While South Africa has traditionally lagged behind the first world in its adoption of ecommerce, the global economic shift towards ecommerce as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen many SA companies revisiting their digital strategies to remain competitive in a changing economic landscape.
The subscriptions model, while not a new concept, is similarly seeing a significant rise in popularity, due to its digitally enabled pay-as-you-go service. According to the latest report published by enterprise software company Zuora consumers have more subscriptions today than ever before and believe they’ll add more in the future. In fact, 71% of adults across 12 countries have subscription services, up from 53% five years ago.
Why subscriptions, why now?
For consumers, product ownership is a thing of the past. Owning things no longer defines a person’s status (Zuora) and as a way of decluttering their lives, the subscriptions model offers the freedom from the burden of ownership, as well as a cost and convenience benefit. A lower cost spread out over a longer period of time is easier to manage within a defined budget. Added to this, the convenience and simplicity of self-service allows consumers to scale their subscription packages up or down, depending on their circumstances.
The low cost to start or use a subscription allows customers to try out a service without having to go through a big decision process.
But is a subscriptions model right for your business?
With the help of a strategic fintech partner and the use of their debit order system, implementing a subscriptions model can achieve the following benefits:
Simple and secure sign-up
A seamless and safe sign-up process is crucial to the overall customer experience. With a subscriptions model, customers only enter their personal and bank details once at initial set-up, while all future payments are automated. Enabling DebiCheck to verify your customers and manage their subscriptions offers greater peace of mind due to its increased payment compliance, as it verifies all the important details at the point of sale.
Customer retention
Churn rate is a key metric within subscription commerce that measures lost subscribers. While the subscriptions model offers users flexibility to opt out of a service if they are dissatisfied, by its very nature, it also gives you the opportunity to build a rapport with your customers over time and upsell other products and services within your suite. Your chosen fintech solution should allow for personalised communication, using outward API triggers or in-app triggers to craft a superior user experience.
More accurate revenue predictions
Thanks to the stable monthly income afforded by subscription services, your business should benefit from a more accurate revenue planning horizon, giving you breathing room to plan your own growth or product expansion. What’s more, with DebiCheck as your preferred debit order instrument, you should also see an increase in payment success rate, as, among other benefits, DebiCheck collections are tracked and processed in the earliest payment window.
Get on board with BankTech
It’s easy to set up your subscriptions-based service with BankTech. Choose from an array of plug-and-play fintech tools to scale your business at a pace that suits you. For businesses with limited IT infrastructure, our feature-rich debit order system connects directly to the banks’ core systems and gives you access to a full range of add-on services. Alternatively, you can build your own solution by integrating directly with our API-based architecture.
Request a demo today.
