Subscription Commerce

Birchbox Uses Facebook Live to Build Customer Relationships
October 7, 2016 at 11:25 am

Birchbox, known for being one of the first online subscription services, is taking its pioneering spirit to Facebook Live. The beauty subscription service broadcasts videos via Facebook Live to show consumers product demonstrations, product highlights, and transformations (e.g., haircuts). Viewers get answers to questions in real time as well as information about the company’s subscription box. Each…

Trunk Club Moves Away From Free Model
October 7, 2016 at 11:02 am

Trunk Club is no longer free. Crain's reports the apparel subscription service has added a home try-on fee and shortened the window for returns. Previously, members of the service only paid for items that they kept; they will now be charged a $25 try-on fee, which is credited towards any items they purchase. If the…

What You Need to Know About the Subscription Box Business
September 20, 2016 at 11:58 am

Subscription services are certainly nothing new. Local food companies, magazines and newspapers have been in on this business for a while. What is new is the phenomenal growth of e-commerce subscription boxes. The initiator of today’s modern e-commerce subscription services, Birchbox, grew from 45,000 subscribers to 800,000 subscribers over the course of only two-and-a-half years.…

Stitch Fix Expands to Menswear
September 20, 2016 at 10:46 am

Stitch Fix, the online personal styling and shopping platform, built its brand from catering to women. Now, it wants to broaden into menswear. For six years, the San Francisco startup has been using fit and style data algorithms alongside customer information to bring a digital personal shopping assistant to women, who, for a $20 per month…

Game Changers: Rakesh Tondon, Le Tote
August 31, 2016 at 5:58 pm

Rakesh Tondon is the co-founder and CEO of Le Tote, a women's apparel and accessories subscription service. He's also a retail industry game changer. Here's our interview with Rakesh, which appeared in the summer issue of Total Retail. (Here are interviews with our other game changers: Meaghan Rose, Rocksbox; Luke Sherwin, Casper; Chris Lindland, Betabrand; and Kate…

Game Changers: Meaghan Rose, Rocksbox
August 18, 2016 at 11:04 am

Here's the first of six profiles of retail industry game changers. Today's interview is with Meaghan Rose, founder and CEO of Rocksbox, a premium jewelry subscription service. (This is Total Retail's second annual profile of entrepreneurs disrupting the retail industry. Here are last year's: Rachel Shechtman, STORY; Ryan Babenzien, Greats; MaryAnn Bekkedahl, Keep; Vishaal Melwani,…

The New Normal
August 15, 2016 at 7:37 pm

It’s a whole new retail game out there. Digital disrupters — i.e., companies and/or people with digital models that disrupt a profitable, even booming, industry such as retail — are the new normal. These companies generally make the same products and offer the same services as the companies they’re disrupting, but make them readily available…

Access vs. Ownership: How to Win at the Subscriptions Challenge
August 12, 2016 at 9:49 am

A trend playing out across industries shows that consumers are increasingly forgoing the security and prestige of owning objects for the affordable flexibility of on-demand access and upgrades to the latest and greatest products without up-front investments. And like many things, the trend is driven by changing preferences of new generations. Think of the baby…

Dollar Shave Club Sells to Unilever for $1 Billion
July 20, 2016 at 1:19 pm

Yesterday, Dollar Shave Club, a subscription-based retail startup built on the idea of inexpensive razors, was acquired by Unilever. The European consumer goods giant purchased Dollar Shave Club in an all-cash deal for around $1 billion (yes, you read that correctly), according to The New York Times. With the acquisition, Unilever — which own brands…

Birchbox Cuts More Employees
June 29, 2016 at 10:50 am

Subscription beauty service Birchbox has let go an additional 30 employees, this coming five months after the startup cut 15 percent of its staff. Birchbox Founder and CEO Katia Beauchamp announced in a blog post on Tuesday that the original cuts (50 of 300 employees) were too conservative. This week's layoffs are part of a…