Imagine you sign up for a curated subscription box from your favorite cosmetics brand. You receive a box of products on a designated date every month.
And even though it’s a curated subscription (surprise products), all the items in your boxes match your taste, needs, and are personalized to your likes.
Personalized subscription boxes have taken the subscription industry by storm. Customers love them because they offer discounted prices, carry a surprise element, and yet meet their needs.
Personalized subscription boxes have taken the subscription industry by storm. Customers love them because they offer discounted prices, carry a surprise element, and yet meet their needs.
This is the beauty of curated subscription boxes!
This blog explores curated subscription commerce, its benefits, and how your Shopify brand can profit from this business model.
What is a curated subscription box model?
A curated subscription box offers a personalized experience. The products, services, or experiences put together in the “box” are selected by the brand. But the selection is based on individual customers’ preference, taste, and needs. The appeal of curated boxes is the surprise and discovery element.
For example, TheraBox, an award-winning subscription box, sends monthly curated boxes around self-care. Each themed box could include products ranging from toners to teas, creams, candles, and more. Each month, a new surprise!
Image of TheraBox’s homepage featuring a new self-care subscription box.
Benefits of curated subscription boxes
From recurring revenue to more opportunities to engage customers to increased customer lifetime value (CLV) – curated subscription commerce provides a lot of benefits to eCommerce businesses. Here are some of the benefits.
1. Higher average order value
Subscription boxes lead to a higher average order value (AOV) as each box contains multiple products, as opposed to a single purchase. Moreover, you can include exclusive or new products in the boxes to increase the AOV.
2. Easily introduce new products to customers
Curated subscription boxes are an easy way to introduce new products to customers. For instance, when you add a new product to your inventory, seasonal products, or products by other brands during brand collaborations.
3. Improved customer experience
Curated subscriptions help enhance customer experience in many ways. For instance, you can create more opportunities to engage customers via new offers, regular updates, by offering seasons boxes, etc. A seamless delivery structure can also enhance customer experience.
Components of curated subscription commerce
A curated subscription box model is made up of several components or features that make it worth customers’ money and interest. Here are some of those components you must consider for your Shopify curated subscription boxes.
1. Curated selection of products
The curated subscription boxes model is based on the concept of curation – the brand puts together hand-picked products for customers based on their preferences, market trends or a specific theme. For example, a winter skin care for dry skin type curated subscription box.
2. Subscription model
Subscription models work on the concept of regular deliveries, for example, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or other intervals. Ecommerce brands can ensure consistent revenue for a long term. Additionally, higher customer loyalty.
3. Personalization
Businesses can drive 40% more revenue by offering personalized experience. Most customers expect brands to offer some sort of personalization. And curated subscription boxes are no exception. Brands offer personalized curated subscriptions based on customers’ preferences, demographics, interests, etc.
4. Boxing or bundling
Another aspect of subscriptions is bundling or boxing – products and services put together in a box or a bundle. This makes it easy for customers to receive curated items that match their preferences.
5. Pricing structure
The curated subscription box model functions on a tiered pricing structure. Customers can choose from different levels based on their budget and needs. Typically, higher tier subscriptions offer more value, benefits, and exclusivity to customers. This also makes high-tier boxes more enticing.
6. Customer engagement and community
Building a community around your curated subscription box model helps engage customers and offers more value to them. Communities through social media, offline and online events can help strengthen relationships.
7. Logistics and fulfillment
A big part of your subscription business is the efficiency of your logistics and delivery system. Partnering with reliable logistics partners, incorporating a subscription app that offers logistics management features, etc. is critical to the success of subscription models.
8. Vendor partnerships
Another important component of subscription businesses is vendor partnerships. For instance, partnerships with other businesses, packaging vendors, influences, product suppliers, etc. can add value to your curated subscriptions.
Read about the key components of a subscription management system.
Set up your Shopify curated subscription box business
The technicalities of setting up a curated subscription box model for your Shopify store are easy when you have a reliable subscription tool such as Appstle Subscriptions App. However, your subscription box concept has to align your business type, goals, and personality. Here are the steps to help you get there.
1. Define your niche
To know what to curate, you must understand who you’re curating the box for — your target audience. One of the first steps is to identify your potential buyers based on the products you are offering.
- What are the demographics of your target audience – age, gender, location, etc.
- What are their interests and likes – fitness, beauty, fashion, technology, etc.
- What are their needs and problems, and which of your products can solve them? This will make your curation more relevant
- Identify the gaps in the subscription market that your products or services can fill for these customers
2. Choose the subscription model
Subscription models have many other aspects that need to be figured out when setting up curated plans. Here are some of the basics to get started with:
- The frequency of deliveries you want to offer – monthly, quarterly, weekly, or others.
- The pricing structure of your subscription model – tiered pricing, basic pricing, flat pricing, etc.
- The type of curated subscription plans you want to offer – fixed, personalized, etc.
3. Create a curation process
There are many ways to curate a subscription box. And so, you will have to narrow down your curation process based on your products, customers’ preference, etc. Here are some factors to curate your offerings:
- Identify the products you want to offer in the curated subscription box. For example, these could be products you produce, a mix of products and services, or those sourced from third parties
- Develop a curation process, for example, select products based on customers preferences, based on trends, and also ensure a good balance of consistency and discovery
- Incorporate personalization strategies to make the subscription boxes relevant and appealing to individual customers
Read our e-book on getting started with eCommerce subscriptions
4. Create a brand identity
With so many subscription options in the market, customers expect something unique and meaningful when they shop. Uniqueness and value are elements that help build a strong brand identity. Here’s what you can create a brand identity for your subscription business:
- Create a unique value proposition by defining what makes your curated subscription boxes special. For example, sustainable packaging, exclusive products, etc.
- Build a community of your subscribers via channels such as social media, email, and in-person events to make your subscriptions more valuable and meaningful
5. Plan your logistics and operations
69% of customers are less likely to shop with the same retailer again after a delayed delivery or some issue with the delivery. Managing logistics and ensuring smooth operations is critical for curated subscription commerce, as these can make or break your business.
- Create a system to track inventory, forecast demand, and manage supply
- Choose reliable logistics and delivery partners
- Use a subscription management tool, for example, Appstle Subscription that has comprehensive features
6. Create a marketing strategy
Once your curated subscription box model is set up, it’s time to get started with marketing it. Effective marketing can help you get a good start and set you up for success. Here’s what you can do:
- Create a content market plan for your subscriptions business – include social media, blogs, email marketing, newsletters, influencer marketing, etc.
- Put together a referral program – your loyal customers can help you get more subscribers
- Use tactics such as FOMO and urgency by creating limited edition subscription boxes
- Collect customer reviews, testimonials, and user generated content, for example, unboxing videos by subscribers
7. Provide efficient customer support
Your customers may have many queries and might need some explaining about how your subscription plan works, the benefits, etc. Also, your existing subscribers might need help from time to time. This is where an efficient customer service system can help you enhance customer experience. Here are a few things you can do:
- Set up different communication channels for ease and speed
- Make it easy for subscribers to perform some actions on their own, for example, change delivery schedule via the dashboard, initiate payments, etc.
- Make it easy for customers to change their subscription plans, pause, or cancel subscriptions.
- Incorporate loyalty and reward programs within your curated subscription commerce set up
8. Monitor, measure and optimize
Like any other business model, subscription businesses are not a one-time fixed set-up. You will have to consistently monitor and optimize your curated subscriptions to ensure you stay competitive. Here’s what you can do:
- Use the analytics features of your Shopify subscription app to monitor the performance of your subscriptions – track customer behavior, churn, profits, etc.
- Collect customer feedback to understand their preferences, gaps, etc.
- Optimize your curated subscription boxes by making changes and adjustments based on trends, customer needs, seasons, etc.
9. Scale you curated subscription box business
To ensure consistent profitability from your curated subscriptions, you will have to scale your business. Incorporating a subscriptions tool helps scale easily as it automates tasks. Besides, it also offers other features such as marketing and promotions to help with business scaling. Here’s what you can do:
- Expand your offerings to cater to a wider customer base, diversify products, services, introduce themed curated boxes, etc.
- Collaborate with influencers to increase your brand awareness, partner with other brands to offer exclusive curated boxes
- Use AI and data analytics tools to understand customer preferences, and streamline your curated subscription box management
Examples of curated subscription boxes
1. Maple Box
The Maple Box is a curated box subscription of organic products sourced from various brands. This subscription box is offered by Maple Magazine. Part of the subscription is a copy of the magazine.
2. Whiskey Loot
The liquor brand, Liquor Loot, offers a curated whiskey subscription box. The box contains custom glass bottles of whiskey and tasting notes. The brand encourages its subscribers to share feedback, reviews and unboxing videos and share them on their social media channels.
3. Bespoke Post
This themed subscription box for men by Bespoke Post offers a curated selection of products, ranging from accessories to grooming to home items. The brand asks subscribers to answer a quiz to personalize the curation process.
How to get started with your Shopify curated subscription box business?
Your curated subscription business can be a huge success if you plan and manage it well. But there are a lot of elements to be managed in curated subscriptions. And for that, you will require a comprehensive subscriptions app.
Appstle Subscriptions can help you set up a curated subscription plan, automate tasks such as communication, notifications, billing, payments, delivery management, etc.
