Why Subscription Commerce Is a Huge Opportunity

Subscription commerce (subcom) is an excellent business model for regular or recurrent products for both businesses and consumers. For it to be successful, your business needs to have the right processes, technology, and systems for timely order fulfillment.

Repeat purchases such as digital content, pet food, publications, and others can always be bought through a subscription service. It saves the consumers time while ensuring that your business is getting a regular income. Read on to learn how you can use subscription commerce for your business.

The Different Types of Subscriptions

Having understood what a subcom is, you need to know the types and which is right for your business.

Consumables Replenishment Subscription

This subscription enables consumers to regularly replenish consumable products on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. Brands that use this kind of subscription model usually sell items like toiletries, groceries, flowers, gym memberships, and more. Your customer doesn’t have to keep purchasing the same product time and time again.

Discovery Subscription

Also known as a curation subscription, it is focused on personalizing the consumers’ experience by delivering delight and surprise to them. Businesses that use this kind of subscription service include liquor, beauty, apparel, fashion, food, and more. A food subscription will probably get you the chef’s special of the day customized to your taste buds. A beauty subscription could surprise you with new or special products in the market for your use.

Discount/Exclusive Access

This subscription model gives customers access to members-only bargains, discounts, perks, and deals. They only need to pay a monthly fee to access discounts not available in the open market. Discount access is mostly seen in businesses like fashion, packaged foods, apparel, health and wellness, and more. Amazon is known to use this model on its customers.

Getting Started With Subscriptions

If you’re thinking of having a subscription service for your business, here are a few tips to help you get started.

Research on Potential Subscribers

You need to have as much information about your customers as possible to successfully create a subscription business. Who are your repeat customers? What is their persona? Which products do they like? Such data will help to make strategic and effective decisions for your business. The data will allow you to formulate customized messages and emails for clients based on their needs.

Concentrate on Consumable Products

Consumable products are thought to be the best way to go with a subscription business. It is advised that you focus on products that can be consumed between one to three months and not longer than that. This is because a product’s average usage is expected to be within 45 days from the date of purchase. Subscriptions for consumable products also give consumers the ability to change or swap their orders.

Find Dependable Suppliers for High-Quality Products

Your efforts to create a successful subscription service will not work if you’re selling low-quality products. Therefore you must take the time to source suppliers with high-quality products. You can do this by researching online, asking for product samples, and attending trade shows.

You may have to rethink launching your subscription if there aren’t enough suppliers. The more suppliers, the better your chances of negotiating and testing the products before selling them.

Be Ready for Growth

In the beginning, things may be easy and fulfilling customers’ orders will not be a problem. However, as your business grows you’ll need to think about scaling your order fulfillment process. How many products will you be shipping from your warehouse to the consumer’s door?

To ease the hassle, think about subscribing to a service that has an e-commerce product order and fulfillment process. It helps smoothen the process from the point of order to delivery.

Venture Into Subscription Commerce

Subscription commerce is expected to grow to enormous levels in the future and most companies are expected to use it. Ensure that you’ve done enough research on your customers for an effective subscription business. Having a list of suppliers allows you to get better deals and high-quality products.