Subscription auto-ship for Bravecto, Heartgard, NexGard, how do you do it?

Biggest DTC revenue lever in vet supply. Recurring revenue, predictable inventory, lower CAC payback. Three patterns:

• Magento native subscriptions (Open Source: free, basic), works for simple recurring orders. Same SKU, same interval, same price. Limited customisation. Fine for under 1,000 active subscriptions.
• Recharge, SaaS subscription engine, integrates with Magento via official extension. The default for DTC pet brands. Handles pause/skip/swap (customer wants to swap from Bravecto to NexGard), prepaid plans, discount-on-subscribe, dunning for failed payments. ~$300-$1,500/mo + per-transaction fee.
• Aheadworks Subscriptions and Recurring Payments, native Magento extension, one-time license. Cheaper long-term but less polished than Recharge.

Vet-supply-specific subscription gotchas:

• Heartgard (heartworm prevention) is Rx-required in most states. Subscription needs annual Rx renewal, auto-pause the subscription if the Rx is older than 12 months and prompt the customer to upload a renewal.
• Bravecto is a 12-week dose, subscription interval defaults to 84 days, not 30. Customer education matters or they ask “why didn’t my order arrive in 30 days.”
• NexGard is monthly, standard 30-day interval.
• Patient pet flexibility: a customer with 2 dogs needs separate subscription queues per pet. Recharge handles this; Magento native struggles.

Subscription growth lever: 10-15% subscribe-and-save discount + auto-renew with Rx renewal reminder. Typical attach rate is 40-60% of returning customers for flea/tick/heartworm SKUs.