13 May (Giveaway) More than a Beauty Box: A Q&A with Birchbox
Chances are, if you’re in the beauty industry, you’ve heard of Birchbox, a monthly service that gives you 4-5 deluxe samples of beauty products from skincare to cult beauty tools. If subscribers are into the samples, then there is an option to purchase directly from Birchbox and also earn loyalty points by filling surveys and referring friends. The site also offers an online magazine with tips and advice and video tutorials as well. We reviewed them initially here.
We caught up with the founders Katia and Hayley and asked them some questions in a Q&A.
Q. Why are your customers so eager to pay for samples? What is your “hook”?
A. Our customers are looking to discover the newest and best in beauty. They pay for samples because they know we’ll send them an edited selection from great brands and that we are going to tell them the story about why we sent it and how to use.
Q: What kind of brands do you choose to highlight?
We work with brands across all beauty categories including makeup, skincare, haircare, and fragrance. We carry well known names like Nars and Benefit as well as niche favorites like Tatcha and Jouer. We love the mix because we are passionate about both working with established brands that have a solid reputation and are well known to our customers and working with small brands to help them build that reputation and start their path.
Q: What’s next on your horizon? What can customers look forward to receiving?
A: Every month brings a new theme and a great selection of products. We’re also excited about discovering other fun ‘extras’ for the box that are outside of the beauty category.
Q: Name one of the brands you’ve included in the box that you’re proud of and why.
A: We can’t name just one! We are so proud that NARS has been a partner since Birchbox was just an idea and we are equally excited about brands like Blow and Jouer where we know that for over 90% of our subscribers, Birchbox provided their first interaction with those brands.
Q: Would you ever supersize your product? Why or why not?
A: We are all about editing and cutting down the clutter, giving customers a fun but focused way to engage with these brands and products. Maybe someday, customers will have the chance to get two boxes a month!
Q: Could you expand to clothing or accessories?
Sure, one shoe in the box and then you have to buy the other! Okay, not really that, but we are thinking about what products in those categories do make sense. Stay tuned!
Birchbox is giving away THREE month subscriptions to FOUR lucky winners. To win a three-month subscription (guess what the magic number is here), simply leave a comment below to let us know your thoughts on beauty’s latest Bento Box (winners will be announced on Friday, June 3rd).
– Charu Suri
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Anna
Posted at 02:26h, 14 Mayi would love to win this contest! thanks so much birchbox!
Jessica
Posted at 02:34h, 14 MayAwesome idea! I am a BA and clients are always inquiring about new prodcuts. Now I can literally “try” it before I tell them all about it! I’m signing up tonight!!!! The magic # is 7.
Cristina P.
Posted at 02:47h, 14 MayBirchbox is one of the most brilliant things to happen to beauty and style. It’s truly solved a *problem* that the vast majority of women probably have — without having unlimited amounts of time and money to spend on beauty products, how do we know which items we’ll love the most + which items will work the best for us? Now we can sample (who doesn’t love samples?!) to figure that out – and at $10 a month, I feel like I just got the deal of a lifetime!
Mai
Posted at 02:57h, 14 MayIt seems like a great idea, I like the concept of being able to get a surprise box of things in my mailbox every month!
alyssa
Posted at 03:01h, 14 MayBirchbox is fantastic, it great to sample a product before you buy the full size product and pay alot of money for it and when you get home and try it out you find out it isnt your color, or you dont like the quality, or the smell or it just doesnt live up to what you hoped it would be.
so birchbox gives you nice sized samples (decent sample sizes) for you to try it before you buy it and ONLY for 10$ what beauty addict wouldnt love that?! 🙂