We now expect our brands to be more than the end product or services.

We care about the means by which they get to us - so brands now need to embed better “Environmental, Social and Governance” (ESG) standards. But how do brands fund these, often more expensive, requirements, particularly in an online world where purchasing so often starts with a price comparison? Digging in the data we can see the green shoots of a business model that uses the online medium more effectively than even Amazon: subscriptions, reinvented for the age of data.

Subscriptions provide for a longer term, more trusted, more secure relationship. Typically they involve a continuous exchange of rich customer data in return for a hyper personalised product. It’s a bit like the apocryphal shopkeepers of old who knew what their regular customers liked and curated inventory accordingly. Subscription businesses bypass both online and offline retail to create a better direct relationship between brand and consumer.

In this model the high friction of continual financial transactions disappears; payment friction is...