Whoop hopes everyone will give that it lowers subscription prices – an admittedly rare thing to see from companies in today’s economy. Annual subscription prices drop from $300 to $239, while 24-month subscriptions drop from $480 to $399. That’s a drop of $61 and $81, respectively. However, the monthly membership remains $30 with a 12-month commitment.
“We are a premium product, but we would never want price alone to be a reason someone can’t sign up for WHOOP,” said Whoop CEO and Founder Will Ahmed The edge in an email. “We see many other companies raising their prices at the moment and given the economic climate and the pressure on household budgets, we don’t think this is the right choice. Our bet is that consumers will remember that we treated them well with this change.”
For now, Ahmed says this is Whoop’s pricing structure for the foreseeable future, but as always with businesses, prices may change in the future. Ahmed told The edge that anyone who has recently purchased a membership will have it renewed for one to three months, depending on the tier they initially purchased. Whoop declined to comment on whether this is limited to new signups or whether existing users will see any benefit.
It’s unlikely that Whoop’s discount is fueled by purely altruistic reasons. As you can see in the embedded tweet above, Whoop was – and still is – one of the most expensive fitness platforms out there. In this economy? It is much more likely that the expensive memberships did not work well with current users and potential customers.
That said, the company is dangling some upcoming features to entice users who may still be on the fence. That includes a new lifetime warranty policya weightlifting feature to track reps and muscle tone, a new home screen, more recovery insights, and a new stress monitor featuring Andrew Huberman, who hosts the enormous popular Huberman Laboratory podcast. Fitness trackers and smartwatches still struggle to accurately track weightlifting reps, while we’ve seen an increase in recovery and stress metrics since the pandemic. Meanwhile, avoiding muscle tension is key to injury prevention, but no one has come up with an elegant way to track it down. While I can’t say these are good updates until I test them, they Are promising.
It’s hard to get too mad at lower prices, especially at a time when most connected fitness companies — and other consumer tech brands — are doing the opposite. Peloton raised its membership prices last June, while Strava recently announced it was increasing its membership fees last month. On the hardware side, Oura introduced a new monthly membership with its Gen 3 ring in 2021, while bigger players like Fitbit and Apple have also introduced subscription services related to their devices in recent years.
What really stands out here is that oops is lowering prices. It pioneered portable subscriptions and helped spark a growing trend in the category (much to consumer consternation). Whoop doesn’t completely reverse course here, but his decision does point to the shortcomings of relying entirely on a subscription in tough economic times.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.