Subscriptions and ecommerce go hand in hand. In fact, subscriptions are rapidly beginning to dominate the online shopping world, with the subscription ecommerce market growing more than 17% over the last five years. In 2020 alone, more than a third of UK consumers signed themselves up for a new delivery service subscription, whilst subscriptions for products and boxes, media, software and more continued to soar.
It’s easy to see why it’s become such a popular model with both businesses and consumers. The ease of accessibility, hassle-free convenience and straightforward predictability have made subscriptions an intuitive way to buy and sell products and services across an enormous range of industries. The wealth of benefits that a subscription model offers has resulted in substantial growth in an extremely short period of time, and research suggests that subscriptions for physical goods will even overtake digital products and services by 2025, with a market value estimated to reach $263 billion (approximately £191.6 billion).
Aside from the evolution of the market itself, other aspects of the industry have adapted the way they work to enable the success of subscriptions in the world of ecommerce. One such aspect is the platform that subscription providers utilise for their web-based sales and services.
Why the right platform matters to your subscription business
There’s a significant amount of considerations when starting any ecommerce business. But for subscriptions in particular, finding the perfect platform is absolutely essential for creating a solid foundation for your business to grow and succeed. The platform you choose needs to be able to meet the needs of both your business and your target market, and choosing the wrong platform can have a negative impact on meeting these needs.
How do you choose the best subscription ecommerce platform?
Choosing the best platform for your subscription venture is going to entail some subjectivity. That’s not to say that it’s simply a matter of personal preference, but selecting the right platform does to an extent revolve around the unique requirements and objectives of your business.
For example, you may need a particular feature that one platform offers in a more intuitive or superior way, whilst certain other platforms may fall slightly short or may not be as suited to your needs despite being popular with a variety of other businesses and organisations. The features and functionality that you regard as more useful (or vice-versa) will play an enormous part in selecting the best platform for your subscription ecommerce businesses.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the top contenders…
What are the best platforms for a subscription ecommerce business?
As we’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to ecommerce platforms these days. However, not every platform in existence is a perfect match for a subscription ecommerce business. We’re going to tell you about some of the best platform options we work with and how they can help your venture succeed from the very beginning.
Magento
It’s safe to say that Magento stands tall at the forefront of ecommerce platform options. Its immense feature-set and vast range of capabilities have solidified its place as the platform of choice for countless ecommerce businesses all over the world.
With regards to subscription ecommerce, Magento’s phenomenal flexibility and adaptable nature make it an excellent choice. The platform itself is able to meet and exceed the needs of any subscription business, but it can’t natively support the selling of subscription products or services in its standard format. However, with the ability to implement further extensions and plug-ins (many of which are created specifically for subscription business models) to tailor the platform to your own specific needs, it’s a powerful option that provides the perfect foundation for a subscription venture.
On top that, Magento offers wider benefits that aid ecommerce businesses regardless of the business model or industry. As the platform is owned by one of the most well-known and highly regarded tech giants in existence (Adobe), Magento users can rest assured that they’re getting outstanding reliability and constant platform development as time goes by. It’s also straightforward to integrate with other systems (including the vast range of extensions available from the Magento Marketplace) for expanded functionality. Plus, if you have plans to grow your business, Magento provides exceptional scalability so that your entire system can grow with you.
It’s worth noting that Magento is a platform that requires technical knowledge to work with initially, meaning that utilising Magento specialists and developers (such as our certified Magento team over at Magium Commerce) is often required in order to create a high-quality, usable site.
There are a vast range of benefits that Magento provides for businesses – you can read more about the Adobe Magento Commerce Cloud platform solution over on the Magium blog.
BigCommerce
Much like the aforementioned platform, BigCommerce is relied upon by thousands upon thousands of businesses in almost every industry. Subscription ecommerce businesses are no exception…
BigCommerce offers outstanding customisability combined with a user-friendly interface. It’s not quite as simple as certain platforms such as Wix (at least in terms of first-time users), but it does provide an impressive array of features that enable a tailor-made digital storefront that can go a long way towards maximising the potential of a subscription ecommerce business.
The feature-rich nature of BigCommerce is what really enables it to stand out. It’s an exceptional option for integrating commerce with specific content that you want to use to target your subscribers, all without having to sacrifice quality or functionality. Aside from integration with other platforms, you can fully integrate your BigCommerce subscription store with a wide array of different enterprise and ecommerce apps to meet your each and every need.
In a similar fashion to Magento, getting the most out of your BigCommerce subscription store requires some technical expertise, and we can help. Just get in touch with us to find out how we can bring your subscription project to life.
WebPOS & Custom/Bespoke
When it comes to creating a truly engaging experience for your subscription customers, WebPOS‘ award-wining functionality and design is an exceptional choice. WebPOS has been developed to provide an intuitive interface for businesses, utilising drag-and-drop responsive functionality for straightforward content management and day-to-day tasks. It also makes integration with the rest of your business systems simple, giving you the ability to connect every element of your retail and ecommerce operation with ease.
With WebPOS, you have power and versatility at your fingertips. The platform has been built for maximising the capabilities of ecommerce businesses in both B2B and B2C sectors, offering world-class experiences across any device. Designed to optimise your content for your customers, no matter where they may be, WebPOS makes omnichannel operations simple and extremely effective at every point.
The WebPOS framework also enables the creation of a bespoke platform for your business. This provides you with a truly tailored experience that revolves solely around your needs and requirements. Every business is unique, and your needs most likely differ to those of other businesses (even those in the same industry). A bespoke platform means you can have those needs met to achieve your goals. You set out the requirements, and that bespoke WebPOS platform then revolves around you.
A bespoke subscription ecommerce platform not only ensures that each and every one of your business’ needs are met, but it provides you with a system that can streamline operations, improve overall communication and even reduce long-term costs. With a bespoke WebPOS solution, you’re given phenomenal operational capabilities and easy-to-use management tools that are personalised to the specific needs of your business. All of these tools and features can be accessed from a single dashboard, making long-term use for you and anyone else involved in your business simple. Because of its ease of use and feature-rich nature designed intelligently around the needs of ecommerce organisations, WebPOS is ideal for a subscription business model. It can be tailored to your every need and provides you with complete control over every element of your systems.
The approach that we take when creating bespoke platforms and portals is consultative. That means that we work with clients to develop their solution, ensuring that every step of the project is carried out with precision and with expert guidance. We also make sure that our platforms and portals are ready for the future, enabling seamless scalability and compliance so that your business can grow with confidence.
You can read more about the bespoke work we’ve carried out in our portfolio.
Other options for a subscription ecommerce platform
As we mentioned earlier, there are a vast number of ecommerce platforms available in today’s digital world. These include platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce which have proven a popular choice in the realm of online sales businesses due to their intuitive design and diverse feature-set. However, the platforms that we have discussed and focused on above are the ones that we feel are the best options for any subscription ecommerce business.
What should you choose?
In today’s world, you may be spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing the best platform for subscription ecommerce. However, looking into the features of the platforms available is a good way to whittle down that list. We can also help by talking through your options. Our dedicated subscription ecommerce agency, Repeat Commerce, has been created through years of experience working with subscription providers and a wide variety of technologies. If you’d like to know more about how we can help, contact us at Repeat Commerce today.