Last week Keurig Green Mountain, maker of the popular Keurig coffee maker, announced the debut of a monthly coffee subscription service, just in time for the holiday season. Under the new program, subscribers can get a regular shipment of their favorite K-Cups delivered right to their door, including favorite brands like Green Mountain Coffee, The Original Donut Shop, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, or they can choose an assortment of K-Cups based on their personal roast and flavor preferences.

Keurig subscriptions start at $49.95 to have a box of coffee delivered every four weeks. Subscriptions are available in three ($49.95), six ($89.99) and twelve-month increments ($169.99). Prices vary for each package depending on the brand selected and number of K-cups in each order.

For example, a 16 count box of Dunkin Donuts Original Blend K-Cups is $49.95, but a 24 count box of The Original Donut Shop Coffee is $59.97. Variety packs include 30 count packs, so they are $69.84 each, for three-month subscriptions. As an added bonus, gift givers can add a Keurig K55 brewer for $99.99 which will arrive with the first shipment of K-Cups.

Whether a customer is purchasing the subscription for themselves or for a gift, the process to sign up is the same. The buyer chooses the duration of the subscription, selects single boxes or a variety of brands and coffees, selects the shipping date and adds a personal message, if appropriate, and the desired coffee is shipped every four weeks for the duration of the subscription. The launch of Keurig’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide coincided with the launch of the new subscription product.

There is already a wide variety of coffee subscriptions on the market, including those that encourage buying coffee at local coffee shops (CUPS), those that offer a unique variety of roasted coffee beans, and, yes, even K-cup subscriptions. Coffee Cargo, for example, offers a variety of K-Cup packages. Each shipment includes three different roasts of hand-selected coffees for a total of 15 K-Cups each. The most popular coffee Cargo plan is $19 a month. Three month plans start at $54 and go all the way up to $195 for the 12 month plan.

Insider Take:

Since it was not first to market with K-Cup subscriptions, Keurig may have realized it was missing out on a valuable opportunity for recurring sales beyond the initial Keurig coffee maker purchase. As an added bonus, the concept for coffee subscriptions has already been tested in the marketplace, so the risk to Keurig is minimal.

While it does have competition in the arena already, Keurig has brand recognition and customer loyalty. Because its prices are higher, it is not likely to woo customers who have already subscribed to services like Coffee Cargo, but they may gain market share by launching just before the gift-giving season. They’ve made it easy to buy and customize a gift and easy is always good.