Subscription for Discovery

As well as providing recurring revenue and marketing opportunities, Discovery or Membership commerce provides retail with some great opportunities to become closer to the customer, and offer personalised shopping experiences to give the customer a feeling of exclusivity. This could be specialised food & drink, a hobby or an enthusiasm for a certain brand that the customer is happy to experience their variety of products regularly, for exciting new experiences, tastes and flavours, across many different themes.

Subscriptions also help brands and retailers to have targeted pre-launches and test new products to specific demographics and provides invaluable early feedback, from enthusiasts of the brand or product type, whilst giving the customer an exclusive opportunity ahead of the general public.

Elements to consider

• Profile your ideal targets
• Set your KPIs: ATV to LTV
• Pricing for all budgets
• Emphasise simplicity
• Retain their interest
• Growing the relationship
• Put the customer in control

Introductory offers, flexible pricing models and an online account area, puts the customer in control of budget and regular spend and provides them the confidence that the subscription can be amended or cancelled, when they want to do it and not when the customer service team gets round to it.

Fashion has also broken the cap off the subscription commerce, with the VIP membership and personalised styling approach. We all have our preferred sites and brands and a proportion of disposable monthly income to update our wardrobe. But in a time of hectic work and leisure schedules, we don’t always have the time to browse online and make these selections, resulting in last minute purchases at a local store with limited choice.

Providing a personalised virtual stylist, that knows your budget, preferences, brands, sizes, social scene etc. who sends you 2 or 3 key items every month that keeps you in style, removes those “oh no I’ve got nothing to wear” moments could be the perfect solution for many.

As clothing is very subjective and sizing of clothes can differ from brand to brand, the rules of the membership would need to reflect this, for example returns policy would need to cater for exchange and returns of unwanted items.

A key objective of membership subscription is to maintain the VIP and personalised engagement with the customer and for this reason, elements need to be considered in a fashion business.

• Initial style and social quiz – to understand some baseline likes and dislikes
• Exclusive deals and discounts – VIPs need to feel like special and this will increase their LTV
• Flexible delivery schedules – once a month, every other month, every 3 months etc.
• Free Delivery or Pick Up In-store – to cater for everyone’s lifestyle
• Ability to skip a delivery – Giving this flexibility through online self service provides the customer with the comfort of being in control
• Ability to build up credits for later use – This enables customers to save returns credits and skipped deliveries for use on future large purchases
• Encourage and reward reviews – Incentivising reviews helps benchmark products in general, but also helps enrich the profile of the customer for future deliveries.

MPP Global subscription management system manages the entire billing lifecycle of a subscription. You can create subscription packages, payment schedules, sell them online, in-store or via a call centre, and manage any combination of one-off and recurring payments via a multitude of payment methods, all through one platform.

Download the Subscription for Discovery Handout