10. WHY SUBSCRIPTIONS?
10Necessity
Indulgence
Value exchange
Convenience
Confidence
Customization
Connectivity
Savings Experience
• Subscription merchants
experienced heavy shopping
on Cyber Monday with same-
store sales increasing by 83
percent on Cyber Monday 2015
compared to the previous year.
• Looking at the entire four-day
period starting with Black
Friday and ending on Cyber
Monday 2015, same-store
sales grew 70 percent from the
previous year.
Source: Recurly
22. • Increasingly viable option for brands and CRM programs
• Agencies are waking up to the model as trial and relationship driver
• Infrastructure services, DIY templates and vendor support make it easier than
ever.
• Mobile-specific programs become the norm.
• From sample sizes to larger items
• More local items and services
• “Surprise” shipments give way to multiple subscription choices
• Beyond the Box: premium content and community
• Premium boxes as brand extensions
SUBSCRIPTIONS IN 2016
22
Why it works:
Simple, simple, simple concept at an inarguable value
Flexible product options, easy to adjust your plan
Completely geared toward subscription boxes. The company built its software on the understanding of subscription box needed, sensitivities and processes.
Super simple set up processes and trial. CrateJoy has really made it easy for new business owners to get a site essentially up and running in just a few days (24 hours if you're motivated). Whether your soft launching or just playing with the idea, I found their trial is be a pretty decent example of what you'll need to understand when running these types of businesses.
Simple templates/operational tools already in place. One thing I've learned running these businesses is I don't need/want to bog myself down with operations and tasks that distract from 1) customer acquisition 2) customer service and 3) performing excellently with procurement (ie. getting your products). Their system minimizes operational oversight in website building, billing, etc, which frees you up to build your business.
Great support and passionate team of people. They got back to my questions promptly and seemed to be invested in my project (even though I was just ideating in their system). As someone really geared toward customer service, this stuck out to me.
Affordable. At about $30/month, it's a SaaS that doesn't break the bank and instead provides high level functionality that saves time and money. I think it's a really affordable solution for new owners in this space.
- In a world of ad blockers and low click through rates, we're trying to make marketing and advertising feel more natural. This is why we've developed a model that is more like "native advertising but for e-commerce". While people are getting a sample in their parcel, it feels natural because the item is contextual and a value add to their shopping experience.
- We leverage data from online retailers to run panel studies. Online retailers can give you so much more (and richer) data than traditional offline methods.
- Brands are beginning to identify other ways to market to consumers in an "ad-free future". Here's an article that references what we and others are doing with brand marketers - http://adage.com/article/print-edition/big-agenda-ad-industry-2016/302067/