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The Subscription Marketplace- A Complete Guide

The success of subscription based model is hardly a secret. Imagine how profitable a marketplace full of subscribed goods can be? We are talking about a steady revenue stream created by one time purchase deal.

This guide is curated to teach you how to create a marketplace based purely on subscribable goods.

Subscription Marketplace Checklist

  • Build with right platform & features
  • Manage your Vendors
  • Generate Revenue
  • Grow with the right strategy
  • Launch Your Marketplace

The idea of subscription boxes is nothing new, but with convenience of subscription plans the industry forsubscription boxes has spiked from $57 Million in 2011 to$2.6 billion in 2016.

The sudden surge of covid-19 has shown the global subscription box market to reach a value of$22.7 billion in 2021 and exceed to about$65 billion by 2027. Even without these figures just the benefit of having a steady revenue flow should be enough to get you started. Use this guide to check what you need to start to subscription marketplace.

Fun Fact:

  • Around 54% of online shippers subscribe to a subscription box service
  • Most e-commerce subscribers are likely to be within the age range of 25 to 44 years.
  • Many popular subscription services charge a relatively low subscription fee of $10 or less

Select Your Platform

Select the best plan that suits your marketplace business

CMS Platform Recommend

CMS is a content management system with a set of scripts for creating, editing, and managing site content.

  • Get ready-made infrastructure from the provider
  • Add any feature compatible with WordPress
  • With many developers, you save time
  • The Support team's got your back
  • Save cost on development
Custom Platform

Custom platform is created keeping specific needs of users in mind.

  • Personalize your platform
  • Added feature equals to added cost
  • Customisation takes time
  • Create a unique platform
  • Not ideal for future customisation

Top Subscription Marketplace Features

Subscription Tools
  • Simple Subscriptions
  • Tired Subscription
Product Management Tools
  • Product Listing Option
  • Inventory Manager
Subscription Management
  • Free Trial & Sign-up Management
  • Upgrades & Downgrades
Payment Management Tool
  • Billing Cycle Manager
  • Recurring Payments
Advertising Options
  • Automated Notification reminders
  • Voucher and Coupon Code system
Marketplace Analytics Tools
  • Business Analytics Tool
  • Detailed Sales Report

Know Your Vendors

Understand the variations available in the marketplace

Beauty Subscription

Kudos to social media skincare and grooming has become really important. Creating beauty box subscriptions may not be a loss

Newspaper Subscription

Be it online or offline but newspaper subscriptions are pretty common. Don’t lose out by leaving these sellers out.

Grocery Delivery

Who doesn’t enjoy the convenience having groceries delivered at home? Include local market owners to give customers benefit of subscribed groceries.

Book Subscription

Give burgeoning authors and publishers a chance by creating a library where users can rent books on a weekly /monthly/yearly basis

Coffee subscription

Since coffee people are particular about what coffee they drink, and they generally drink every day, a coffee of the month club can be highly valuable.

Pet subscription boxes

Another industry that relies on repeat purchases is the pet industry. Monthly shipments of pet food, medicine, and toys are common. Try investing a little on these sellers

Solve the Chicken and Egg Problem

Who Comes First Buyers or Sellers? Easy tips to add sellers

Marketplaces are built on the premise of buyers and sellers transacting with each other. But when you start, you have none of those. So how do you convince sellers to join a platform without buyers and vice versa?This problem is referred to as the chicken and egg problem of online marketplaces. Read Here to gain an in-depth insight. Ensure excellent service providers Build a community

  • Ensure excellent service providers
  • Build a community
  • Find an enterprise client
  • Be the single-player
  • Promise to find buyers for your suppliers
  • Create a super niche and leverage

Marketplace Monetization Strategy

Sales Commission

This is the most common way for an online marketplace to make money. A seller pays a predefined % only when they make a sale. This monetization strategy is best for small transactions. Uber and eBay work like this, for example. The platform usually gets a commission fee of 5-15%.

Subscription Fee

Choose this model if you don't want to depend on the sales volume. Just charge your users a small fee every month or once a year. You can also have different subscription packages. Offer limited functionality for free and the full package for a monthly fee, for example. Or charge only the vendors. Or only the clients. You get the idea.

Listing Fee

If your marketplace has a lot of traffic and active users you can implement a listing fee. A user can place ads for free. If they want their ad to be placed above all the free ads from other users they can pay for the placement.

Pay Per Contact

This is a common monetization model for a service marketplace. There is a fee to contact a customer, while no one guarantees a successful transaction. In this case, the vendor relies on long-term cooperation with the client.

Pay-Per-Action Fee

A pay-per-action revenue model implies the vendor has to pay a fixed amount when a client performs an action. For example, when a user books a table in a restaurant through the marketplace, the restaurant pays a fixed fee to the platform.

Mixed Model

You don't have to stop at one monetization strategy. Many marketplaces use a combination of multiple monetization strategies. The ad-vantage of the mixed model is that it creates additional value for some marketplace users. While not interfering with everyone else's work.

Study of Important Marketplace Module

Key Takeaways

Components Netflix Cratejoy
Type Marketplace for movie subscriptions Earn their income by selling small subscription boxes of multiple products.
Revenue Generating Process Netflix creates subscription-based packages for viewers to get access to the desired content. Cratejoy charges its user's service costs (including delivery charges) along with a transaction fee for the platform's usage.
Customer Benefit Apart from producing personal content Netflix partners with various directors and producers to keep the content game up. Cratejoy offers analytics, customer portals, and dedicated support to users..
Advertisement Strategy Netflix leaves no stones unturned when it comes to advertisement from social media marketing to email marketing to running ads they have done it all Cratejoy keeps it simple and sticks to only facebook and instagram advertisement.
Synopsis Netflix has amassed a significant part of its audience by selling personalised content available by subscribing to various packages. Being a part of the market has allowed Cratejoy to create a customer base big enough to attract merchants.

Grow Your Marketplace

If you are looking to grow your business, here are a few option for you to try

Competition Research

Make sure to analyse your competitors

Right Price

Product price should be the same as market price

Surprise Offers

Surprise offers always keeps customers coming back

Social Media Marketing

A current generation marketing strategy