As Gartner notes, interest in subscriptions has increased especially during the pandemic. And this trend will continue, spreading to different industries. By 2023, an estimated 75% of B2C companies will offer subscription-based services , but only 20% will be able to retain their customers (report only available to Gartner clients). Subscriptions bring recurring revenue and more frequent customer engagement, which can help companies increase their revenue.
Captera conducted a survey on subscription commerce to understand the current state of subscriptions and user intent. The survey is aimed at consumers in Germany who frequently purchase products and services online. In this article, we present the results of the over 1000 participants surveyed. The full study methodology can be found at the end of the article.
Definition and Type of Subscription Commerce
Subscriptions, which are increasingly used as a business model by companies, refer to a contract in which a service provider regularly provides a service or delivers a product to a customer who pays a fixed fee. The customer thus benefits from the convenience of receiving a product or service automatically. Today, products or services as diverse as product boxes, wellness apps or learning platforms are offered on a subscription basis. The consumer can then use these products or services regularly or even permanently (especially in the case of streaming content) without having to worry about ordering or making manual payments.
Subscriptions are easy to introduce into digital products and online services thailand telegram and software and platforms for streaming content such as music and video are among the first to adopt this model. This includes music, film and sports streaming, as well as gaming and messaging services such as WhatsApp, which was once available for a small fee. For the purposes of this study, we refer to this group of online services as “traditional subscription models.”
Software (such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365)
Music (such as Spotify, Apple Music)
Videos (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime)
In recent years, a variety of other services and products have also started offering subscriptions. We call this new form of subscription “non-traditional or modern subscription models” in this article and divide them into four main types of services.
Non-traditional subscription models
Product box subscription : Regular delivery of “boxes” with beauty items, food, organic products, etc.
Regular deliveries of replacement/replenishment products : Regular delivery of consumables such as razor blades, spices and ingredients
Online health or fitness platforms : Supports physical and mental health management. Including running, fitness and sports training as well as mental health and meditation
Online learning platform : Offers education in other areas, such as language and music
Subscriptions to journals, magazines and newspapers on paper or online were excluded from our survey in order to focus on the products mentioned above.