Consumer Goods Subscriptions: How to Win in Retail in the 21st Century

Digitalization has changed our economy and, with the imminent automation of consumption, is causing further major upheavals. Consumers are increasingly choosing subscriptions or season tickets to reduce the effort required to perform everyday activities such as buying clothes, preparing meals, listening to music, or city driving. This book focuses on subscriptions to consumer goods that consumers used to purchase in stationary retail stores.

Consumer Goods Subscriptions describes the types of subscriptions that play a role in today’s world and identifies the industries in which subscriptions will become particularly popular in the future. The authors define and differentiate four subscription types in terms of surprise and personalization. The book provides a step-by-step concept for successfully implementing subscriptions and shows how to optimize subscription revenues and profits. It will help retail managers to seize the opportunities of this new revenue model and respond to changing customer behavior with appropriate subscription services.

Severin Friedrich Bischof, University of St.Gallen; Thomas Rudolph, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland