About

Alpha Omega is a development agency with advanced coding techniques, UX specialization, and a robust partner network that helps clients increase conversion rates, drive repeat purchases, and boost average order values. They work with ecommerce merchants clients like Siren Marine, Kinsley Armelle, and Birdies to help them grow their online businesses through custom development work.

Siren Marine built a cutting-edge digital membership with the Recharge API

One of Alpha Omega’s strengths as an agency is its ability to help partners navigate complex back-end issues around subscription commerce and custom builds based on open APIs. From initial questions around capability to the roll out of those advanced features, they help online retailers take their sales to the next level.

“Recharge has allowed us to streamline an essential piece of our business. It has given us the ability to promote and bundle our products in creative ways, which in turn has led to an exponential increase in revenue.”

siren marine Sam

Sam Handy

Marketing manager at Siren Marine

Challenge

Siren Marine, a company selling digital subscription memberships to its IoT “Connected Boat” technology (think Nest + OnStar, but for boats), came to Alpha Omega in need of some back-end help related to subscription billing.

In the past, they had used PIN for subscription management, but found it limiting. With the launch of a new boat monitoring system available via digital subscription, they needed to find a headless commerce solution. Siren Marine needed the front end decoupled from the back end, as this would allow them to optimize sales of their digital subscription offerings.

The benefit of building a headless commerce store is that the entire interface is API driven. Any frontend action can influence any backend reaction without any predetermined assumptions on what customers are going to do.

Recharge was chosen as a subscription billing solution because of its integration with the brand’s existing selling tools like Shopify and NetSuite, as well as its robust and flexible API. “Recharge was an obvious choice for us. We love the Recharge API and we knew that was something we could easily tap into and work with on this unique project,” said Brian Anderson, Founder and CEO of Alpha Omega.

In previous years, Recharge hadn’t been a great fit for companies who only offered digital subscriptions—it was more ideal for merchants specializing in physical goods. However, as Recharge continued the growth of its API and added endpoints allowing agencies to work more magic than ever before, the digital subscription model was finally feasible with the help of a developer partner.

Today, Siren Marine’s membership model works by allowing customers to pay for a subscription as they normally would, but instead of an item getting shipped, the Recharge API sends notifications to Siren Marine's server, notifying them to continue service or to deactivate for a specific payment period.

Siren Marine built a cutting-edge digital membership with the Recharge API

Solution

With the Recharge integration in place, a solution was built that allowed customers to activate their devices and instantly sign up for a subscription with Siren Marine through a mobile app. They also leveraged Recharge’s line item properties to sync individual devices to specific subscriptions, creating a more seamless and friction-free customer experience.

In addition, a loyalty program will be launched via Refersion wherein customers can share an affiliate link or discount code to earn subscription credit. Instead of cash payouts, the affiliates earn Siren Marine monthly credits, which on the back end automatically pushes back charge dates for the customer’s subscription.

Results

Siren Marine expects this to grow the subscriber base even further as they’ve seen many of their most loyal customers consistently introduce new people to the company. Providing subscription credit will incentivize those customers to stay subscribed even longer, creating a positive feedback loop where all parties win.

Today, Siren Marine has more than 200 connected boats and three different subscription plans (for both B2C and B2B customers) with a 100% implementation rate.

“Recharge isn’t just powering B2C sales for Siren Marine ... it's powering the whole system, including their B2B sales. Paired with the back-end work we’ve done, [that] synergy has helped this brand reach new heights around sales and conversions.”

siren marine headshot

Brian Anderson

Founder & CEO of Nacelle