They say good things come in small packages. With products ranging from Luna bars, perfume, earbuds, green tea and mascara, brands are seizing the opportunity to distribute product samples in a little package called, Birchbox.
Birchbox.com, is a subscription-based service that delivers a monthly box of beauty samples to your door for a small fee of $10 a month. This NYC centered business was founded by Katia Beauchamp and fellow Harvard alum Haley Barna in 2010. Birchbox chooses products based on a beauty profile you complete when you sign up. From a brand’s perspective, this is a way to upsell existing customers and to acquire new customers by putting the product in front of them that they may not otherwise have been exposed to. A recent box brought me a fun colored nail polish, Kate Spade perfume and a delicious-smelling hand cream. I was so excited to receive my box of goodies, it felt like Christmas as I opened it! In my opinion, Birchbox satisfied me as a customer as it delivered products that I currently use and a few I hadn’t experienced before. I loved the hand cream and bought it on the Birchbox website once my sample size diminished. Bottom line, both Birchbox and the brands benefitted from my purchase that day!
Birchbox has been on the market for two years and has seen rapid growth, both with new female consumers and new business partners, such as major brands like Kiehl’s and NARS. It offers a way for big brands to get their products into the hands of young, e-happy customers with money to spend. Over 200 brands have joined Birchbox because they see the benefit of pushing their products to female consumers each month. Brands such as Elizabeth Arden are scrambling to give away samples to Birchbox’s more than 100,000 subscribers as they see the value in distributing their products to females who love a new beauty item to brag about.
The startup has been so successful gaining female consumers that Birchbox Man launched in April 2012. Now, guys can sign up and, for $20 a month, get their own “Birchboxes.” Products shipped in the boxes will include shaving cream, cologne, headphones and watches, with more lifestyle and tech items planned for the future.
Birchbox is a place where brands can find new customers and engage with them in a very intimate environment-their homes. This subscription-based system introduces customers to small and large brands, helps smaller companies start to find their consumer base, and larger companies find new audiences.
For a small fee and new products shipped to your door each month, would you sign up for Birchbox?
