One in three Americans now pay for a subscription they never use and 35% have lost track of how much they spend on subscriptions each month.
A new report from Bango, which supplies bundling technology, found that while US subscribers were most likely to lose track of their spending they were closely followed by their European counterparts (28%) and those in Latin American (27%).
Bango outlines the issue in its report, Super Bundling: Global Trends, which explains the top ten trendsdefining the Subscription Wars from over 15,000 subscribers across the United States, Europe and Latin America.
Another trend is the rise of Vampire Subscriptions – those long-forgotten subscriptions that suck money out of consumers’ bank accounts without them even realising. For American’s this is becoming increasingly common, with 44% saying they struggle to keep track of where and how they signed up to these subscriptions.
39% of LATAM subscribers also find it hard to keep track of their subscriptions, as do a third of European subscribers.
One answer is the super aggregation where subscribers can purchase one or more subscriptions through a platform operator – or content hub – who may also offer some type of loyalty discount.
“While full-service content hubs like Verizon +play are on the rise in the USA, there’s still more to be done to make them mainstream. Content hubs have yet to properly break into the European and LATAM markets even though the demand is there from consumers,” says Bango CEO Paul Larby.
“What’s clear is that subscribers want choice and flexibility without the annoyance of juggling multiple accounts and bills. Super Bundling through content hubs finally brings that level of flexibility — aggregating multiple services into one single platform with ease. It’s an approach that puts the subscriber first while allowing subscription services to share users rather than fighting over them.”
46% of Europeans say they would spend more time using their subscription services if an all-in-one platform was available.
The demand is even higher in the United States (54%) and in LATAM (68%).
Further Information
Download the Report