11 Critical Success Factors for Subscription Commerce Clubs – An Evolving Shortlist

Useful post by US VC Rob Go on critical success factors for the subscription commerce (#subcom) trend a la Birchbox, Hoseanna & Manpacks – with an interesting additions in the comment thread. So to be a big winner in the subscription commerce market, you need to offer one or more of the following

1. Problem-solving – solves a real problem experienced by consumers (see 2-4)
2. Curation – solving the problem of product discovery by helping people discover great stuff
3. Trial – solving the problem of risk with “try before you buy”
4. Convenience – solving the problem of convenience, by helping people save time and effort
5. Amazon-proof – something that can’t/won’t be offered by Amazon
6. Scalability – can be built into a large business, scalable acquisition, scalable servicing and retention (Rue La La/Hautelook)
7. Broken – current buying process for the sort of products to be sold is broken/dysfunctional
8. KYC (Know Your Customer) – superior knowledge and insight into customers (through analytics or expertise)
9. Uniqueness – selling something special, unique, and differentiated
10. Sociability – selling in a vertical that is inherently social (where stuff gets shared) – such as beauty, shoes and female-oriented niches –  and in a demographic with vocal, social media savvy customers
11. Offline parallel – The existence of a successful offline subscription model (e.g. Netflix) in your vertical