Do you remember your first Amazon purchase? I do. It was magical, and addictive. But in the years since then e-commerce has become a bit stale. The internet bubble burst, and only the mega-stores survived, selling everything you could imagine, but in a rather predictable way.
That’s all about to change. A new breed of web 2.0 stores are snatching up the online shopping mantle with a new type of selling: subscription selling.
The idea is simple. A monthly payment gets you a product (usually consumable) delivered to the door. A web front end lets you track your deliveries and tweak the contents. But the real thrill is finding out just how much easier life becomes when everyday necessities are delivered by subscription.
Take Graze.com, for example. I’ve been receiving their automated snackboxes through the letterbox every Friday for a month. It’s a regular treat, and one I often forget is coming. After munching through each one I can hit the Graze website and rate the contents (usually, while it’s still in my mouth). The site then tunes the next box to make sure I’ll enjoy the contents (or at least some of it), while still being adventurous and chucking the odd snack-shaped curve ball my way.
Then there’s SockRush.com, a less advanced site but one that serves a much more pressing need: hole-free socks all year round. The concept is simple: you choose a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly delivery slot, pay a tenner, and four high quality pairs of socks plop through the door shortly afterwards. And then they just keep coming. Simple, but remarkably useful.
And let’s not forget Lovefilm. One of the oldest delivery firms on the web, pushing DVDs through my letterbox as often as I can be bothered to return the ones I’ve already got. Admittedly, Lovefilm had begun to lose its appeal, due mostly to my waning ‘must-watch’ list, but that changed with the addition of a Blu-Ray player under the TV. Now, Lovefilm is saving me a packet but letting me gorge on HD movies galore, all without remembering to head to the video shop.
Mark my words, subscription selling is ripe to explode. There’ll be toiletry sellers hammering down your door with regular deoderant updates and “flavour of the month” aftershave. Florrists will cotton on and let you send flowers by subscription for birthdays and mothers’ day, without ever remembering the date.
The web could even fuel regular deliveries of basic groceries. Bread, orange juice, even fresh milk delivered to the door just as you run dry of the last batch. Imagine it! We’d employ cheeky chappy delivery drivers, dressed head to toe in white. It’ll be glorious. We’ll call them “milkmen.” Now, who said there were no truly new ideas left on the web?