K-Cup Coffee As Subscription Service

Chris Holt, Marketing

 

In college, I lived with a friend who was a coffee addict. The guy simply couldn’t function unless he had his morning cup ‘o joe, and then needed another pickup by early afternoon. He was very specific and brand loyal too: he’d always journey to the same coffee shop by the campus library. He wouldn’t tolerate any of that mass brewed cafeteria stuff. When he moved out to the real world, he was an early adopter of K-Cup single-serving coffee.

Well, it seems that coffee addicts like my former roommate, or at least connoisseurs, have been noticed by retailers. Online megastore Amazon has a “Subscribe and Save” program for buyers who commit to repeat purchases on k-cup consumption. Participants can reap big benefits too, like discounts of up to 15% on select items.

My roommate was useless if he didn’t get his specific cup of coffee, and would grow irate if the barista messed his order. Thankfully, Amazon’s program is a bit more forgiving than he was. You can indicate if you want to skip deliveries online or change the frequency of the shipments. Of course, if you require a steady diet of K-Cup consumption and can find your specific brand available through Amazon’s subscription service, then there’s very little downside to participating.

But K-Cup subscription services to coffee addicts is likely only the beginning. More and more goods are going from single transactions to subscribed, continuous relationships. Target, the discount retail giant, revealed “last month that it’s exploring a subscription service to provide shoppers with discounts on regularly purchased merchandise,” explains DailyFinance.com. So if you’re regularly buying things like toilet paper, milk, or cereal you may be rewarded with a service of your specific need. Me? I’m looking forward to a subscription service that delivers Cocoa Puffs to my front door.

 

 

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