The fad of subscription boxes is waning, but some shrewd brands have a plan to thrive. Their secret: Each box is not just a widget, but an insight-generating emissary.
Consumers are flinging open their doors and welcoming brands into their lives through the subscrition box model. All marketers have to do is box up a few products, reproducing the excitement of a gift that arrives quarterly, monthly or even weekly.
Consumers’ willingness to roll out the welcome mat for such brands as Birchbox, Barkbox and Blue Apron—and cough up quite a bit of data—stems from the trendy desire for a bespoke customer experience. They want the sophistication of a personal shopper without the human interaction. They want a curated collection of products without stepping foot in a store. They want to showcase it all on social media, sometimes for fans they’ve never met. Subscription boxes satisfy this appetite for a detached yet customized shopper experience, and they do so with the climactic bonus of “unboxing.”
Eager to satisfy these desires, companies are wrapping whatever they can in tissue paper: jewelry, pet toys, exercise equipment, socks, bacon, fishing gear and so forth. If it can be boxed and themed, it ships. Working off of the self-gratifying, “treat yo’self” mentality many customers embrace, the subscription box industry has taken off, and marketers have enjoyed a tantalizing spread of customer data.
Login to view this page. You may create a free account from the login page after clicking "login".
Sarah Steimer is a writer, editor, podcast producer, and yoga teacher living in Chicago. She has written for Marketing News, Chicago magazine, Culture magazine, the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, and other outlets.