Subscribe Instead of Buying – These Solutions Will Make Your Subscription Management Successful

1. What is Subscription Management?
2. These are important components of a successful subscription management solution
3. These tools simplify the management of your subscriptions
4. Manage subscriptions easily and securely with a subscription management solution

When it comes to subscriptions, we used to think of newspapers and magazines that land in our mailboxes at regular intervals. However, subscriptions are now also indispensable in other everyday life and work areas: Perhaps you're listening to your music via Spotify or streaming movies and series on Netflix? And maybe you're even going one step further and cooking with the food boxes from HelloFresh? Subscriptions are trendy, as can be easily seen on the pricing pages of providers for digital products and other services. And subscribing instead of buying also does not stop at the car market: by 2030 Fleetpool in Germany expects up to one million car subscribers - in 2020 there were around 40,000.

Pay-per-use holds great business potential for companies of all industries. This is demonstrated, among other things, by Adobe's switch to subscription models, with which the software provider was able to multiply its value by ten. And in general, subscriptions are increasingly common practice in the SaaS sector. However, those who want to benefit from this potential need more than just an appealing price model. In addition to the attractiveness of the product – logically – you also need to pay attention to a few things in the background in order for your business to grow sensibly and win more subscribers. And that's where subscription management comes into play; after all, subscriptions need to be managed. These days this is becoming increasingly complex, if only because of different price structures, multiple products or different customer groups. But complex does not mean impossible: We will tell you everything important about subscription management and what you should consider when managing your subscription models.

What is Subscription Management?

Subscription Management is the strategic management of subscriptions and recurring payments for products, services, or digital content. With efficient subscription management, you can keep track of all processes, even in complex subscription models. This not only makes processes in your company more pleasant, but also ensures a better customer experience thanks to smooth workflows.

However, the increasing digitalization and relevance of subscription models also demand a lot from companies. In daily business, it is not just simple payments that need to be managed, but also some challenges that come with the subscription business:

• The management of subscription catalogs, also with regard to possible growth of the company or the offer.
• Price management also includes factors such as special offers, discounts or trial versions.
• A good overview of the customer base is essential, especially with regard to different price structures or cancellations.
• Diverse payment methods make subscriptions more attractive and easier to access, but require secure and efficient payment processing.
• Data protection and the security of financial processes must of course also be guaranteed here.

On the other hand, there are the many advantages that such a business model brings to you and your customers, first and foremost the prospect of recurring income and a solid customer base.

These are important components of a successful subscription management solution

In order to make your subscription management run smoothly and efficiently, you should rely on a Subscription Management Solution. Such a tool supports you, for example, in managing your subscription products and payments and provides you with important insights into the behavior of your subscribers. This in turn minimizes the susceptibility to errors in your internal processes, helps you improve your marketing strategies and offer your customers tailored and convincing deals – thereby binding them closer to your company.

If you rely on software for your subscription management, you save your teams a lot of manual work and remain flexible, for example with regard to changing market requirements or the scaling of your offer. When choosing your subscription management solution, consider the following points to ensure everything runs smoothly technically and legally:

1. Compliance: In subscription management, it is crucial that you comply with legal requirements. This includes, for example, the GDPR and industry-specific standards. When choosing a Subscription Management Solution, ensure that all subscription processes are in compliance with the law.
2. Security and Data Protection: If you manage subscriptions, you handle sensitive customer data on a daily basis. A software for Subscription Management should therefore meet the highest security standards.
3. Integration: Usually your company does not work with just one software. For your Subscription Management Solution to integrate well into existing processes, it should be able to be easily linked with other tools. This is the only way to build an effective and efficient tech stack for your subscription business.
4. Server location: Along with compliance and data protection regulations, you should also pay attention to where the servers are located on which your Subscription Management Solution is hosted – if you opt for a cloud-based solution. Another option is to host your software locally, giving you more control over your data. Cloud-based tools, on the other hand, are usually more accessible and often easier to scale.
5. Technical Support: When choosing your Subscription Management software, also ensure that the tool provider supports you well in all steps and concerns. This could be during implementation, but also with any questions or concerns that arise later. Ideally, you should always have a contact person at your side.
6. Scalability: If you want to grow your business, you should ensure that your tech stack can grow with you. So for your subscription management, choose a solution that also works if your company gets bigger (or smaller).
7. Made in Europe: If you opt for a European software solution for your subscription management, you ensure that European requirements for data protection and security are met and you might benefit from the alignment to the needs of European companies.

These tools simplify the management of your subscriptions

Subscription management solutions help your company focus on what's important. This way you increase your customer satisfaction and save your teams a lot of effort. If you want to manage your subscription offers efficiently, you can use the following tools:

• Billwerk+
• FastSpring
• Zuora
• Chargebee
• plenigo

With Billwerk+ you can manage your subscriptions, recurring payments and billing. The tool made in Europe helps companies from start-up to enterprise to make processes more efficient and to get more out of their subscription offer, for example through automation. The subscription management solution serves a wide range of industries and supports various strategies. For example, manage the subscriptions of your SaaS or streaming product or use Billwerk+ for e-commerce, media or even retail.

With Billwerk+ …

• … you optimize the purchasing experience of your customers, among other things with flexible subscription offers and digital payment options with Billwerk+ Payments.
• … you strengthen your customer loyalty with practical insights for effective marketing measures.
• … you act in accordance with GDPR and law.
• … you keep all subscription processes and revenues in view and can make important decisions quickly and effectively based on data.
• … you can continuously adapt and improve your product portfolio and pricing.
• … you integrate your existing tech stack with practical plugins and an API-first approach that makes integrating your tools easy.

Manage subscriptions easily and securely with a subscription management solution

If you want your business to be part of the subscription economy, you should get set up well with tools from the very beginning. This way you ensure that all processes run smoothly, you have more time for the essential things and convince your customers with optimal products and services. Because it's clear: subscription models will continue to gain in relevance in the future. In 2013 we were still surprised at Adobe's move to subscription solutions, in the future we may simply subscribe to cars, smartphones or furniture quite naturally. However, your company doesn't have to face the complex challenges of subscription business models without support: With subscription management solutions like Billwerk+ your tech stack gets crucial tools for managing your subscription offers.

Want to know what else you should look out for when choosing a solution for your subscription management? The Buyer’s Guide from Billwerk+ has all the important information at hand.