Should you be thinking about creating a subscription service in your business?

These days, it matters not which business sectors you look at or what products or services are sold in those sectors – the simple fact is that subscription-based businesses are everywhere.

Whether it’s media streaming, product service deals or the regular delivery of grooming products, chocolate or fruit and veg, many business sectors have moved or are moving into the subscription service world.

So, what is a subscription business?

A subscription business model means that customers (your customers) pay a fee, normally monthly, to gain access to your products or services.

Netflix is a great example of this. You pay approximately £10 per month (depending on your service level), and for this you have access, on multiple devices, to all of their films and television programmes, programmes that you may not be able to watch anywhere else (we all remember the Stranger Things craze).

HelloFresh are another great example. You pay a monthly fee and they deliver weekly meal kits to your door. There is no minimum term, no commitment – you simply choose the box you want and they deliver the fresh ingredients to you.

Subscription-based businesses have transformed the way the consumer, your customer, now does business, and this trend is on the up. The latest research suggests that the wave of subscription businesses is growing.

Before you dismiss the idea that this might not work in your business, think about your own personal subscription services…

Three years ago, how many subscription services did you use? What about now?

How can you afford to ignore it?

Don’t allow your business to get left behind by dismissing the ‘membership economy’.

Your competition is likely looking at how they can be part of the subscription success revolution, so it pays to work out how you and your business could initiate or expand a subscription approach.