Subscription Stats: Top reasons why B2C customers subscribe

To increase your acquisition rate, it’s important to know why your customers subscribe to products and services to make sure you address their needs and aspirations. 

Why do people subscribe to products and services?

• 51 % – Convenience
• 47 % – Cost effectiveness
• 42 % – Lifestyle routine (e.g., healthy eating, regular grooming)
• 41 % – Personalized products and services
• 41 % – Trying new things
• 33 % – Trying before buying
• 24 % – Sense of community
• 22 % – Part of another deal (e.g., Amazon Prime)
• 16 % – Subscription is needed to access a service

(Source Statista, 2023),

Top 3 Reasons why customers subscribe

1. Convenience

The product or service is easier to obtain via subscription. For example, household items, pet or baby food, healthcare products, etc. are much easier to manage when they get delivered on a regular basis.

Likewise, a digital media subscription can be much more convenient than buying physical media, since people can immediately gain access to their movie, album, newspaper of choice.

Acquisition tips

Identify products, services that your customers are more likely to require on a regular basis. Offer flexibility in volume and frequency or create attractive bundles.

A free trial or a sample bundle at a discount are great ways to acquire new customers and convince them of your products.

2. Price

Depending on the product or service, a subscription might be much more price-efficient than buying the full version or using alternative means. For example, most streaming services are (for now) less expensive than cable TV.

For Software-as-a-Service, a subscription can also be much less expensive, since the users both don’t have to buy and install/implement a huge software solution but can easily access parts of it via the cloud and therefore not only save the money that the software itself would cost but also save resources and effort that otherwise would go into setup and implementation as well as maintenance.

Acquisition tips

Work with discounts or competitive prices to convince your customers.

However, a smart price does not always have to be lower than the competition. The value/price combination of your product or service simply needs to be better. So, if your product is pricier because it has more features, lasts longer, etc. use this in your communication and you might still win over customers from the cheaper competition.

3. Lifestyle routine

Now, this reason is probably the most interesting of the top 3 since it includes a more psychological aspect: aspiration. A subscription product or service can basically help the customer to lead a better life. Whether through a workout subscription, a meal subscription box or access to health and beauty products, subscriptions support a better lifestyle.

It highly depends on your customers, what this better lifestyle encompasses.

For example, a weekly vegetable box delivery can be aspirational if it’s sourced from local farmers and thus environmentally friendly and healthier.

The same goes for meal prep kits that motivate customers to cook more and learn more about different ingredients, cooking styles and methods.

If you can find out whether and what your service or product can do to help your customers better their lives, you can create incredibly effective messaging.

Acquisition tips

If you can find out whether and what your service or product can do to help your customers better their lives, you can create incredibly effective messaging. You can use market research information or even ask your customers via social media or online surveys.

Make sure to offer a small incentive (e.g., a free product, a discount, a voucher) as a thank you.

Once you have the results, you can create buyer personas which represent different customer types who have different motivations for using your product. This helps you to develop personalized content, messaging and products to cater to your different customer groups.

Why do customers switch their subscription provider?

According to Deloitte, the biggest two reasons are simple: a better price and special discounts or promotions.

Most subscription customers might get bored by their products or services or thought of switching but were not quite sure if it was worth the effort. An attractive discount and better pricing options can easily sway customers.

Additionally, recommendations from family and friends as well as customer reviews have a huge impact on buying decisions.

Other reasons: advanced functionalities, special products, premium services.

In short: Deliver more for less and make sure that the customer experience for your current customers is just as positive as it is for new customers, so your recommendation network is strong. Throw in the occasional freebie or a discount and celebrate milestones.

You can also offer access to beta functions of software features or let long-term customers pre-order limited products. Remember, a subscription customer relationship is built on a sense of community and trust that needs to be continuously nurtured.

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Billwerk+ provides subscription management solutions that support you with the right setup, templates, hosted product pages and functionalities (discounts, add-ons, coupons) to let your subscription plans shine and drive conversions.
Set up a demo meeting with our experts today to get to know our products and find out how we can help your subscription business grow and scale.