I'm finding that when I ask people "why are you cancelling?" I don't get any actionable suggestions, mostly just people running out of money or that they've already had enough candy.
Have enough candy seems quite actionable. Why not offer a less frequent plan to these folks, say twice a quarter instead of twice a month, and you could pick a festival or holiday for people to celebrate with candy. "Here's your Sapporo Snow Festival candy pack! Look for Cherry Blossom celebration in 2 months".
\) Can you try switching them to "Pen Japan" 1.1 months before the usual cancellation point? This could be done with an opt-in.
\) Incrementally iterating on Mithaldu's idea, can you try giving them a price break (and announcing it with an email!) 1.1 months before the usual cancellation point?
\) Can you add a "But wait! If you stay around, you can get a 10% discount on your subscription cost" last-minute notice to your cancellation page, that is only presented if the user has been around for (the mean cancellation time - 1.1months)?
This. I wanted so badly to sign up, my girlfriend and I go to Chinese grocery stores and stock up on junk food a few times a year. Getting top ups and bring exposed to Japanese products would be awesome, but $25 a month is pretty dear for a monthly product. At $10/month for less frequent candy it would be a nobrainer for me.
It is semi-monthly. Though I think monthly would be sufficient. It might be something to poll the customer base about (Moar candy or moar frequency?)
Hopefully with volume, better manufacturer/distributor relationships, maybe lower-cost fulfillment offshore and changing of shipping method/frequency, they can lower the price or increase the quantities.
One positive for this entrepreneur is that people already associate "Japan" with "expensive", so the sticker shock isn't really unexpected.
I am a client of Bemmu's and I can tell you the two weeks don't come fast enough.
In our country, they will send you a notice in the post when a package has arrived. And then you have to go queue at the post office to receive it. However, every week I now find myself queueing at the post office just to see if any candy packages might have arrived.
I think the twice a month deliveries are great as they are still pretty far apart that you aren't sick of them yet. Lately the packages have increased in size and its a good size to make it enjoyable but not put you off sweets for a while.
Bemmu - You mentioned that a lot of people have un-subscribed, is this after you have changed from using an envelope size package to the new larger box?
I didn't think of the box versus letter issue as well. Fetching parcels from my local post office is a 20 minute walk, it can be annoying after a long day of work.
That said, based on the testimony I've seen here I might try a few months and see...
Or to keep a handle on shipping costs, monthly, quarterly or even yearly packages?
One thing I actually appreciate about some of the random time-insensitive purchases I've made from HK/China on Ebay is that I tend to forget I've made my purchase by the time it arrives. It's like an unexpected Christmas.