Open Cart? Closed Cart? Here’s How to Launch Your Subscription Box Either Way

You've probably heard people debating open cart versus closed cart. Which one works best? Which one's right for your box? Well, I'm going to tell you what I tell my members inside Launch Your Box. It doesn't matter nearly as much as you think it does. Whether you're launching for the first time or the 10th, there's one thing that makes or breaks your launch, and I'm sharing that with you today. Come listen.

Welcome to the Launch Your Box podcast with weekly tips, tricks, and strategies to start, launch, and grow your subscription box. Now here's your host, Sarah Williams.

Let's talk about it. Open cart versus closed cart. This is one of those topics that comes up all the time. It comes up inside coaching calls. It comes up when I'm on Monday Momentum. It comes up in my DMs everywhere. People ask, Sarah, should I close my cart before my next launch, or is it okay to leave it open all the time? Or even like, do I have to run a closed cart launch to make my launch work? And I always say the same thing: you can make either one work. But the bigger question isn't about whether your cart is open or closed, it's about are you giving people a reason to buy now? So let's make sure you really understand both of these models, because once you do, you're gonna feel a whole lot more confident about choosing what's gonna work best for you. I have ran an open cart model and I've run a closed cart model. Both are very effective, so I want to break that down for you. Let's start with open cart. Open cart just means that your subscription is available all the time. Your product listing is live on your site all the time. People can subscribe whenever they're ready. You're basically always open for business with your subscription when you have an open cart. And here's what's really great about that. It's simple. You know, I like simplicity. There's no giant launches that you have to manage between open cart, closed cart. You do want to launch whether you have an open cart or a closed cart, but it just simplifies the process. Customers can join anytime. They don't have to wait, and it gives you a chance to grow steadily every single month. But here's the tricky part about it. You don't automatically have built-in urgency. So people just decide, oh, I'll wait, I'll wait till next month, or I'll wait till next month, or I'll wait until the summer or whatever they may decide. You're not— if you're not actively promoting it, you can't rely on an open cart just to fill spots every month. So if you're going to use an open cart model, I need you to know that you still need to launch, you still need to show up, and you still need to run ads to create visibility and urgency for people to join. Now let's talk closed cart model. Closed cart just means that you only let people subscribe during certain time periods. You open the cart maybe for 5 days and then you shut it down and you only do that a few times a year. And here's why people love a closed cart model. It creates a lot of urgency. I'm super successful with the closed cart model. I'll tell you why here in just a little bit, but it creates urgency. So either you're in or you have to wait until next time that I'm open. And that creates the reason for people to buy. It feels like a big event when you're, when you are in a closed cart model and you open cart. And it's also kind of easier to manage inventory and production if you're not always creating more subscribers, more subscribers, more subscribers. When I shifted to a closed cart model, it helped me understand how much inventory I needed from month to month. But here's the trade-off to the closed cart model. You can only sell during those short periods, those short windows, and you've really got to show up and promote during launch time because you only have a couple opportunities to do that a year. So there's pros and cons to both of these models, and I want you to understand that both can be very effective, and it's really your choice. Both work. You can try an open cart model in the beginning and then shift to a closed cart later, and vice versa. You can start with a closed cart model, shift to an open cart later. Both of them work, and I've done both. But here's what I want you to remember. It's not whether your cart is opened or closed that creates the urgency. You have to create the urgency. It's how you show up. It's how you talk about what you're offering. And it's whether you give people a reason to say yes right now. So let's just go to— I have a real live coaching example. So Brenda inside the membership says, my cart has been open but I haven't been promoting. Should I close it down and relaunch later? And I told her, you don't have to close it down to relaunch. You just need to bring some launch energy. You just need something exciting happening and giving people a reason to act now instead of to continue to put it off. And that's where a launch bonus makes all the difference. So when I launched my Monogram Box back in April, I offered a free monogram t-shirt to everyone that subscribed that week. It matched the box, it felt intentional, and it felt like just a little surprise for them. And this bonus helped me sell out all of my 432 spots that I had available. And I'm doing it again during my July teacher launch right now. I have a personalized teacher a teacher name shirt for everyone that subscribes by the cutoff date. And it's worked so well. And the launch is wrapped up now and the results really speak for themselves. We're gonna have a whole podcast episode on the results that I got because I more than doubled my subscription. And this has been an open cart model since the beginning, since 2020. But because I gave that little something extra, it gives people a reason to stop scrolling and take action. It says this week matters. This is a reason to go ahead and stop what you're doing, put your credit card information in, and join now. Even though I have an open cart model, the open cart model is, is fine because you automatically have built-in urgency every single month. They only have to a certain date to get the box that you— that is that month. And the next month there's a new box. And so you already have a little bit of that urgency, like this is the last day to get this month's box. But all I had to do was put a little freebie in there, put a little launch bonus in there, and all of a sudden I have doubled, more than doubled my teacher subscription because I created urgency and I created a reason Didn't matter that it was an open cart or a closed cart. I gave them a reason to buy. So let's break it down just by cart style real quick. So if your cart is open, you don't need to close it. Just build in a bonus launch window like I'm doing with my teacher subscription. Say something like, subscribe by Friday and get this exclusive item. When the bonus ends, the cart stays open. But the urgency has ended. I can always add more t-shirt subscribers in. Always. I get my shirts next day so I can always add them in. But it's what makes people move is that bonus. That's what's created the urgency this week with my teacher launch. Now, if your cart is closed, it's the same idea. You're going to offer the bonus during your launch window. The doors are open. They're open for one week. And everyone who subscribes by Thursday night gets this limited edition gift. You're still creating urgency. It just has a little bit different rhythm. So for me, with my monogram box, I run an open and closed cart depending on where I'm at with subscribers. I have to order products 6 months out, so I have a set number of product, and if I sell out instantly, my cart is closed and I move to a waitlist, and then I'll open cart and say there's spots available. If I never sell out, I leave the cart open, but I'm intentionally launching twice a year with a bonus to create the urgency. So let's talk about some easy bonus ideas just to kind of help you through this. You definitely want to get an item maybe that they can't get anywhere else. I have the ability to personalize everything, so a monogram, a name, a personalized detail works really well for a bonus. You can add a small gift that matches the box theme, that goes over really well, and that's what I intentionally try to do. You could do a freebie like a digital download or a printable item as a bonus, or you could even do extras left from the previous month because this is something that your existing subscribers already received, so they won't be upset that they're not getting it. The bonus doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to feel timely, it has to feel intentional. That's why I make it match the contents of that current box. And it has to be worth grabbing now. It has to be a win for them as far as it's something that they want. It also needs to be a win for you. It has to be something that's not too expensive, that's easy to add to their box without a bunch of shipping costs. And so it has to be a win for them and a win for you. So here's what I want you to walk away with from this Friday Fuel episode. It's not about an open cart or a closed cart. It's about creating urgency and clarity around your offer. If you're not seeing the momentum that you want, it's probably not because you have an open cart or a closed cart. It's that people don't feel like now is the time to buy. So let's fix that. I want you to take a few minutes and think about what your next launch bonus could be. What could I offer that feels simple but yet special? When will I offer it and when will it end? That's your launch timeline. How will I talk about it on socials, on my website, in an email? I want you to write it down, plug it into your calendar, get excited about it, because when you're excited, your audience feels excited too. So that's your Friday Fuel. You've got this, and I'll see you back here next week.