Nowadays, we subscribe to music, books, Web services, groceries, clothing, cooked meals and even dating services. Why not cars? Subscription services for vehicles are one of the fastest-growing ownership models for car owners. Last month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) was the most recent automaker to announce a new subscription plan, Jeep Wave, a service that will allow drivers to switch between vehicles as needed for a monthly fee. Similar subscription plans have already been launched by Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, and Volvo.

Subscribing to…Cars?

The new FCA subscription plan has three tiers: “good,” better” and “best,” and users will be able to pick different models in each tier. According to the company, included in the subscription are options for insurance coverage, vehicle selection, and concierge services. FCA hasn’t yet released details about the cost of the three tiers of subscription, what’s included, or the full list of vehicles to be included in each tier.

The Care by Volvo subscription plan, announced in September of 2017, starts at $600 a month. For this price, customers will have access to the Swedish company’s new 2019 XC40 sport utility vehicle. The monthly fee – so far, the most affordable in the car subscription market — also covers insurance, roadside assistance, repairs and scheduled maintenance.

Want access to a variety of Porsches? The Porsche Passport Program will set users back $2,000 or $3,000 (depending on which models they’d like to drive). The subscription, which includes a $500 activation fee and credit check, covers vehicle tax and registration, insurance, unlimited mileage, and maintenance. Smartphone users can download the app and begin using the same day or schedule future rides.

Why Auto Subscriptions?

Car companies believe that subscriptions will appeal to younger customers who are increasingly rejecting traditional vehicle ownership. They are betting that younger drivers will value the flexibility, the excitement of switching out cars and the elimination of the headaches of traditional car loans.

“We engage people with a brand that they usually wouldn’t,” Klaus Zellmer, Porsche North America CEO, told CNBC at the 2018 New York International Auto Show.

The Subscription Model Needs Robust Administrative Support

Many consumers are tired of chasing traditional car loans, particularly now as interest rates are rising. For consumers increasingly used to buying things and using them on a subscription model, it makes sense to a “fewer strings attached” generation.

As more business is done by subscription, consumers may be less reliant on traditional loans and point of purchase payments and more accustomed to having payments processed by subscription software to eliminate hassle.

SubscriptionDNA provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that integrates subscription billing, subscription management, paywalls, and authentication, providing customized front-end options so customers can log in and manage their own accounts. Companies can use the solution to automate recurring invoicing, analyze and report, communicate with subscribers, engage in email marketing, process transactions, generate payment requests, track member login statistics and more.

For more information about how SubscriptionDNA can help your business, visit our web site or call 513-574-9800.

There’s a reason standard network and non-premium cable television broadcasters are in trouble today: a lack of content. Networks, delighted with how much money reality television saved them, became a repository for mediocre filler. Cable channels once prized for entertainment, art and history became placeholders for commercials. Americans, annoyed at the poor content and frequent commercials, have moved to Amazon Prime, Netflix and individual channel subscriptions such as HBONow. As the latter have demonstrated, people are willing to pay for premium content without advertising.

Paywalls are working well for some Web content providers. It’s important, however, to be sure you’re offering value behind the paywall. TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton (and many others) are criticizing Bloomberg this week for its decision to add a comprehensive paywall to its popular news articles. Essentially, subscribers will have to pony up $35 a month for content they previously got for free.

“Subscriptions should be seen as an upgrade, not a tax,” wrote Crichton.  “A subscription should provide new features, content, and capabilities that didn’t exist before while maintaining the former product that consumers have enjoyed for years.”

To make money off content, providers need to walk a fine line. Free content supported by ad revenue is inconstant, unreliable and nerve-wracking. It also annoys the daylights out of people who don’t want their personal information tracked insidiously or pop-ups ads exploding in their faces while they’re trying to read the news. In some cases, however, it’s necessary where consumers perceive that content “ought to be” free.

Making Paywalls Work

The paywall model – which is steady, predictable revenue – works well when a company has content that adds value and that customers are willing to pay for.

“Subscriptions align incentives in a way that advertising can never do, while also avoiding the morass of privacy and ethics that plague ad targeting,” wrote Crichton. “Subscription revenues are also more reliable than ad dollars, making it easier to budget and improve operational efficiency for an organization.”

So how do you induce consumers to pay for content? For starters, you need professionally produced content – daily, in many cases – that readers perceive to be of value. Secondly, you need to understand that customers are more likely to pay for subscriptions in small bites, or in value packages. For the latter, Crichton recommends subscription bundling.

“One way we could fix [the] situation would be to allow subscriptions to combine together more cheaply,” he wrote. “We are starting to see this too: Spotify, Hulu, and Scribd appear to be investigating a deal in which consumers can get a joint subscription from these services for a lower rate. Setapp is a set of more than one hundred OS X apps that come bundled for about $10 a month.”

Use Subscription Management

Whatever approach you choose, be sure you have a professional subscription management platform in place. SubscriptionDNA is as SaaS platform that creatively integrates subscription billing, subscription management, paywalls and authentication that you can use to customize your customer’s experience. Whether you’re looking to monetize a blog, provide privileged content access to members, or anything else, Subscription DNA is an easy and affordable way to do it.

Get in touch today to find out more!

Experts believe we are moving away from the seemingly ubiquitous concept of product ownership and toward a more subscription-based economy. Young music listeners aren’t purchasing music, they’re subscribing to digital music platforms. They’re not buying books, they’re subscribing to services like Kindle Unlimited and reading e-books. While the U.S. seems to be on the forefront of the subscription economy, other nations are also now catching up.

Subscription Services Growth

A recent study by Zuora, Inc. and YouGov found that an estimated 58 million Britons now subscribe to services – this represents 89 percent of the British adult population – as businesses continue to join the subscription economy. The study, entitled, “A Nation Subscribed,” found that nearly 9-in-10 British consumers now choose to subscribe to their favorite stores, brands and services instead of purchasing them on a “one-off” basis. This figure represents an 11 percent jump from the previous year’s results.

Drilling down into the study finds that it’s not the youngest of consumers who are drawn to the subscription economy. Consumers in the 35 – 54 age bracket spend the most per month (£62, or about $88). On average across all age groups, British consumers now spend £56 per month (about $80) on subscriptions. Compare this to last year’s average, which was about £18.49 (about $26.20).

Business Warm-up to Recurring Services

The study’s authors attribute the rise in subscription spending to an increase in the number of businesses across nearly all industries offering recurring services, noting that it’s no longer just magazine and music companies looking to launch subscription plans.

Companies such as those in retail, gaming, data storage and even healthcare are determining new ways to use subscriptions.

“Subscription services are everywhere, with growth coming from wealthier generations who want the same convenience, quality and freedom,” blogged SetApp’s Yaroslav Stepanenko. “Subscribing creates a wider range of choices, which is why customers everywhere are embracing these companies and happily spending more with them as they grow comfortable with new services and brands.”

Choose SubscriptionDNA

To get the most out of the subscription business model, companies need access to robust and easy-to-manage subscription tools, such as those offered by SubscriptionDNA.

Our software-as-a-service platform (SaaS) provides companies with all the tools they need, including billing and marketing, to efficiently and affordably manage their subscription businesses. With our customized front-end options, customers can login and manage their own accounts right from the subscription provider’s website. Contact us today to learn more!

The publishing industry has changed radically in the last decade, and publishers – particularly those following stately old journalistic models such as The Washington Post and the New York Times – have struggled in the past to keep up. Newspapers and journals are still sinking a lot of money into creating quality content, and they’re seeing a lot of ad revenue lost to fly-by-night content that’s superficial and cheap to produce. Once upon a time, the idea of putting up a paywall around media content made publishers nervous. They believed that the paywall drove would-be readers into the arms of free media.

Luckily, the tide is changing. The election of 2016 has driven up newspaper readership significantly (the Washington Post reports it has tripled its readership),and established publications are finding themselves center-stage again. These organizations are feeling a little more confident about putting walls around their valuable and respected content, and readers are beginning to realize that you get what you pay for.

Content Worth Paying For

You don’t need to be The Chicago Tribune to feel that your content is worth paying for. Readers, once shy of paying for content, are getting more used to the idea. A report commissioned by the Reuters Institute last year found that there has been a surge in the number of Americans, particularly younger readers, prepared to pay for online news, growing from nine percent to 16 percent, along with a tripling of news donations. This report, and others, found that readers all over the world are embracing newer ways to pay for content rather than blanket subscriptions: per-article, one-off purchases of single editions or even voluntary donations.

“The most commonly cited reasons for paying are to get access on mobile devices, because of a good deal or print/digital bundle, or because people like to consume news from a range of sources that includes paid-for providers,” wrote research fellow Richard Fletcher of the Reuters Institute.

Subscription Management Services

Custom subscription management platforms like SubscriptionDNA make it easy for content providers to reap revenue from readership. The software-as-a-service-based solution makes it easy to set up and manage paywalls or restrict access to premium, members-only content. Users can choose a variety of paywall models to customize readers’ experiences and monetize content such as articles and blogs that were previously drains on revenue rather than assets.

There has never been a better time to venture monetizing premium content that costs you money to produce and provides value to readers. Just be sure you’re choosing a subscription management solution that isn’t going to cause you headaches and be a drain on your newfound revenue.

Get started today!