Subscription in everyday life
I go jogging and listen to a crime drama offered by an audiobook subscription service. When I arrive home, a box of delivered ingredients for tasty dishes lies at my doorstep. While my dinner gets ready in the oven, I check the latest news on my tablet and download a film for an upcoming train journey. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have counted four subscriptions that I use in these one or two hours alone. And I’m probably still below the average.
Megatrend: Subscription
After all, ever since you can subscribe to socks and mineral water, it’s clear that subscriptions are establishing themselves in almost all segments and industries. This mega trend is slowly becoming normal. A quarter of all Germans use streaming services like Netflix, Joyn, RTLnow or Disney plus every week – across all age groups. Subscriptions give companies the enormous benefit that they can make business forecasts. Customer contact is relatively close in subscription models, and there is a large number of touchpoints. Upselling offers or one-time purchases can be placed effectively, optimizing products with customer data and direct feedback.
Here, the challenge lies in the underlying processes. When introducing subscriber models, companies often underestimate the complexity of payments processing and subscription accounting. That’s because the various subscription models need to be provided with the right payment types and associated processes – in combination with proper, compliant accounting.