Subscription Burnout

Vintage and antique rings stacked on an icicle. Seemed like a cool idea but ended up being a bit weird ha.

Maybe it's just me but for a while I've been repelled by any products or services that involve a subscription. The only exceptions are Spotify and Netflix, which seem more than ever to be essential to pandemic survival, the Melissa Wood Health workout program app, and Patreon to support certain creators I love.

I've actually started keeping track of subscriptions and one by one I've been ticking them off of my list.

From a business perspective, it makes a ton of sense for companies to lean into having a subscription offering. You ensure a level of customer loyalty, you benefit from people forgetting they even have the subscription, and you create a situation where your potential revenues are more predictable than if you depended on regular order flow alone. 

It just came to me that maybe marketing spend can be lower as well since you really need to attract a customer once, who then signs up for the subscription, instead of targeting them repeatedly to make other orders.

But, I think it is worth saying that in the majority of cases when I've gotten hooked into a product subscription, it has ended up making me dislike the product as well as the process.

For awhile I did Birchbox, until the samples of products started to pile up and it felt like work to use them instead of enjoy them.

I also used to participate in a shoe subscription service (Shoedazzle?) but the shoes were lackluster quality, I absolutely did not need new shoes each month, and it was mental work to remember to unsubscribe from month to month.

Recently, I've definitely been someone who has gotten sucked into different "hair" pills. But, when I heard that the pills are only offered on a subscription basis, I balked at buying them.

Is anyone else feeling this same subscription burnout?

Talk soon,

The Keeper of Things