While the subscription model is certainly on an upward trajectory, it’s not enacted in exactly the same way by all businesses.

“There’s the classic Netflix model, or what we call ‘all you can eat’ where you pay a fixed amount and consume as much of the service as you want. There’s also a tiered version of this when the service has more cost when you only use a little,” explains Gavin Scruby, CIO at SmartDebit, a leading direct debit service provider.

This tiered approach, he says, is more commonly found in the B2B space.

“If you make 1,000 transactions a month you get one subscription price; if you make 2,000 you get another better price. We’ve also all seen this with services where you get a better deal if you take the subscription for longer, like with warranties. Cloud services like Amazon and Microsoft Azure support both of these mechanisms.”

There is also a third model, which is more common as a replacement for purchasing physical goods with a large up-front cost, similar to renting a house.

“There’s the kind of subscription that you use instead of buying a capital item, like a car. Here the subscription is not a ‘consumption’ service but a kind of ‘lease’. Volvo has started it recently with an all-in car/insurance/maintenance subscription where you get a new car every few years,” he says.

While there are some verticals that are far more prominently embracing subscriptions, across the board they are “transforming traditional business as we know it,” says Phillips.

“Goods spanning from food, clothing and transportation to gaming, music and technology are being reimagined as utilities for consumers to leverage where and when they are needed. Just look at Hive’s smart home solutions, Quip’s oral care packs, and ClassPass’ fitness and wellbeing offerings – all of which operate on a subscription basis and add over-the-top service offerings,” he adds.

However there are some industries, he says, where “the shift from products to services” is proving to be particularly effective.

“For example, in the manufacturing industry, Caterpillar has on-boarded over 180 dealers globally launching new bundled services that include GPS location, machine utilisation, fuel burn analysis, engine monitoring and overall maintenance management per machine.

“In the mobility space, Mobility-as-a Service (MaaS) is disrupting the traditional transport sector, integrating various forms of transport services into a single mobility platform accessible on-demand.

“An example of this is Radiuz, a Dutch company which saw the need for ownership-based mobility solutions disappearing and instead offered travel as a usage-based model. The platform integrates mobility solutions, such as public transport, bikes, taxis and even parking, in the form of a pay-as-you-go subscription and enables customers to plan, book and view all journeys directly online.”

For Scruby, there is also growing potential for “any capital item that wears out”.

“White goods, TVs, sofas could all be sold in this way. It’s similar to the old hire purchase system except the customer never purchases the item and gets a new version periodically,” he says.

“Another industry I’m personally involved with is art leasing. Subscription paintings can be swapped out for new ones to keep up interest, rather than owning them forever.”

One of the biggest reasons businesses have so readily embraced the subscription model is that it provides a far greater level of predictability than traditional sell-to-own approaches.

“Subscription business models help drive predictable, linear revenue and can help companies differentiate from the competition – benefits that make them uniquely attractive for companies across the globe,” says Phillips.

“It helps with demand and supply,” adds Tymm.

“Knowing how many members will receive services or goods that month helps to ensure correct stock levels, or shift excess stock if they know that subscribers will like the end product.”

However, there is more to it than that. Subscription models provide the chance for companies to transform their relationships with their customers, gaining levels of insight that would have been impossible in the pre-digital age.

“Subscription offerings not only help differentiate a company from its competition, but provide companies with rich customer data to gain a better understanding, and a clearer picture of their customers,” explains Phillips.

Then there is the economic reality: companies using this model are out out-performing their rivals by impressive amounts. According to Zuora’s Subscription Economy Index, companies using these models are seeing revenue growth at five times the rate of the S&P 500.

“With the incredible opportunity to scale, it’s no wonder all of these companies are turning to subscriptions,” he adds. 

While businesses are seeing the benefits, customers are also getting value out of the model.

“A subscription model can provide the convenience, simplicity and flexibility they are craving. There are also added benefits to the customer that come with offering subscriptions – for example cost savings like with Amazon Prime’s free delivery, or convenience like Graze, which delivers healthy snacks to your door,” explains Phillips.

According to Tymm, simplicity has also played a role in the unstoppable rise of the model.

“This simplicity has no doubt contributed to its success – make people happy and they won’t go elsewhere,” she says.

“It’s also the ability to take away the decision-making process from the customer. If they get what they want on a monthly basis, and perceive that they’re saving time or effort by not having to go and purchase it themselves, then retailers or businesses are able to build a loyal fanbase.”

However, for Phillips, it goes a step further, reflecting a transformation in how the goods we own relate to our wider identity.

“In 2020, people aren’t interested in having more possessions. A lot of this thinking has come from a shift in how we measure success. Traditionally, success was materialistic – a big house, expensive car and the latest wide-screen TV,” he says.

“However, today we’re increasingly chasing experiences instead. There are a number of factors driving this shift, including social media platforms like Instagram driving an increased desire to show off our unique experience, as well an increased push for sustainability and living more minimalistic lives.”

However, despite the apparent benefits of the subscription model, there are also issues.

In some cases, the growth of the subscription model is reducing or even removing the option of ownership altogether.

This is particularly common for software products, with some popular options, such as Office 365 or Adobe Creative Cloud, now only being available through subscription and therefore impossible to buy them outright. And while this remains unusual for non-software subscriptions, it is likely that we will see this become more commonplace in other verticals.

Add to this the fact that subscription services typically have a strong digital presence that collects considerable data from each customer, and you have a situation where customers are forced to allow data about themselves to be collected in order to gain access to products that they cannot acquire through other means.

This is an issue that noted whistleblower Edward Snowden raised during a talk at Web Summit in November.

“My generation, particularly the generation after me, they no longer own anything; they are increasingly not allowed to own anything,” he said.

“You use these services, and they create a permanent record of everything you've done.”

Similar concerns have previously been raised by computer programmer and activist Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, over the SaaS model, which he terms service as a software substitute (SaaSS).

“Unlike proprietary software, SaaSS does not require covert code to obtain the user's data. Instead, users must send their data to the server in order to use it,” he wrote in an article where he argued that SaaSS is “another way to give someone else power over your computing”.

“This has the same effect as spyware: the server operator gets the data – with no special effort, by the nature of SaaSS.”

Away from spying concerns, renting possessions rather than owning them also removes the safety net physical assets provide.

While it is convenient to upgrade your electronics, furniture or clothes whenever you want, monthly fees require a consistent, reliable income. And if an individual loses their job or is forced out of work due to ill health, in a subscription-dominated world they also face losing their possessions too.

The same is true of businesses. If a company rents all or even most of the assets – physical and digital – that allow it to operate, and gets into a position where it falls behind on payments, it faces losing the tools that enable it to make further income.

Even if a customer can continue to pay, there are other downsides. In cases where they are renting high-value items, they may end up being in possession of a product for a similar period of time to that if they had bought it outright. However, the monthly subscription payment would likely total a larger amount than the ticket price of the item in question, and at the end of that period they would still not own it.

Essentially, then, the subscription model can see consumers paying a higher price for the privilege of not actually owning a product.

There are also more everyday risks for those providing products and services through these models.

“There is a risk to this model, especially when it comes to fashion or perishable goods,” says Tymm.

“Where there is a risk that subscribers may return their goods and ask for their money back, retailers must have covered their costs within the subscription to stay profitable. If not, they risk surplus stock and high overheads.

“There’s also the problem that consumers have a tendency to over-estimate how much they will use a product when they subscribe. Initial uptake is often high, but as customers realise they are not using the product or service as much as they estimated, subscriptions can reduce in quantity or cancellations rise.”

Despite the issues, subscription services are undoubtedly here to stay and proliferate.

According to Zuora’s Nation Subscribed survey, 85% of 25-34 year-olds and 77% of 16-24 year-olds in the UK now subscribe to at least one product. What’s more, 51% and 48% of the same respective age groups now believe subscriptions are the future.

For Phillips, this is a sign that “we are entering the era of usership over ownership”.

“The shift to subscriptions is inevitable. Transactions as a whole are dramatically evolving and we are increasingly reliant upon on-demand services as opposed to the owning physical products. In this new economy, consumers are increasingly demanding convenient and flexible ways to engage with brands – and one of the biggest pain points is physical transactions,” he says.

“Payments play a crucial role in delivering seamless experiences, and as our consumption models continue to change, physical transactions as we know it will become increasingly obsolete.”

While Phillips sees subscriptions becoming the overwhelmingly dominant model for the acquisition of goods and services, Tymm does not anticipate it replacing traditional models in all sectors.

“There will always be a demand for traditional procurement of goods – like houses or technology – some people will always prefer to buy as it’s better value,” she says.

“Subscription retail has to suit the business’ operating model, so it won’t be plausible for some. Take phones, for example, or high-worth purchases – providers can’t risk a phone coming back damaged in three months if a consumer decides they don’t want that make or model anymore – there is still a place for contracts and the traditional transactional retail model.”

However, she does see it becoming increasingly dominant in certain industries:

“It may well be that over time more goods and services do increasingly expand to this model exclusively (grocery, wine, music) as the ease and convenience factor overpower impulse buys.”

Meanwhile, Scruby believes that the model is “not workable” for consumable items such as grocery products, with “supermarket shopping, one-off events like trips to restaurants or bought assets like clothes” remaining resistant to the move.

“That fundamentally limits the number of things that can be subscription based,” he says.

However, where he does see significant expansion is in the B2B space.

“Where post-ownership will really take off is within companies,” he says.

“Several startups I have worked with essentially only own their laptops, with every other service from phones to software and the services they sell hosted and rented from someone else. If they tried, even their laptops could be rented right now.”

But for Phillips, the writing is on the wall.

“Companies are moving away from transactional relationships towards becoming solutions providers who add convenience and value to the lives of their customer,” he says.

“As we continue to see this trend across all industries, it will only be a matter of time until our lives are operated on a subscription basis.”