The Subscription Economy describes the new business landscape in which traditional pay-per-product (or service) companies are moving toward subscription-based business models. The subscription economy is focused on monetizing long-term relationships rather than shipping products.
Consumers are not buying movies – they stream them on Netflix; we don’t buy hardware to run our applications – we subscribe to cloud services. Subscriptions help to build a long-term relationship with the customer and provide continuous revenue. The growing popularity of the subscription business model means we need to know how to sell them online.
Practically any type of service or product can be sold through subscription:
To sell subscriptions, you need to ensure that your ecommerce system supports Subscription products.
Let’s look at what it means from an Ecommerce implementation perspective.
👩🎓From the catalog perspective, a Subscription is a product with all information that is required to define a product in your catalog.
👩🎓As with any product, you need to provide a name and description, including what the subscription includes, how it will be delivered, and images.
👩🎓In addition, specify how often the subscription will be delivered, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The best way to do it is by making the delivery sequence a single select attribute and adding several variants of the subscription product.
👩🎓Clearly state the subscription duration and your cancellation policy, including any fees or notice period required to cancel the subscription.
👩🎓Determine the price of the subscription, including any discounts for longer-term subscriptions. Price can also depend on a billing cycle. Getting paid a year ahead is always beneficial to the business and warrants an additional discount.
Subscription pricing could be quite complex and include multiple tiers, per-usage, and one-time fees. See another microlesson to read more about it.
By considering these elements, you can effectively define subscription products in your e-commerce catalog and provide a seamless experience for your customers.
