Newspapers and magazines have long been services that people have devotedly subscribed to. In the late 90s Netflix introduced a new subscription that made the DVD rental experience easier and more convenient by shipping your rental directly to you. Over a quarter of a century later the model of subscriptions by mail has only expanded to more products and services. These subscription services are progressively transforming the U.S. consumer market, growing 3.7 times faster than S&P 500 companies. 

In the U.S., alone there are 225 million active subscriptions, averaging 3.7 per person among sixty-one million subscribers. These subscriptions fall into a variety of models that include B2B (Business to Business) and DTC (Direct to Consumer) options. There are over 27,000 DTC services that fit a large demographic of needs and luxuries that create a system that cuts the middleman out which in many ways helps make the products more affordable. 

There are three main types of subscription services available, curated, replenishment, and membership or access subscriptions. Curated services like Birchbox, FabFitFun, and BarkBox lead the market by offering consumers a fun and novel experience with monthly or quarterly options. The next most subscribed category are companies that focus on replenishment products such as essential services like Lexmark OnePrint and popular choices like Amazon Prime’s subscribe and save option or the Dollar Shave Club. Lastly, membership subscriptions offer exclusive access to products as well as perks and other freebies, places like Sam’s Club, Costco, and Amazon Prime fall into this category.

The shift towards subscriptions is driven by affordability, convenience, and a demographic preference for digital and physical services. While there are subscribers of all age ranges there is a noticeable demographic of younger generations with millennials taking up almost half of all subscribers. While there was already a love for subscribing pre-2020 the pandemic only further accelerated this trend, with an 11.6% growth in subscription businesses. After trying services out of necessity the ease and convenience kept many resubscribing.

Interestingly enough each state tends to have certain subscriptions that are more subscribed to than others. These trends reflect a diverse range of consumer interests that reflect the uniqueness of each state. For example, Alabama and Mississippi both have a love for makeup subscriptions and Texas is focusing on subscribing to AI technology such as ChatCPT. Whatever the category is, one thing is clear, there are good reasons as to why people choose to subscribe.

This sustained growth across states signals that subscription services are more than a trend. They are a reshaping of consumer behavior and expectations that are only going to keep growing and conforming to what subscribers need and want. While Netflix may not be shipping physical DVDs anymore their digital subscription is still ever popular with 247.2 million paid subscribers worldwide as of the third quarter of 2023. Subscriptions are not dying out, instead, they are ever-evolving to better fit the needs of consumers.