GO SURVEY: five key to success in building a subscription system

        Facing the new state of subscription economy, how can enterprises seize business opportunities with subscription system? GO SURVEY: Exclusive discount, convenience, stability and flexibility are the four standard configurations of the transformation subscription new business model.

        With the increasing impact of inflation on the people's livelihood and environment, how to achieve smart consumption has become a topic of more concern to the public. Therefore, in the process of accelerating the development of various subscription services, GO SURVEY recently released the "2022 White Paper on Consumption Trends" to deeply analyze the latest consumption trend "subscription economy", help enterprises understand the consumer behavior of subscription services, and take the first step to successfully develop the commodity or service subscription system.

        GO SURVEY

                "Compared with the traditional one-time buyout business model, subscription system has the advantage of extending customer value," said Liang Jinlin, co-marketing president of HAPPY GO Ding&Ding Management Consultants. But not every product or service can successfully attract consumers to pay after the introduction of subscription system. The key lies in whether the enterprise considers the needs of the target customer group and whether it has designed enough incentives to attract consumers.

        Liang Jinlin quoted the content of the White Paper on Consumption Trends in 2022 to explain the differences in consumer demand. 82% of the respondents have paid subscription experience, which means that Taiwanese consumers generally accept the subscription business model, but the reasons for consumers to accept the subscription system are different. For example, consumers aged 40 to 49 pay more attention to convenience, speed and time saving, while consumers aged 18 to 29 pay more attention to price and CP value, It can be seen that the reasons for consumers to adopt subscription system are very diverse. Only by clarifying the needs of target customers can enterprises launch a subscription business model that can attract consumers to continue to pay.

        In order to understand the development of Taiwan's subscription system, the White Paper on Consumption Trends in 2022 divided the subscription system into three types: paid use of services, paid ownership of goods and paid use of goods. Among them, the subscription mode of paid use of services is currently the highest type of use.

        "The three types of subscription content are quite different, and the way to convert the purchasing power of target customers into business opportunities is also different," said Huang Yuqin, Senior Vice President of GO SURVEY Customer Insight. In terms of the first paid service, if enterprises can provide multiple choices, quickly update service content or combine different brands to develop services, they can make consumers feel more. In terms of the second kind of paid goods, enterprises need to achieve stable supply, provide flexibility of choice or give priority to trial opportunities for new products, so that subscribers will not encounter shortage and will not have the burden of stocking. As for the third kind of paid goods, enterprises should pay attention to how to find the best balance between the subscription price and the profit of goods, which can not only make customers feel that they have CP value, but also maintain the profit of enterprises, so as to attract consumers to use.

                The subscription system is under construction, with five thinking points to create a new business model that customers love most

        Lv Wanzhen, deputy director of customer insight at GO SURVEY, further summarized five thinking points before the development of subscription system from the qualitative interview with GO SURVEY.

                Think 1: Everyone has different definitions of convenience and discount. Whether enterprises want to implement subscription system or not, they should closely follow the convenience and discount that consumers need to plan the content of goods and services.

        Think 2: Consumers want to have the flexibility of free choice, such as: which products to subscribe to, the quantity of products to be delivered each time, the delivery time, etc., so as to return the control of consumption to consumers and create a sense of customized subscription services for consumers.

        Thinking 3: Whether consumers subscribe to services, goods or the right to use goods, providing services stably is the key that consumers care about very much. When Lv Wanzhen shared GO SURVEY for a qualitative interview, an interviewee said that he had encountered a situation where the delivery of goods was delayed by one week due to a large schedule, which made him very dissatisfied and affected his willingness to continue to subscribe in the future.

        Think 4: Before launching the subscription system, enterprises should first evaluate which channel is suitable for use. High unit price or functional goods, such as maintenance products, health food, etc., consumers expect clear commodity sources and after-sales service channels, which are suitable for providing subscription services through the brand's official website. However, if you often need cross-brand/category replenishment products, such as fresh food, groceries, daily necessities, etc., it is suitable for subscription on the channel or platform, which can meet multiple needs at one stop.

        Thinking 5: The biggest difference between subscription system and buy-out system is that the more subscriptions a single consumer has, the higher the profit of the enterprise is not necessarily. Therefore, before planning the subscription system, the enterprise must do a good financial actuarial work to find the most cost-effective pricing.

        From members to subscribers, economies of scale create a positive cycle of optimized services

        Peng Guanwei, senior vice president of foodpanda Taiwan marketing, said that when foodpanda initially implemented the subscription system, the main purpose was to win the recognition of consumers, rapidly expand the number of users through customer word-of-mouth recommendation, and maintain the order frequency to ensure that there are sufficient orders in each region, so as to stabilize the cooperative relationship between restaurants and delivery staff, and create stable services through economies of scale, Let customers have good enjoyment.

        In order to achieve these two goals, Peng Guanwei maintains the relationship with subscribers with the thinking of managing marriage. Through the three key points of providing exclusive subscriber discounts, creating surprises at three times and paying attention to commitment, subscribers will feel convenient and affordable. "From the trend of continuous growth in the number of organic orders, we can see that subscribers not only place orders for preferential discounts, but also for the reason that they really like and need to use the services of the foodpanda platform," Peng Guanwei said.

        Grasp three key points and launch a subscription system that everyone loves

        Fan Huiyi, director of the Artificial Intelligence Service Integrated R&D Center of the Institute of Business Development, a consortium legal person, believes that the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic at the end of 2019 is the key to catalyzing the development of Taiwan's subscription system market. According to the survey of the Institute of Business Development, not only young people have been keen to use subscription system in the past three years, but also middle-aged and elderly consumers who are not familiar with digital technology have joined the subscription system, which shows that the future development potential of subscription system is amazing.

        If an enterprise wants to seize the business opportunities of subscription system, in addition to the five points mentioned above, it should also grasp the following three key points of success. First, it should replace the discount with the promise, pay attention to the promise to subscribers, and do not blindly use the discount as the power to implement subscription system; The second is to design innovative points to bring surprise to customers. The third is to make good use of AI algorithms to analyze consumer needs and continuously optimize subscription services.

        The subscription system is now in progress. Enterprises should be prepared as early as possible, starting from the characteristics of the product and the needs of the target customer group, and adhering to the four standard subscription system configurations of exclusive discount, convenience, stability, and flexibility of choice, so as to create a positive consumption cycle, let passers-by become members, and then from members to fans, and seize the "heart" business opportunities of customers.

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