Cricut announced a new subscription model-customers shut it down: A community of crafters forced Cricut to revert their new subscription policy.

• Author: Foreman, Kelsie

ORDINARILY, ANDREA ROSS WOULD SPEND her evening creating digital patterns for her crafting website My Very Crafty Life--instead she found herself launching a heated petition against Cricut, the Utah-based manufacturer who makes the cutting machines she uses for work.

The company came under fire in March of 2021 after announcing that those who had purchased and owned a Cricut machine would now have to pay $9.99/month to upload more than 20 custom designs each month--a service that used to be unlimited and free for users.

Cricut customers responded with outrage. "We didn't pay to buy a machine with limits," posted Jessica Leyva to the official Cricut Facebook page. "We didn't pay to basically RENT limited use. This was not something implemented before and therefore should not apply."

A BUSINESS DECISION--AND ITS EFFECT ON CUSTOMERS

It was a strategic move. Cricut, like Microsoft and Adobe before them, decided to adopt the revenue model for their proprietary Design Space software from a one-time purchase to a recurring subscription.

The response was swift. Within hours of the announcement, crafters from Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter voiced their displeasure. "This is so stupid. [Cricut] FORCE[s] us to upload to their servers and then make us pay for the privilege," said the Reddit user u/VioletCrumble on a r/Cricut community thread.

Ross turned to social media for clarity about the change but says she got nothing. "I decided to go to Cricut's Facebook page to see what else was going on and they happened to be doing a live video (which they have since deleted) that went over all the changes EXCEPT the subscription issues. I commented on the video several times, hoping for clarification or answers but it was clear they were not going to respond to anything about it."

Ross became the top trending comment with more than 500 reactions and hundreds of replies, but with no word from Cricut, the community was forced to take action offsite. Citing the company's belief that "creativity should be free" and machine users "shouldn't have to pay to upload designs," Ross and Holley Richardson, owner of Jig Street Crafts, created two separate Change.org petitions imploring company executives to walk back the policy change. Within hours the petitions scored more than 50,000 signatures each.

"The petition got a bit out of control," says Ross. "I realized by the evening of the 12th that this movement was way bigger than me."

It was. On March 16th, the same day the company announced their proposed IPO, CEO Ashish Arora posted a letter of apology to the company website stating: "It is clear that, in this instance, we did not understand the full impact of our recent decision on our current members and their machines. We apologize." Arora also announced that Cricut users registered before December 31st, 2021 would be exempt from the 20 upload limit.

The move quieted community anger by a few decibels, until two days later when Cricut formally walked back all subscription model changes. Just as it had been before March 12th, there were no longer limits to Design Space uploads. The crafters had won. They wouldn't be forced to "rent" their machines.

THE SUBSCRIPTION MODEL-AND WHY IT DIDN'T WORK FOR CRICUT

According to the UBS financial services firm, subscriptions are predicted to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2025, double the $650 billion it's worth now. And the move has also been successfully made by Peloton, Gillette, and GoPro, to name a few. So why didn't it work for Cricut?

Pascal Yammine, VP and GM of Salesforce Revenue Cloud, a SaaS solution designed to help businesses manage their subscriptions, says the vetting process is often what sets a successful...