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How can Brands Benefit from Using Subscription Services

Tag: Financial Services

How can Brands Benefit from Using Subscription Services

How can Brands Benefit from Using Subscription Services

The subscription-based revenue model is fast emerging as one of the most sought-after option for businesses. While the model has been around for quite some time, its popularity has sky rocketed in recent times, owing to advancements in technology and changing consumer preferences. The subscription model has proved to be successful for various services such as health clubs, magazines and newspapers in the past, but now it has been extended to several other segments as well. Here are some of the main benefits offered by subscription model.

Promotes Customer Loyalty

Subscription model is highly customer centric and provides robust value to the clients. This proposition, in turn, promotes customer loyalty towards the business as it helps in building long-term relationships. Automation of the purchase process leads to brand awareness while the convenience of the model prompts customers to come back. The model also offers various other benefits such as flexibility and savings. As the customers are required to sign up and then set up the schedule only once, it also saves time for them. A subscription-based model promotes accountability as well, since the businesses are required to ensure that they keep providing their products and services at existing standard of quality or exceed that.

Scalable

The subscription-based model is not only good for customers, but it is highly convenient for businesses as well. One of the biggest advantages of this system is that it is very flexible. As the business grows and the customer base expands, the revenue model should be able to accommodate higher volume. This feature is beneficial for the customers as well since they can adjust their purchases without undergoing additional paper work. This model is suitable for scalability as it is easy to set up and understand. The companies may plan their work load in advance since they can predict the demand in a more reliable manner. Such forecasting may also help businesses in designing their marketing strategies in a way that their operations become more efficient and economical.

Budget Friendly

This revenue model helps both the businesses and clients in the budgeting process. As the businesses have useful data in the form of predictable revenue stream, the process of forming plans and budgeting becomes a lot easier and more robust. They are better able to form their expansion plans and strategies. Similarly, customers are also aware of their future expenses and are assured of no surprise escalations; they can design their personal budgets well in advance. They are also able to exercise better control over their expenses. The predictability associated with this revenue model makes future planning more convenient.

Economical

The subscription-based revenue model also tends to be more economical as it allows businesses to acquire customers for a longer period of time, thus reducing the costs related to customer retention. Once the customer has subscribed, the business may then focus on providing them with the best possible experience through their products and services. The model is economical for customers too as they are assured of a flat rate for a fixed period of time. Many times, such a model also allows the business to achieve economies of scale, which may then be passed on to the clients. The subscription model has also been found to offer higher margin and thereby bigger profits.

Value-Added Service

While the subscription-based model is related to revenue management, it offers a host of other services as well. The data provided through subscription plans can help you carry out better analysis. You can get detailed information about the type of subscriptions which become more popular and the various criterion used by the customers to make their decisions. With the help of such data, the business may tweak their marketing and operational activities. It can also aid the funding process of nascent firms as they can get more reliable data about their future revenue and expenses, thus providing better business valuation.

The subscription-based model is now prevalent in almost all the business segments. The model helps in optimizing customer acquisition and retention costs, improving the margins for the organization. However, it is important to design the subscription model as per the features of your target market.

The Importance of Mobile in Financial Services

The Importance of Mobile in Financial Services

The ever-increasing use of mobile phones in day-to-day lives is redefining the landscape of financial services and it is impacting banks, NBFCs, insurance companies and even online stores in various ways.  Today, the digitally aware section of society is using their mobiles to receive messages from financial institutions, pay EMIs, shop online, transfer money and book a restaurant or movie easily. Mobiles are replacing the conventional financial practices and you can now buy anything online without having to use cash or card, thanks to e-wallets.  This is because even smartphones have become cheaper and can be used even by kids and the elderly. Now let’s take a look at how mobile is revolutionizing financial services:

  • Impact on financial lenders – The banking sector as well as NBFCs are embracing mobile technology these days to make their operations smoother, and to reach out to a wider section of the society. Since mobile phones are widely available in rural and suburban areas today, a farmer too can get a loan conveniently with a single phone call or text. A small rural business can get funding even while sitting at home and he or she will receive notifications through the mobile phone as well. Opening an account with a bank has become convenient too this way. So, mobiles have played a huge role in boosting financial inclusion and are encouraging the economically weaker section of the society to use banking services.

 

  • Impact on insurance – Insurance is something that a lot of people opt for, be it to protect themselves against financial emergencies or accidents or medical emergencies etc. But with the advent of mobile phones, more and more customers research online about various insurances before picking one. They can compare the cost and benefit of choosing different insurances on their mobile phones as well. Hence, it is in the best interest of the insurance companies to use mobile technology to advertise their policies and reel in both new and old policy holders. This way, they can reach out to more target audience than they previously thought was possible.

 

  • Impact on online businesses – E-stores these days focus on mobile shopping apps as much as they do on their website. This is because most customers use mobile phones or smartphones to shop for fashion apparel, cookware, hardware, medicines, cosmetics and even baby care products. They have less time to spare for physical shopping and are always on the go, which makes it tough for them to use a laptop or desktop all the time. Naturally, online businesses need to ensure that the payment gateway they offer on mobile apps is secure, fast and hassle-free. This will prevent shoppers from abandoning their carts midway because of a slow gateway or one which has many redirections.

Mobile revolution and payment gateways

From buying a pizza to shopping for wedding jewelry to ordering flowers for a birthday – everything happens on mobiles these days. And simple and smart mobile apps are hence popular. But without a proper payment gateway, you will never attract enough customers through mobile marketing and your sales will dip.

Gateways like PayTabs are hence a wise choice for online stores. They deposit funds in merchant accounts fast, protect customer and transaction data, prevent frauds, and are very easy to integrate into your mobile app. Moreover, as they offer a variety of payment options, shoppers can easily pay using their credit and debit cards. The shopping experience cannot get better than this! So, it is time to adopt mobile technology whether you are a business, bank or insurance company, without a second thought, as this technology is here to stay!

Blockchain: Driving the Future of FinTech

Blockchain: Driving the Future of FinTech

Every once in a generation, comes a paradigm shift in innovation, that changes the way we engage in our daily lives enabled by technology. Be it the Internet in the 1980s or the penetration of smartphones, a decade ago. The Internet and Smartphones have fundamentally changed some of our key actions as human beings! Such has been their impact to human evolution!

Well, Blockchain is another technology rising on the horizon, poised to change the way we deal with enterprises or a government body for that matter. As of today, Blockchain is only being applied to the outer realms of financial services, more specifically, cryptocurrencies.

What is Blockchain?

Quite simply put, it is a grow list of blocks of records which are linked and secured using cryptography, meaning such blocks of records are connected and encrypted for security purposes. In terms of application of the theory, it is an open and distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties in an efficient manner that’s verifiable and permanent in nature.

How is the Fintech Industry leveraging Blockchain?

In a way, cryptocurrencies are a part of the Fintech Industry and their entire business model is based on blockchain, wherein they offer virtual currency to anyone who can purchase parts of one unit of that currency and keep trading with that part, thereby making money in the process. Buying cryptocurrencies is also considered as a long-term investment by many. The beauty of these virtual currencies is that fact that because they have been built on blockchain, they are decentralized in the sense that there is no central bank governing them.

In Brazil, recently they have managed to lower exchange rates in the currency and bullion markets using blockchain. There are exchange startups who are leveraging blockchain based efficient automation processes to lower exchange rates.

Because of its existing nature of application, blockchain has been at the forefront of some path breaking innovation done by Fintech startups across the world. Whether it is money transfers, currency exchanges or organizations providing infrastructure and transaction protocols that enables banks to provide financial settlement at lower rates, Blockchain is driving new age innovations across the Fintech landscape.

In fact, we at PayTabs have been working on Blockchain as well. We are currently in the process of developing a payment distribution system using Blockchain.

To understand the full scope and power of the payment solution that we offer, you are most welcome to sign up for a free demo. Moreover, please feel free to comment below if you have any questions or any insights.