When I was a kid, the Columbia House Record Club was all the rage and my first recorded music purchases had me committed to its subscription program.

Today, subscriptions mean something else entirely as retailers and brands find new methods of going direct to the consumer. It’s a way to cement loyalty and grow repeat business, while providing consumers with a new kind of retail experience. Subscriptions, it seems, are the new black.

There's a subscription service for just about everyone and everything. There are boxes that come weekly filled with meal ingredients and ones that arrive monthly with pet food and treats. There’s even a subscription that delivers components of a new wardrobe that can be worn and returned while a new box is filled and delivered.

These new services are very different from those I grew up with. Few require more than a month-to-month commitment and most hinge on leveraging data to curate a compelling collection of items and personalize them for each recipient. For some consumers, subscriptions amount to a monthly surprise that repeats with each new delivery.

These new subscription services hit all the hot points of retail today: They delight and surprise, provide personalized service, create an experience and deliver it all right to the customer's home. You could say subscriptions check all the boxes.

We hope you enjoy our in-depth look at subscription retailing.

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7. The 7 trends that will shape apparel retail in 2017

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