New feature is a complete step-change in the way people can work together on Fiverr and allows customers to subscribe to specific services.
Fiverr, the gig economy marketplace, is launching Subscriptions, a new feature that allows freelancers the opportunity to establish long-term, ongoing relationships with their customers.
In the past, Fiverr has only offered the ability to pay on a per-project basis, so this is a huge step for the company as it continues to expand its product offerings and services to appeal to larger businesses, agencies and corporate teams.
“In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, more businesses are tapping into remote, freelance talent than ever before. Managers have become comfortable managing remote talent and businesses have realized that by working with freelancers, they are able to increase their agility and flexibility, which allows them to scale quickly” said Micha Kaufman, Fiverr CEO. “However, every business is built differently and has needs that are unique to them. Subscriptions gives our community members control over how they want to work together and empowers them to work in ways that best suit their needs.”
Micha Kaufman
By giving customers the ability to subscribe to a freelancer’s service, the platform is opening itself up to a new group of business buyers, ones that would prefer to work with talent on an ongoing basis and ones that need services that are not simply one off projects. Many services offered on Fiverr, such as SEO, social media marketing, website maintenance, and virtual assistants, require ongoing collaboration in order to be effective. Allowing customers to subscribe to these services rather than having to purchase over and over again gives them peace of mind that the work will get done on a consistent basis and frees them up to focus on other necessary to-do’s.
For freelancers, giving them the opportunity to charge subscriptions for ongoing work provides them with a more predictable stream of income and gives them clear visibility into their workload. Many of them already work with the same clients month over month, and being able to charge a subscription for their services gives them more financial security, knowing that they have work coming in for a set period of time.
Initially, Subscriptions will be available to top freelancers in eight categories across the Fiverr platform, including Social Media Marketing, SEO and Voice Over. The feature enables freelancers to offer their services for 3 and/or 6 months and at a discount, if they choose so. Over time, the feature will be rolled out to other categories across the platform.
The introduction of Subscriptions follows the company’s launch of another new product that simplifies the process for completing larger projects on Fiverr, Milestones. This new feature allows buyers to break the freelancer’s work into a few steps and pay for each one separately without committing to the full project. Clients are given the ability to approve each part of the order before moving to the next step. For freelancers, it allows them to create stepping stones that will ensure they are paid for the tasks completed during the project.
Fiverr says subscriptions and Milestones are part of their commitment to moving upmarket and launching more features and products that appeal to larger businesses and corporate teams.
