How to choose the right business model for your shared mobility service

Over the past few years, shared micromobility services have become an integral part of inner-city mobility. With new shared mobility services have come SaaS providers, like Wunder Mobility, all with their own software and varying business models. But, before you get confused about whether to choose a RevShare, Franchising, or Subscription model, here’s everything you need to know about choosing the right business model for your company.

The 3 most popular business models for shared mobility software

Different software providers offer different types of payment models and these affect how and what you pay.

Generally, these models fall into 3 camps:

• RevShare
• Franchise
• Subscription

RevShare

RevShare stands for revenue-share pricing. In this payment model, SaaS providers charge their customers a percentage of their sales.

The Pros:

• The price you pay is dependent on your revenue.
• Revenue sharing is somewhat flexible.

The Cons:

• Because resource requirements can change seasonally for shared mobility services, recurring revenue businesses can be less scalable than the other models.
• You could get caught out if you have a couple of big months of revenue followed by some smaller months.
• You could get caught out in times of crisis - such as the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns – as you still have to pay a share of your revenue even if people aren’t using your service.

Franchise

The franchise model is far from new. Some say that it originates from the Middle Ages when a titled landowner would grant rights to the peasants to hunt, hold markets or fairs or conduct business on his domain. In this model, a franchisor – the person or company that owns the rights to a brand trademark – sells the rights to a franchisee so that they can use the franchisor’s trade name, infrastructure, and operating systems.

The Pros:

• Franchising is a good way to start a business if it’s your first time. You invest in a ready-made business and apply its processes and techniques to your chosen location.
• You can benefit from the experience of your franchisor – they often offer training, support, and marketing strategies.

The Cons:

• You don’t necessarily get to own the vehicles or the business.
• Franchising is not very flexible because you have to run your business according to the needs of your franchisor and you can’t scale your business very easily.

Subscription

In the subscription model, you pay a recurring price at regular intervals to access a product. Like franchising, this is an old business model and has its origins in 17th-century publishing. Magazine and newspaper publishers still use this model, but it has also been adopted by many SaaS companies too.

The Pros:

• You pay the same price every month/year which makes it easier for you to plan ahead.
• You can choose the kind of subscription you want to suit your business needs.
• Subscription offerings are both scalable and replicable.

The Cons:

• Many SaaS providers with subscription models are modular which means that they charge extra for additional services like adding promo codes, vehicles, etc.

The Wunder business model

With Wunder, you get a subscription. You pay a monthly minimum retainer based on the number of active vehicles you have, which means that the price you pay is not dependent on your revenue or the number of rides your users take.

Also, unlike many other SaaS companies, we’re not modular, which means you get access to everything you need from day 1 and can do most/if not everything on your own. By signing up with Wunder, you get:

• Android & iOS Apps
• Backend configuration
• Frontend set-up
• Software maintenance & regular updates
• Tech support
• Dedicated Technical Account Manager
• Vehicle hosting on Wunder Fleet platform
• APIs to use 3rd party tools and analytics

The biggest advantage of working with us is that we have a clearly defined payment structure which means that:

• You will always know exactly how much you will be paying in a given month.
• You don’t have to worry about additional costs if you want to add promo codes, set up different payment options, change, add or remove geofences, and more. You can use all of these features from day 1.
• You can onboard additional sharing-ready vehicles on your own as you grow your fleet.
• You get a dedicated account management team that will work with you to grow your business.

How it works

Our platform is designed to give you as much autonomy as possible while providing support and guidance whenever you need it.

Should you decide to use our all-in-one software solution then you will start by paying a one-time set-up fee when you start your contract. From then on, you will pay a monthly minimum retainer and the price of this retainer is based on the number of active vehicles you have.

Throughout your journey with us, you get a dedicated Account Management team to help you launch and grow, a chance to co-develop features with us, and your own white-label app and backend ops tool set up for one monthly flat rate! So, what are you waiting for?

Want to find out more about our software and our payment model? Get in touch and book a Demo today.