We have all seen the major increase in subscriptions being offered directly to customers, particularly in the context of COVID in which buying habits were changed drastically while people were stuck at home. The distance between businesses and customers appeared large, making it vital to find a form of direct access to customers. Among other benefits, through offering ecommerce subscriptions, businesses could ensure that lockdown wouldn’t impact customers receiving and enjoying their products.
The current projections for the ecommerce subscription market suggests that by 2025 its global worth will reach $246.6 billion, and so if there was ever a time to join the subscription market, it’s most likely now.
What are the advantages of offering subscriptions for a B2C company?
For a business in the DTC space (direct to customer), offering subscriptions has the benefit of not only generating recurring revenue, but also of increasing customer retention, as the ‘shopping’ experience becomes a more convenient task. Customers have the opportunity to experience a business' goods or services in two differing ways - via a recurring subscription, or by purchasing their products or services ad-hoc. The two options cater to slightly different customer needs, which makes your business, and its offering, more flexible and accessible to a wider audience.
As well as its benefits for customers, offering subscriptions is advantageous to the business itself. The pandemic has proven the importance of flexibility, and creating a subscription business model can add a level of both flexibility and consistency for your customers and your business alike. The introduction of subscriptions in your business model allows you to benefit from a more stable revenue stream, which is a huge advantage, especially in times of economic instability.
Why DTC?
Direct To Consumer nurtures a direct relationship with your customers. A huge factor that makes competition greater for businesses is the product-comparison process. As customers compare the offerings of different businesses when shopping online or in person, the level of competition to your business is greater. Offering a DTC subscription reduces the number of times that customers will go through this comparison process as they’re receiving a product without having to re-enter stores or online shops. Through a subscription model, your business can eradicate a level of competition, and increase its customer retention rate.
The lockdown restrictions we have experienced as a result of the pandemic showed how much customers can rely on subscriptions. Customers benefit from the stability and consistency that subscriptions bring to the table, despite potential inventory shortages and supply chain disruptions. By being able to rely on the subscriptions, customers are highly likely to develop more engaged, deeper relationships with the businesses providing them.
Customers subscribe to products for a number of reasons: to try new things, to get a greater ‘value for money’, or to access a more personalized service. The opportunity to more deeply engage with both new and existing customers and to increase your customer acquisition will prove to be an invaluable asset, especially in the current ecommerce subscription boom.
How Billforward Supports Business to Customer Subscription
Billforward’s flexibility means it is a perfect fit for a variety of industries and caters for the unique needs of companies and customers alike. This level of customization makes Billforward's recurring billing platform an excellent choice not only for companies who already have an established subscription offering and follow a subscription management strategy, but also for those companies who are just getting started on their recurring and subscription billing endeavor. And as your needs change and evolve over time, you can rest assured that Billforward will transform with your business - from simplest to most sophisticated use cases, it’s a billing system you can never outgrow.
Our commercetools and Shopify integrations make adding subscriptions to your online shopfront effortless. Not on commercetools or Shopify yet? No worries! You can actually take advantage of Billforward’s Flexcheck - your very own, customizable, simple storefront, allowing you to get started selling your subscriptions online in just a few minutes, no technical skills required.
Whichever way you choose to sell your subscriptions online, Billforward's Subscription Management Software will be here for you every step of the way.
If you’d like to see an example of how Billforward has helped a DTC subscription business, you can read about Danone’s subscription success.
Why not book a discovery call with one of our billing experts and see how we can help you meet your subscription goals!