Every week, we bring you the top stories and analyses from the global Subscription Economy.

Sony’s Plan to Wring More Revenue From Chip Arm: Subscriptions

Excerpt from an article by Takashi Mochizuki and Yuki Furukawa on Bloomberg

Sony Corp. is developing subscription-based services for its semiconductor customers, moving beyond just selling chips and creating a new source of revenue within a $10 billion business.

The goal is to become a provider of solutions to companies that want to use sensors and analytics to optimize their business, offering them not just hardware but also software and support for a fee – akin to the way Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Corp.’s Azure support businesses’ online needs.

Hideki Somemiya, head of the new initiative, said the opportunity is especially big outside traditional sensors for photography use, in emerging areas ranging from autonomous driving to factory automation and retail planning.

For more, read the full article on Bloomberg

How to Convince Your Sales Team to Adopt a Subscription Model

Excerpt from an article by Scott Edinger on Harvard Business Review

If there is a lesson in the current unpredictable economic environment, it’s the importance of recurring revenue streams for businesses of all kinds. Having a subscription product or service that customers will reload, renew, or reorder repeatedly can smooth intermittent cashflow and keep a business alive.

The Subscription Impact Report: Covid-19 Edition indicates that nearly 90% of subscription businesses are flat or growing membership during this time.

Evolving a business from order or project-based income to a subscription-based revenue model requires more than just a pricing or product change, however.

Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of the recent book, The Forever Transaction, explains: “To build a recurring-revenue business, an organization needs to change how the product is designed, move from customer support to customer success, and keep the customer’s long-term well-being in mind across every functional area.”

For more, read the full article on Harvard Business Review

Panera sweetens its coffee subscription with free drink offer

Excerpt from an article by Daniella Genovese on Fox Business

Panera is trying to bring its coffee subscription back this summer by offering customers free drinks through Labor Day.

Customers who sign up for a My Panera Coffee subscription prior to July 4 will be privy to any size hot drip coffee, iced coffee and hot tea when ordering at Panera bakery-cafes, online and via Panera app. Guests will be allowed to redeem the offer once every two hours with unlimited refills inside Panera cafes, the company said.

Following an offer on Twitter, the company garnered over 50,000 new subscriptions.

“This is by far the single greatest increase in subscriptions we have seen in the history of Panera,” said Panera Chief Brand and Concept Officer Eduardo Luz.

For more, read the full article on Fox Business

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