Reframing Auto-renew
Designing a Trust-Centered Auto-Renew Conversation Across Channels
Domain: Membership & subscriptions
Surface: Web, mobile app, in-club POS, associate iPad, call center
Focus: Consent, compliance, trust, retention
Role: Senior UX Content Strategist / Conversational Designer
Summary
Auto-renew became one of the highest-risk touchpoints in the Sam’s Club membership experience. Earlier efforts to increase transparency reduced complaints, but exposed structural issues across enrollment, payment methods, and cancellation that contributed to substantial financial deficit.
At the same time, new FTC regulations following the Amazon “Iliad” lawsuit introduced strict requirements for consent and cancellation. Sam’s Club needed to achieve full compliance across all channels while stabilizing revenue and maintaining member trust in a yearly membership model that did not cleanly map to standard subscription language.
This work carried major legal, financial, and reputational implications.
Product Vision
Enable a transparent, member-first automated renewal experience that aligns with member expectations, meets FTC requirements, and increases renewal success through clear consent, consistent language, and predictable system behavior across all channels.
My role
I led the content and conversational strategy for the Auto-Renew for All initiative, serving as the primary advocate for the member experience across Product, Legal, and Business teams.
My responsibility was to ensure that auto-renew behaved as a clear, consistent, and compliant system across five platforms, while balancing FTC requirements, executive priorities, and long-standing member expectations.
The Approach
Designing consent as a system, not a checkbox
I partnered directly with internal and external legal teams to design double-consent enrollment and two-click cancellation flows that met FTC requirements without relying on friction or dark patterns.
Using language to protect trust and mental models
Through competitive audits, I demonstrated that applying “cancel” language from monthly subscription models created fear and confusion in Sam’s Club’s yearly membership context. I successfully negotiated a compromise that limited legally required “cancel” language to a single moment, while preserving familiar expiration language everywhere else.
Stabilizing retention through clarity
To address revenue loss, I designed a benefits reminder moment prior to unenrollment and clear post-opt-out confirmation messaging that explained exactly how long benefits would continue. This reduced anxiety, support volume, and unintended churn without blocking member choice.
Aligning behavior across channels
I ensured the same language, consent model, and system behavior were implemented across web, mobile, in-club POS, associate tools, and call center scripts, eliminating conflicting answers and rebuilding trust.
Impact
Card on file rates exceeded 95%, reducing renewal failures
Auto-renew and auto-bill transaction success reached 87%
Nearly 50% reduction year over year in members without a card on file
Full FTC compliance achieved across all membership paths
Auto-renew enrollment increased to 91%+, up from 83% at the start of FY25
Recognized with the Sam’s Club Membership Award for leadership and impact on this initiative