A company profile in the SubX SubscriptionX 2023 report looks at how Hobbycraft subscription models are designed with the “resourceful and discerning” crafting community in mind.
Founded in 1995, Hobbycraft is a nationwide business with more than 100 stores across the UK, supplying over 25,000 arts and crafts products. These include art, knitting and crochet, haberdashery, papercraft, wedding and party, baking, jewellery making equipment and more.
Hobbycraft is now the largest arts and crafts retailer in the UK, and the Hobbycraft Ideas Hub is the number-one craft blog.
“The digital product experience a brand has is as important or adjacent to the product and services that any brand sells,” Jennifer North, head of digital experience at Hobbycraft, told the RetailCraft podcast earlier this year. “Crafters are a discerning bunch,” she says, “they’re resourceful and not really brand driven. They’re looking for something specific at the right price that will do the job for something unique they’re making and that’s what they care about.”
To meet these needs, the company launched its Hobbycraft Plus subscription back in October 2022. The service costs £80 and subscribers get 15% discount off Hobbycraft products and free next-day delivery on orders over £25. Subscribers also get access to bulk product and packaging and free seminars focused on helping to grow their business, including sessions on how to sell on a marketplace and marketing and customer service. Hobbycraft also has a subscription called Cut and Create for digital crafters.
North says, “You’ve got a machine, and then you need to buy the consumables, so you might need to feed it with iron-on or adhesive materials and you’re going through that to a certain rate. This gives a 10% discount on all consumables, free next-day delivery, and digital designs to use.” The company is also working on a consumer app, launching later this year.
This profile first appeared in the SubX Subscription 2023 report, the first report to look at how consumer engagement in pre-paid models has opened new innovation. For example, the concepts of privileged access and advance purchase are finding new forms in the metaverse with exclusive launches, releases and drops of NFTs (digital assets) and physical products.
Now, more than 40% of subscription plans unlock additional retailer-specific perks. We will map and analyse the emerging subscriptions-enabled business models and consumers’ changing ideas of ownership, based on the latest sector and market information.
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