New research from Barclaycards Payments shows that spending on subscriptions has risen by nearly 40% as a result of the lockdown. With millions of people stuck at home, consumers turned to subscription services, primarily for entertainment, food and drink. Now, almost two thirds of UK homes are signed up to a regular subscription service. Food and meal box subscriptions such as Gousto, are the second most popular type of subscription, after entertainment.
Whilst the data-driven recipe box firm saw strong trading from the start of the year, achieving 70% YoY revenue growth, demand for Gousto meals increased significantly because of the lockdown. As a result, revenues for the first six months of 2020 surpassed the £83m of sales reported for the whole of 2019.
In light of the new research from Barclaycards, Timo Boldt Founder and CEO of Gousto says: “Following strong and consistent growth over the previous few years, demand for our meals accelerated as a result of the lockdown and we continue to see record levels of sales, even with the easing of lockdown restrictions.
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Consumers are won over by the variety of our recipe offering and convenience of the service, knowing they have a weekly box delivered with all the ingredients needed to whip up a nutritious dinner. It’s also a fully flexible service so there is no commitment.”
“Being a data-driven business, we have a deep understanding of our customer, which means we can evolve and cater our service to suit their specific needs. This helps us serve up specific recipe options to each customer that we know they’ll love, based on their individual preferences. As the future of subscription boxes becomes even more personalised, we’ll be able to offer more of this meaningful choice as well as greater flexibility to suit each customer’s lifestyle.”
The research found that spending on subscriptions services (including coffee subscriptions) increased by 39.4 per cent year-on-year in July.
