26% of Brits use food/drink subscription box service

Subscription box services are becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom. Driven by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns more and more Brits have signed up for one or more subscription box services.

Especially food, drink, recipe boxes and male grooming drive the growth in the subscription box market in the United Kingdom. Because of the several lockdowns, many consumers want to have convenient home deliveries of essential items.

The UK Subscription Box Market report by Royal Mail shows that more than a quarter (26 percent) of shoppers in the United Kingdom are currently signed up to a food and drink subscription box service. These kinds of services showed the highest growth year-on-year in 2020. The markets of food and drink subscription boxes, as well as recipe box subscription services have a combined value of over 1.18 billion euros (up from almost 500 million euros in 2017) with this forecast to grow to over 1.77 billion euros by 2025.

Growth among several types of boxes

According to Royal Mail, more and more businesses are now recognizing the potential of these boxes to serve the daily and essential needs of consumers. And it’s not only food or grocery boxes that grow in demand, there has also been strong growth in personal care and grooming items (such as razors, blades and shaving accessories), hygiene-related items (such as deodorants) and household staples (such as laundry detergent).

The UK subscription box market is set to be worth 2.13 billion euros by 2025.

The authors of the report think that the trend of subscription services will likely continue post-pandemic. “Due to changes in consumers’ shopping behaviors, and the convenience that these subscription plans provide.” Overall, the subscription box market in the United Kingdom is expected to be worth 2.13 billion euros by 2025.

Most subscription box services are cancelled within a year

Earlier this month, research showed that only one in fifty UK shoppers have kept their subscription services for more than a year. The average consumer in the United Kingdom even cancels their subscriptions within 5.3 months.