Subscription models already existed, but in a more traditional format, such as paid-for newspapers. It soon spread to other sectors with catalog sales. It began in the 1920s in the U.S. for customers in rural areas and those who wanted to shop from home. With the spread of the telephone and the use of credit cards, new “distance models” appeared which, years later, would lead to the birth of teleshopping.
Today we have the Marketplace (example: Amazon), on-demand service sales (example: Glovo) and automated subscription models (example: in printing we find multiple examples implemented by resellers, all using Nubeprint technology), which allow users a wide range of possibilities thanks to an intelligent use of technology. Their expansion has been so rapid that by 2023, 75% of companies will offer some kind of subscription.
What does subscription consist of?
It involves selling products, services or content to customers on a recurring basis in exchange for periodic fee payments. As a result, it increases the company’s revenue on a regular and predictable basis and builds customer loyalty through services.
What are the benefits of subscription?
1. Provides value to the customer – Depending on the type of subscription, the added value is different. Translated to the world of printing, it can be something as simple as sending an alert to the customer’s cell phone when a cartridge is low, to something as comprehensive as taking care of all the printer’s needs, including automatic delivery of cartridges and paper, detecting printer technical incidents and repairing them, replacing the printer when needs change, and maintaining a circular economy dynamic that makes the printing activity neutral and 100% sustainable.
2. Recurring sales.
3. Customer loyalty: customer contact is maintained.
4. Cross-selling or upselling: by maintaining contact with the customer, new needs are identified and consequently sales opportunities are created.
5. better stock forecasting: monitoring technology applied to a subscription-based model makes it possible to anticipate needs to the point of being able to increase sales without the need for stock.
6. Low marginal cost that allows scalable models: the market offers technologies to create your own subscription-based sales service with free access to monitoring agents such as the Nubeprint app available on the App Store and Play Store.
Clearly, there are many variables and the model continues to evolve. Almost everything is now available on a subscription basis. We are even starting to see new companies for whom this format is the basis of their business. The goal is always the same: to build customer loyalty in order to sell not on the basis of the best price, but on the basis of a healthy balance between perceived value and fair price.
Nubeprint is a pioneer in offering IT resellers the tools for their own subscription-based sales service.
SOURCE: paradigmadigital.com / Nubeprint
