PSA: Be aware of data hostage practices
Nail Mail is the subscription box of choice for professional nail techs with a flair for experimentation.
Tayyab Imran
Tayyab Imran
Founded in 2021, Nail Mail is the brainchild of Gaynor McCann, an experienced nail technician and co-founder of The Niche Nail Network Trade Show.
Containing influencer-curated nail art design projects and all the tools needed to replicate them, Nail Mail's monthly boxes have become a cult favorite among the world's top nail techs and an inspiration to the next generation of nail artists, with over 15,000 boxes sold to date.
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Despite Nail Mail's rapid success, Gaynor found herself spending up to 40 hours a week on subscription management alone. The culprit? Wix's limited subscription capabilities.
"Wix gave you no way to see churn rate," Gaynor explained, highlighting the platform's lack of essential business insights. On top of that, Wix's lack of dunning features also resulted in at least 10 failed payments per month, requiring manual resubscription.
The absence of dunning features resulted in at least 10 failed payments per month, requiring manual resubscription.
Wix’s built-in promotional offer creator wasn’t flexible enough either, nor was the customer portal — customers couldn't manage their own subscriptions, leading to a flood of manual cancellation requests.
Gaynor knew that to take her business to the next level, she needed a more robust solution.
"I was spending 4 hours per day on pointless mundane tasks — lots of spreadsheet work especially for inventory tracking and sales forecasting. It was holding the business back."
After a recommendation from a neighboring business, Gaynor decided to make the switch to Subbly and kicked off the migration process, an evolutionary moment for Nail Mail.
Subbly's comprehensive subscription management features and effective dunning capabilities addressed Nail Mail's most pressing needs, while the Subscription Switch protocol ensured a seamless transition for existing customers. After the initial setup, Subbly's intuitive interface has made ongoing management a breeze.
"The Subbly team were godsends during the migration," Gaynor recalls. "And Tayyab recreated our existing website layout perfectly. Now I manage it myself, which I find super easy."
"Compared to Wix, if a subscriber cancels on Subbly, they can be recovered. The customer portal is much easier to manage, and subscribers can now cancel their subscription themselves without contacting me manually."
The switch to Subbly has been transformative for Nail Mail - with Gaynor cutting her time spent on subscription management down from 40 hours to just 20 hours per week.
Failed payments, once a common headache, have also been effectively eliminated thanks to Subbly's dunning features. The improved customer experience has also contributed to higher retention rates.
With the time saved — and the increased revenue stability — Gaynor has been able to focus on growth initiatives. "I now spend 70% of my time running my business and 30% on admin, which was the opposite before," she explained. This shift has allowed her to source better products, create in-house content, and explore scaling opportunities.
"I’ve been exploring more features over time, but mostly I’ve just been winging it with Subbly and everything just works. The ROI in terms of time saved alone has been incredible. Subbly has truly allowed me to focus on growing my business rather than just managing it."
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