Ashley Friedlein says, “You may have noticed the rise in subscription services and business models – the likes of Spotify in music, Netflix in video and, of course, Dollar Shave Club in FMCG, which was recently bought by Unilever for $1bn.

On US-based My Subscription Addiction, a portal detailing available subscription services, there were 2,000 in operation as of March this year. And visits to subscription ecommerce sites have gone up 3,000% in the past three years. The average subscriber receives seven subscription packages and has at least 12 on their wish list.

Popular categories include beauty and grooming, food and drink, and pets. Although startups such as Graze (healthy snack boxes on subscription) pioneered this space in ecommerce, the bigger players are rapidly trying to play catch up: Walmart (Beauty Box), Starbucks, Macy’s and others.

Perhaps the most interesting is Amazon. In many ways, its Prime membership is a form of subscription. It aims to reduce friction and encourage repeat purchase and loyalty”.

What can marketers learn from SaaS (software-as-a-service) businesses?

Econsultancy

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