Shipping subscriptions could be key sales driver - report

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 20, 2022

As retailers battle to attract consumer attention at a time when said consumers are reining-in their spending, it seems that shipping subscriptions could be key to unlocking their purses. For marketplaces, at least.

A new UK study from shipping platform Sendcloud said that 56% of consumers are willing to order more items from marketplaces if they offer shipping subscription packages.

And 40% said they tend to order more from specific marketplaces when they have a subscription service in place. Some 41% of those surveyed already invest in such services, with Amazon Prime by far the most popular choice. 

Consumers who shop only once a fortnight or once a month are still happy to pay for a subscription.

What they’re looking for from such subscriptions is the free delivery as a priority (68%), while a much smaller number have signed up fro the option of same-day delivery (17%) or special discounts on products (10%).

But despite consumers expecting a lot, they’re only prepared to pay a maximum of £10 a year for a subscription. That could be less  about them not valuing the service and more about the fact that they’re shelling out for multiple subscriptions. More and more retailers/marketplaces offer them these days with services such as ASOS Premier proving popular.

UK consumers are currently spending around £50 a month on such services that marketplaces and retailers are marketing heavily as they seek to tie shoppers more closely to their webstores and make it more likely that they’ll choose to visit them first or buy a product available on multiple sites from them in particular.