or in the cart.
Seed gives 25% off when you add another of its products to your order. Ritual treats the cart as a separate step: after you add Magnesium+, it suggests Synbiotic+ with 25% off the set. Blueprint simply shows products frequently bought together with its Longevity Mix.
An upsell works when it feels like a natural next step in the purchase, not a random item from the catalog. For more on putting these combinations together, see our article on bundle landing pages.
A guarantee isn't required, but the market clearly uses it to lower the barrier to a first purchase: at least half of the DTC brands in our sample offer one explicitly.
Terms range from 30 to 365 days: Onnit gives 30, Moon Juice 45, BIOHM 60 and SkinnyFit 365. Nutrafol ties its guarantee to the expected outcome, "results in 6 months or your money back", which turns the guarantee into part of the product promise.
What matters isn't the longest term, but one that makes sense for the product, with conditions the customer can easily understand.
Within a few seconds, a customer should understand what's being sold, how the options differ and which one the brand recommends. If comparing options means jumping between blocks and counting servings, the offer is overloaded.
A strong offer doesn't have to be minimal. Mars Men puts the jar, bonuses, an app, a support program, free shipping and a big "50% OFF FOR LIFE" on one screen, and it all points to one idea: $59 for all of this. ARMRA breaks a complex choice into steps: format first (Jar, Jar XL, Travel Sticks), then flavor, then price. Onnit turns its packs into a 30-day protocol: it leads you to 60 capsules for the month, explains that results are worth judging after 2–3 weeks, and backs it with a 30-day guarantee.
We covered how to build the whole page around your offer in our article on landing page structure.
Calculate the unit economics of your DTC brand for each product. The model includes price and cost of goods, customer acquisition cost, returns, the share of subscriptions and repeat purchases, shipping, fees and other expenses.
Test the offer in three scenarios: base, optimistic and pessimistic. That shows what happens to your economics if acquisition gets more expensive, fewer customers subscribe than expected, or returns go up.
Only after running the numbers can you see where there's still room for a discount or bonus, and where the offer starts eating into your margin. At SIRKA we use our own SaaS tool for this, built specifically for modeling offers and calculating unit economics.
A subscription with a discount is the baseline almost everyone has. The brands that stand out add a clear reason to stay: a worthwhile long-term plan, bonuses, logical upsells and a guarantee tied to results. And all of this should be built only after you've calculated your unit economics.
If you want to build an offer for your brand and check whether your economics can support it, get in touch.
