Subscription Based Business Models in eCommerce [Experts’ Opinion]

“The critical times of Covid-19 pandemic has fueled the growth of eCommerce businesses and has sparked new innovative ideas for the online businesses to sell their products & services through subscriptions.

Subscription business models create a win-win situation for the customers and businesses in the eCommerce landscape. It helps the customers purchase their desired products or services at regular intervals and helps the businesses to reduce customer acquisition costs.”

– Shivbhadrasinh Gohil, Co-founder & CMO at Meetanshi

“Experience is the force that urges consumers to patronise and spend money on a product or service. Thus, my tip will be to let the market try your service first before offering them subscriptions.

If you are confident about the service you can offer, there will be nothing to worry about this strategy. The possibility of hooking them and having leads that have great potential to be consumers will be confirmed through this method. This also will give you a clearer view of your sales funnel and will have a better assessment of how you can improve the service based on how the trial users experienced it.”

– Keenan Beavis, Founder of Longhouse Media Company

“For businesses that have subscription-based models, it is important for them to gain trust and build long-term relationships with their clients. Given this, I think it will be an excellent strategy for the management if they will offer rewards for long-term users that continuously renew their subscriptions. Rewards can be discounts or especially offers exclusive to them.

This will obviously increase the company’s retention rate. But this is not limited to this benefit because it will also create an edge in pricing and satisfaction. This is to consider that consumers are always looking for something better and preferable. And with the tougher competition, there is a significant risk of losing clients because of a better offer. Also, this can be a way to take care of and give value to your consumers. This strategy will affect the consumer experience positively.”

– Scot J Chrisman, CEO at The Media House

“To build a successful subscription-based e-commerce business model, you need to:

Build subscription-focused customer personas. Before you’re able to engage with and sell to your customers, you need to understand who they really are. This involves digging into your target audience demographic, psychographic and behavioral data. You need to gain a better understanding of their need for a subscription-based service, along with their propensity to become long-time subscribers.

Define what makes you different from competitors. You also need to have a firm grip on what your ecommerce subscription service’s unique value proposition is. What sets you apart from others in your industry? Is your actual product or service revolutionary in any way? Do you offer faster delivery than others? Without a clear USP in mind from the get-go, your brand will have little chance to generate buzz amongst your target audience.”

– Johan Liebert, CEO & Shopping Expert at DazzDeals

“A profitable subscription-based business offers the best customer service to its customers. Ensure that your customers always have your back for any requirements and queries. The better your customer services get, the more loyal customers you will gain for your subscription-based business.

While having a subscription-based business, ensure to observe your analytics and decrease the churn rate. Your analytics are the ultimate decision-making factor to improve your business. Focus on improving the conversion funnel and optimizing your buyer journey. Defining your key performance indicators is equally crucial here. Ensure to keep a regular check on every relevant metric of your business to optimize whenever required.”

– Hilda Wong, Founder of Content Dog