The subscription box business model involves the delivery of different products to specific people who are known as subscribers. This business is booming as more and more entrepreneurs venture into the market unique ideas. There are so many subscription box fulfillment opportunities where items are delivered effectively to the designated recipients.
Pros and Cons
The Pros
- Low overhead and potential savings
Subscription boxes are cost-effective for both the entrepreneur and the business.
The entrepreneur doesn’t require a lot of capital to get started especially since he/she doesn’t need to buy a lot of stock upfront. Minimal startup cost is advantageous to entrepreneurs without a large capital.
On the side of the subscriber, he/she will pay a lot less when the items are shipped together as a subscription box as opposed to when individual items are shipped separately.
- Easy signing up
When the sign-up process is simplified, more page views are converted to subscriptions. Otherwise, a tedious sign-up process will turn away many potential customers.
- Simplified inventory management
It’s very easy for entrepreneurs to determine which item is on-demand depending on the number of subscribers for that particular item. This means that less money is spent on market research and little capital is held up in unnecessary inventory.
- A recurring source of revenue
The income from this kind of business model is predictable since you know how many people have subscribed and how many more are expected to subscribe – from previous patterns. It helps to know roughly how much you are going to you’re going to make so that you can plan better for it.
- Customization and Convenience
With most subscription boxes, the contents are usually hand-picked depending on your needs. This level of customization makes the customers feel special and unique hence increasing their loyalty.
Also, the items get delivered to you every month and this saves you so much shopping time. This is very helpful for busy people who have little or no time to run errands.
The Cons
Like anything else that exists, subscription boxes also come with some disadvantages. They include:
- Difficulty with returns
It is quite hard for a subscriber to return the items in a subscription box if they don’t like it. The process also takes time so most people would rather just keep it even though they might not use it.
- Unclear value
Under normal circumstances, when you buy an item the price is indicated so you know its exact value. With subscription boxes, the items inside usually have different prices but what you pay is a cumulative cost. It’s not clear if what you pay for is really worth what you get.
- Overbuying
Most subscription boxes feature an assortment of products that you, most likely, wouldn’t buy if they didn’t come together in the box.
It’s also quite difficult to quit even thou most people think the contrary – that it’s easy to cancel a subscription. Most people might feel that the deal is too good so they don’t cancel as long as the price remains affordable.
Are Subscription Boxes Really Worth It?
Today one can get even the unimaginable delivered to them at a fee in a subscription box. As we have seen, the boxes come with a ton of benefits and a couple of cons too. So before you jump at deals that you feel are too good, you need to figure out if the deals are worth it or not.
It’s possible to enjoy the benefits of a subscription box without necessarily having to pay a certain monthly fee. To figure out if there are any hidden catches, here are some questions that you should ask yourself:
1. Do I need all the items in the box and am I going to use them all?
2. Would it be more economical if I bought the items by myself at retail prices?
3. Is it possible for the order to be customized depending on your needs?
4. What’s their return policy? Do you have to pay the return shipping costs or not?
5. Most importantly, can you opt-out whenever you want to?
