Subscription Commerce Is a Close Shave

Last month, Greg Holden wrote about subscription commerce and discussed two clothing websites, Wittlebee and Trunk Club, that send subscribers clothes each month automatically based on their profile. For instance, parents provide information about their children to Wittlebee and, for $39.99 per month, they receive eight items of clothing that are hand-selected for their children by a team of "mom stylists."

The Dollar Shave Club has a similar model but is targeted at men who want to get razor blades delivered automatically. The company received a lot of viral attention last week thanks to its humorous video explaining its subscription concept. For $1/month, men receive 5 double-blade cartridges each month. Part of the appeal is the simplicity of the site - there are three plans to choose from and only three plans. The graphics convey the subscription information simply and effectively.

With five employees and a fulfillment center in California, the Dollar Shave Club founder Michael Dubin told BusinessWeek it will add shaving cream and an after shave moisturizer to the lineup.

Entrepreneurs tend to copy models (daily deals and flash sales sites), so expect to see more vertical subscription commerce.

The gorilla of retail, Amazon.com, already offers a program called Subscribe and Save - "Automatic delivery and extra savings for your most frequent purchases," though it lacks the simplicity of The Dollar Shave Club. (It is also testing same-day grocery delivery through its Amazon Fresh subsidiary in Seattle.)

Amazon Subscribe & Save is available for items in food, health and beauty, office supplies and a host of other categories, and it works as follows:

• automatically receive a new shipment of the item in the monthly intervals you select
• get a discount on our everyday price
• get free shipping on every Subscribe & Save shipment
• pay for each order only when the item is shipped
• have the option to cancel at any time

Amazon sends subscribers an email before it sends the next order letting shoppers know that the process has begun and giving them time to make updates to their subscription as necessary. (And probably uses the opportunity to market additional products as well.)

Subscription commerce has an appeal for busy consumers, and it will be interesting to see if there's any innovation to come or simply imitations.

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