Why subscriptions just don’t work for customers

As modern consumer behaviour evolves, more and more solutions across their lifestyles are on-demand and flexible. Committing to a recurring purchase of a product that may not even work for you is starting to feel a little tired.

The shift away from traditional subscriptions will quicken pace, driven by the proliferation of on-demand solutions across all areas of modern life. Categories like content consumption (Netflix, Spotify), Travel (Uber, Lime), and food delivery (Deliveroo, DoorDash) are creating an atmosphere on everything on our terms, at all times. These category-... See more

Haloed subscription model products like razors, tampons, and coffee are actually incredibly variable by nature and don’t fit a rigid timeframe. You have your ritual daily coffee, but at times you’re away with work, have friends round who also have coffee, or just fancy something else that day. Alongside the fixed order frequencies, most subscriptio... See more

There are 3 core principles as to why subscriptions are flawed, based around the above mentioned lack of flexibility, customisation, and commitment.

However, as time has progressed, the practicality for a consumer to use a product subscription started to wain and horror stories of consumers not being able to cancel or being billed continuously started to emerge. Very quickly, subscription models gained consumer reputation of being “locked-in” and not having any sort of the flexibility modern cu... See more