When you stop to think about how you spend your money, what do you find that you’re spending it on? Of course, there are the basic necessities: food, housing, utilities, and transportation. What about some of the other expenses, though? The odds are that you have at least one subscription. While previous generations only subscribed to cable, phone services, and the internet, the millennial generation is finding more and more things to subscribe to. And that’s how they like it. But why?
Popular Subscriptions
There are a lot of different subscriptions that are especially popular with millennials. Subscribing to internet services is still popular, and that won’t be changing any time soon. Smartphones are becoming ever more prevalent, edging out phone service subscriptions as fewer people feel the need to establish a landline. There are a ton of streaming services available these days too. While some people still love their cable subscriptions, subscribing to streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Disney+ seem to be way more popular with your average millennial. That is to say nothing of music subscriptions such as Pandora and Spotify, which allow subscribers access to music without commercials, downloads, and unlimited skips. Other popular subscriptions include personal grooming subscriptions, household item subscriptions, food subscriptions, and gym memberships.
Reasons Why Subscriptions Are So Popular
Think about the housing situation millennials tend to find themselves in. The cost of buying your own place to live is often prohibitively expensive, so much so that millennials are only just starting to get into the housing market. It’s clearly quite different from the experience of previous generations when you consider that the oldest of them are closing in on turning 40. Because of this, most millennials are renters instead of owners. Renting lends itself towards a more transient lifestyle. It’s tough to move a ton of belongings all the time, which is part of why furniture rentals are a popular option. It’s easier to have a subscription that allows you to rent things instead of owning them.
Some subscriptions allow subscribers to create a more customized experience. This enables millennials to try out different lifestyles and products without making a huge commitment to them. That effectively addresses the reluctance that some people feel towards buying something without being sure that they’ll like it. It’s easier to feel like you aren’t wasting your money. Given the financial situation in which most millennials seem to find themselves, it’s no wonder that they would look for options that allow them to save money. Some subscriptions focus on exactly that. This way, millennials can make purchases that they otherwise might not have been able to.
Because of the nature of subscription services, it’s in a subscription company’s best interest to offer excellent customer service. Subscription businesses know that if they don’t treat their subscribers well, the subscribers will cancel their subscriptions. Not only that, but because the contents of some subscriptions are constantly changing, millennials have the chance to try a variety of different items, increasing their ability to stay up to date with what’s currently trending.
The popularity of subscription services among millennials shows how the economy is changing to meet their needs, way of living, and way of doing business. Given the unique circumstances in which millennials find themselves, both economically and in terms of the cost of housing and education, it really is no wonder why they find subscriptions so appealing.
