Rise in Subscription-Based Retail Services Reported

Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - 11:51 by Graham Miller

The proportion of people who are subscribing to services that allow them to receive products ordered via safe shopping online and delivered to their doors on a regular basis is increasing across the UK and the rest of the western world, according to the results of a new study from Paysafe.

44 per cent of people questioned in the survey said that they believed that they could get better value for money through a subscription model than by taking more traditional approaches to purchasing goods and services.

53 per cent said that they also appreciated the convenience that a subscription offered, since it effectively automates the purchasing of certain products and takes a lot of the hassle out of the hands of the customer.

Half of the respondents to the study said that they already have at least one subscription with a retail solution that is active at the moment, and 27 per cent said that they would be looking to add even more subscriptions to their monthly outgoings in the coming year.

While the future for subscription-based online shopping is looking bright, analysts were also able to pinpoint a few problems that retailers may need to address if they want to maximise the growth potential of this segment.

46 per cent of consumers said that they believed that subscriptions were not ideal because cancelling them can often be far more challenging than setting them up in the first place.

35 per cent said that they had continued to pay for a subscription service even after they had realised they did not actually need what was being provided.

As this part of the e-commerce market is so new it is no surprise to see that there is significant interest in it, as well as some aspects which need to be enhanced.