By conducting research, I delved deeper into existing subscription models, gaining a heightened comprehension of the end users' needs by pinpointing current issues and identifying their end goal.

I utilised previously obtained competitor audits from the beauty subscription market to get a sense of the demographics. From this I was able to send out surveys as well as interviews to get a deeper understanding into the user’s needs as well as potential solutions to be considered. This had then enabled me to produce user personas where I was able to highlight specific pain points and goals that the users wanted to achieve when subscribing to beauty products online.

I started conducting my research by getting an understanding of different types of the current subscription models and what is included within them and what most users tend to lean more towards. Listed below are some of the models that I had discovered:

Flat-rate pricing

Flat-rate pricing represents the most straightforward subscription model. Under this approach, the company charges customers a fixed fee (such as monthly or annually) for the product or service, regardless of their usage level. A well known example of this is Amazon Prime who offer both annual and monthly subscriptions using flat-rate pricing

Tiered Pricing

Tiered pricing provides customers with various subscription options, each offering different levels of access or features. This model is particularly suitable for software or streaming companies such as Netflix, seeking to offer flexible choices to their customers

Usage-Based Pricing

In a usage-based subscription model, also known as pay-as-you-go, the subscription price increases based on the increase of the customer's usage.

Freemium Model

The freemium pricing model entails offering a perpetual free version of the service or product alongside a premium version with extra functions or features. The free version is often supported by advertising revenue, although this isn't always the case.

I found that there are a lot of online beauty subscription websites available in the market. Listed below are a few of the websites that I had discovered and play a similar role in providing subscription packages to their users however, the user experience is not personalised enough for each individual user.

Birchbox

Cohorted

Glossybox

Lookfantastic

Based on the user research that I had gathered, I created two user personas that capture the essence of my target users.

Andrea Mitchell

Occupation: Product Designer

Age: 27

Location: London

“I need to be able to easily read and understand what is included in each subscription package.”

Pain points:

• The subscription packages are sometimes not clear enough and I am not sure which one to choose

• If I wish to change to a different payment model, it is not straightforward

• Sometimes, the package includes products which I have already tried before

Goals

• Be able to easily choose a subscription package with enough information for me to understand which I feel is best

• I want to be notified when my subscription is due for renewal so that I can plan accordingly if I would like to cancel my subscription

Keri Milner

Occupation: Administrator

Age: 24

Location: London

“I want to receive personalised packages based on what I find most relevant to me.”

Pain points

• The subscription packages include some products that I like and some that I don’t find useful at all

• Since you don’t have the ability to handpick your products, you don’t always end up with things that you want to try

Goals

• Receive personalised subscription packages based on my preferences

• Be notified of when new products become available

Using the information obtained from research and personas to gain further insights to apps currently used by users helped to identify specific features and navigations the users were familiar with. For example the key use of a search and discovery page on apps such as Pinterest, Instagram and Depop.