Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

This article mainly introduces an example analysis of the sample subscription model in the Internet, which has a certain reference value. Interested friends can refer to it. I hope you will gain a lot after reading this article. Let's take a look at it.

What is a subscription model?

The most primitive subscription model refers to a newspaper agreement-newspaper readers pay a subscription fee in advance for a period of time, and the special delivery staff delivers the newspaper ordered by the reader to the place designated by the reader within a specified period of time. Later, this model has been used in other areas, such as magazine subscription and milk subscription, so that people can enjoy subscription products or services without leaving home. With the continuous development and growth of the Internet, this traditional business model is coruscating new vitality and is effectively applied to the major Internet enterprises.

The so-called subscription, that is, the use of member subscription to provide services, users will regularly receive packaged products and all kinds of information from the website.

Subscription pattern classification

At present, the subscription model is mainly divided into three categories: random sample subscription, regular consumer goods subscription and virtual goods subscription.

1. Regular consumer goods subscription

Commodities such as flowers, vegetables and milk have a regular consumption cycle, and consumers tend to buy them repeatedly at regular intervals. For example, take some time is an Internet flower B2C online retail brand, through the "pre-order + cycle purchase" weekly flower business model to provide users with flower-to-home service. The subscription model can well solve the link of repeated purchase, so that users can pay more attention to the selection of goods rather than the mechanized purchase process.

2. Subscription of virtual goods

With the continuous improvement of Chinese people's awareness of copyright, more and more video websites and music software have launched paid subscription functions.

3. A new way of playing on the Internet-- sample subscription

The so-called sample subscription is that after knowing the preferences of users, the subscription service platform will select samples of some products that they think users will like.

According to the purpose of the user and the professionalism of the product, we subdivide the sample subscription into three different categories.

(1) popular science sample subscriptions for novice users

Many commodities are very professional, such as tea, wine, perfume and other items, it is difficult for novice users to learn by themselves, and how to select, buy and use needs to be explained by outside professionals. Take perfume as an example, many people buy perfume blindly and blindly judge whether the product is suitable for them through the outer packaging and advertising of the product. however, the unit price of perfume is not low, and the trial and error cost of buying formal perfume is very high. So how to solve this problem?

ScentPage is a perfume subscription service platform, users who choose to pay a certain monthly fee will receive two 5ml fragrances per month, which is a good solution to the problem of fragrance Xiaobai choosing perfume. In addition, ScentPage will use official accounts to promote perfume-related content, such as stories behind perfume, introduction of perfume inspiration, etc., in order to popularize perfume knowledge for novice users.

(2) recommended sample subscriptions for users with difficulties in selection

With the upgrading of people's consumption, more and more attention is paid to personalized service, but the styles of goods are varied. Consumers often fall into the awkward position of difficult choice when they choose one of their favorite styles among thousands of styles. In order to solve this pain point, personalized recommendation came into being. So what kind of spark does personalized recommendation have when it comes to subscription? Let's take a look at a clothing subscription platform.

For many parents, buying clothes for their children is a headache. Children are in the stage of physical growth, and you have to buy them new clothes every season, which takes a lot of energy. And there is a very serious problem-how to buy fashionable children's clothes? Rockets of Awesome is an e-commerce platform for children's clothing subscriptions. Users subscribe to the service, and the site will study their style, brand, price and other preferences, and then users will regularly receive different matching clothes. If they like it, they will keep it and return it if they don't like it. The subscription service makes it easy for parents to buy fashionable children's clothes.

(3) trial sample subscription for personalized users

Some goods can be based on the opinions of others to come to the conclusion of whether it is worth buying, while some goods must be experienced by themselves to know whether they are suitable for you.

Take cosmetics as an example, trial is a very important link for women to buy cosmetics. Female consumers will feel at ease to buy products only after trial experience and product comparison. But many places that sell cosmetics do not offer trial, and the products you want to try may not necessarily appear at the counter, or it will be inconvenient to go to physical stores for trial. One bottle and one can is a trial subscription service platform for cosmetics. By paying a subscription fee, users can receive a gift box containing 4-5 trial packages of world-famous cosmetics every month, catering to the individual needs of female customers to choose cosmetics.

As the subscription model of regular consumer goods and virtual goods is more traditional, and more and more Internet companies cut into the market from the sample subscription model, the following content will focus on the sample subscription model.

Benefits of subscription model for users

1. Reduce purchase risk / trial and error cost / selection cost

One of the biggest benefits of the subscription model is to reduce the purchase risk of users. Users can enjoy a variety of samples as long as they pay a small membership fee, without wasting expensive prices to buy formal clothes that they may not like at all, greatly reducing the cost of trial and error.

2. Unknown surprises

The so-called subscription means that consumers have no idea what they will receive. The platform creates unexpected surprises for consumers and brings users an unprecedented consumption experience. When consumers are opening gift boxes, they will have a sense of excitement brought by the unknown. This surprise and excitement play an important role in improving and maintaining customer relationships.

3. Reduce the number of repeated purchases

What do you mean by repeat shopping? it's not that you buy the same thing over and over again, but that you use seven pairs of ballet shoes of different colors, five identical cardigan jackets, and nine jeans of the same style. We are always used to the past and afraid to try new things. This fear will prevent us from using our creativity to find interesting new items. The advantage of subscription is that the system will make personalized recommendations for you and focus consumers' attention on the choice of goods rather than on buying.

For platform / merchant

1. Reduce the customer acquisition cost of the platform / merchant

This is an era in which content is king and experience is king. The subscription model not only pays attention to experience, but also reduces the purchase risk of users, which can stimulate users' willingness to buy to a high extent, thus reducing the cost of obtaining customers for the platform / merchants. Just like the perfume case above, a bottle of formal perfume may cost thousands, and the high price is likely to shut out a large number of users, while the sample subscription mode effectively lowers the barriers for users to enter, making the platform more efficient to obtain a large number of users.

2. Help to understand users' habits

The fixed frequency subscription model enables the platform / merchants to understand users' preferences and purchasing behavior. once they have mastered the user data, the platform / merchants can quickly achieve accurate marketing and provide personalized services for different users. To take a simple example, who is more valuable to subscribe to magazines in newspapers and magazines or to subscribe to electronic magazines on the platform? Obviously it is the latter, because the value of the readers of the print version is only limited to his personal address information, while the readers who subscribe to the electronic version can bring more effective information to the platform. for example, his reading habits: total reading time, single stay time, keyword excerpts, sharing records, etc., the platform can continue to provide more targeted services by tracking and mining these data. Let the user like the products and services of the platform more.

3. Help to lock in users

In the Internet industry, because customer acquisition or promotion activities attract customers to the platform, users begin to visit the platform, but after a period of time, some customers may gradually lose. This is a problem faced by many enterprises, but the subscription model has a natural resident attribute, because the subscription model has a certain consumption frequency and cycle, and it is easy to cultivate the habit of regular consumption, which helps the platform to lock in users. and make it a loyal user.

4. Low promotion cost

The subscription model will eventually precipitate a group of high-quality users, when the accumulation of large enough users, the promotion cost of the platform / merchant becomes low enough that a simple email can instantly let all customers know the relevant promotion information.

5. Diversified choices are an opportunity for small brands

When users shop on their own, out of trust and risk considerations, they often choose some Volkswagen brands. In subscription services, the choice of goods depends to a large extent on the platform, and the platform often sends users more than one sample, which is an opportunity for small brands.

The difficulties of subscription model

1. High demand for experience value

This is an era in which experience is king, and user experience is increasingly becoming a key factor in the success of this model. When the user picks up the product recommended by the platform and starts to use it, the user experience journey really begins, and whether the user experience journey is pleasant or not will directly affect the word-of-mouth and sales of the platform. Once the user feels the experience value is not high, the user is easy to interrupt the subscription. The core of user experience is user demand, so the main difficulty lies in the control of user preferences, especially in the first service, there is no user's personal preference and consumption habits on the platform, so how can the platform recommend users? Can you figure out users' preferences just by a simple questionnaire? The answer is obviously no.

2. Logistics cost

An indispensable part of the subscription model is logistics and distribution. The cost of self-built logistics is too high, and the delivery of third-party logistics distribution, its service quality is not controlled, it is easy to destroy the user experience. How to reduce the logistics cost and ensure the service quality will determine the development space of the subscription model.

Conditions applicable to the subscription model

No business model is unassailable, and no business model can be applied to a variety of industries, so what kind of products are suitable to use the subscription model?

1. High consumption frequency

The subscription model pays attention to a certain consumption frequency and requires the product to have a certain demand cycle. Obviously, durable goods with a long consumption cycle, such as furniture, home decoration and electrical appliances, are not suitable for subscription, even if the customer unit prices of these products are not low, but too low consumption frequency is not conducive to the profitability of the platform.

2. Low logistics cost

E-commerce needs to deliver products or services through logistics. If the cost is borne by the enterprise, it is not conducive to the rapid profit of the enterprise; if the logistics cost is paid by the user, then the high logistics cost will directly affect the customer cost of the enterprise. No matter which way is taken, the high logistics cost can not support the subscription model in the end.

3. High experience value

As mentioned above, the core of the subscription model is experience, if there is no high-quality experience, there is naturally no reason for users to subscribe for a long time.

Thank you for reading this article carefully. I hope the article "example Analysis of sample subscription patterns on the Internet" shared by the editor will be helpful to everyone. At the same time, I also hope that you will support and pay attention to the industry information channel. More related knowledge is waiting for you to learn!

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.