Native subscription integration and beverage-specific expertise drove 78% customer adoption—nearly double industry average—while eliminating operational friction for a fast-growing $80M brand.
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Brez is a non-alcoholic beverage brand offering innovative drink options for health-conscious consumers seeking flavorful alternatives without the alcohol.
When you're shipping premium THC beverages nationwide, delivery problems aren't just inconvenient. They're expensive.
Brez faced challenges that most DTC brands never encounter. Beverages freeze and explode during winter shipping. High-value THC products attract package theft. Customers expect Amazon-level service, but you're competing without Amazon's infrastructure.
The company was doing $80M in annual revenue with products that cost more to replace than most apparel or accessories. Every damaged shipment meant lost product, frustrated customers, and overwhelmed support teams. With Nick Shackleford (DTC influencer and industry leader) as a partner, the brand had visibility but needed operational excellence to match.
Their previous shipping protection provider (SavedBy) offered solid customer support, but Brez needed more than just claims processing. They needed a partner who understood the beverage category's unique challenges and could scale with their rapid growth. Most critically, their existing provider wasn't covering subscription orders, meaning 40% of their customer base had zero protection on recurring shipments.
"Onward didn't just give us better shipping protection—they fixed our subscription coverage gap and turned it into a revenue driver."
Onward's seamless integration with Skio (Brez's subscription platform) meant that when customers opt-in to protection on their initial order, all subsequent subscription orders are automatically protected—with zero setup required from Brez's team.
Unlike SavedBy, which failed to properly cover recurring subscription orders, Onward ensures comprehensive protection across Brez's entire customer base. This 40% increase in coverage means more customers are protected, more orders generate revenue, and Brez captures the full value of their shipping protection program.
The integration is completely automated: customers can manage their protection subscription just like any other product in their subscription, adding or removing coverage with one click.
Brez achieved an exceptional 80% opt-in rate for Onward's VIP Protection+, significantly higher than industry averages for shipping protection. This high adoption is driven by:
Onward's CashBack feature transformed shipping protection from a cost center into a retention driver. For every dollar of CashBack redeemed by Brez customers, the brand generates $10 in top-line revenue.
Onward sponsors a portion of the CashBack program, meaning Brez receives the retention benefits of a robust loyalty program without bearing the full cost. This creates a win-win: customers receive tangible rewards that drive repeat purchases, while Brez maximizes profitability.
"The subscription integration was the game-changer. We were leaving 40% of our orders unprotected without even realizing it."
78% attach rate on shipping protection. This significantly exceeded industry averages (typically 40-50%) and even outperformed many apparel brands, validating Onward's value proposition for premium beverage customers.
Automatic subscription coverage at scale. Once a customer opted into protection on their first order, all future subscription shipments were automatically covered. This created a compounding value effect where revenue share scaled with subscription growth, and customers never had to make the protection decision twice.
Support transformation through direct collaboration. When complex cases arose (suspected fraud, carrier issues, seasonal damage spikes), resolution happened in real-time through direct Slack collaboration rather than traditional ticketing systems.
Intelligent fraud detection without customer friction. Onward's AI-powered system helped Brez automatically approve claims from known good customers while flagging suspicious patterns. The claims process accounted for seasonal damage patterns, recognizing that a spike in damaged shipments during a cold snap isn't fraud—it's physics.
Partnership, not just platform. Rather than submitting tickets to a general support queue, Brez's team messaged directly in Slack. When damage patterns emerged with specific carriers, Onward's team helped Brez identify which 3PL relationships needed attention. When subscription protection needed configuration changes, Onward made them happen without requiring Brez engineers to build custom solutions.
Brez switched to Onward to solve a straightforward problem: protect beverage shipments without adding operational burden or upfront costs. What they got was a protection platform that integrates natively with their subscription infrastructure, provides hands-on support through direct Slack collaboration, and understands the specific challenges of shipping premium beverages nationwide.
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