Ecommerce Trends: Which online retailers use subscription models?

Subscription models come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes for online retailers. Some brands, such as the hydration-focused Liquid I. V. , offer subscriptions through their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) website, in addition to providing options through Amazon.

Meanwhile, even large retailers like Amazon offer their own subscriptions for groceries and other options. It’s no secret that retailers — like other businesses — enjoy recurring revenue streams. Look no further than Chewy’s quarterly sales results to see how lucrative the pet supplies merchant’s subscription Autoship program has become.

In March, Chewy CEO Sumit Singh said his company anticipated “a secular shift towards ecommerce penetration to continue as consumers increasingly prioritize convenience, transparency and auto replenishment.” In fact, Autoship was responsible for $10. 5 billion of Chewy’s net sales in 2025. That represented 83. 3% of its net sales overall.

And Chewy — along with Liquid I. V. and Amazon — is not alone among the most successful online retailers in North America. Which types of online retailers use subscription models? Subscription models are just one category among the features and business models that Digital Commerce 360 tracks in its annual Top 1000 Report.

The latest edition of this report captures online sales activity, conversion rates, artificial intelligence (AI)-influenced behavior and more among North America’s largest online merchants. Chewy is ranked No. 10 in the Top 1000 by annual web sales. Liquid I. V. is No. 867. In 2026, 3.

2% of all online retailers in the Top 1000 used subscription models in some form. Within this cohort of 1,000 retailers, subscription models were most common among Consumer Brand Manufacturers (CBMs), 4. 4% of which offered some kind of subscription options. Web-Only Retailers, as a category, were right behind them at 4. 1%.

Meanwhile, participation rates were much higher in some merchandise categories, including Food & Beverage (25. 0%), Health & Beauty (12. 2%) and Toys & Hobbies (5. 6%). Do online retailers with subscription models see better conversion?

Perhaps more importantly, online retailers with subscription models enjoyed higher conversion rates in the Top 1000 than those that did not. Those that implemented subscription programs showed an average conversion rate of 4. 5%, a full 1. 4 percentage points higher than the conversion rate for those that did not (3. 1%).

That gap was even more pronounced between CBMs that did offer subscriptions (4. 4%) and those that did not (2. 8%).

From Chewy’s pet-focused Autoship business to Michaels’ digital asset subscriptions, the retailers figuring out how to draw and retain subscribers also seem to be among the best at convincing shoppers to make recurring payments and automate their shopping habits.

And in areas like pet needs, grocery and hobby-related areas, it is easy to understand where merchants find these fits. Editor’s note: Subscribe to our retail newsletter to make sure you see each weekly edition of Ecommerce Trends. Do you rank in our databases? Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

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