We’ve all heard about the pros and cons of subscription box services. When you’ve decided that a subscription box service is the right route for you and your company, where do you start?
There are hundreds of subscription box services out there, in many broad categories. We’ve all heard of monthly boxes for men’s shaving or fragrances or other products; “beauty” boxes packed with samples of makeup you can choose to buy; boxes filled with kid’s toys, accessories and games, book clubs, and recipe of the month-style boxes, or your traditional wine and cheese type clubs.
There are many niches when it comes to subscription box services—all intended for specific audiences. And each element of the box must circle back to the main theme and benefit you intend to provide your customer. How will you make your box special for your specific niche? How can you make your box tailored to your niche, and keep items novel and interesting on a monthly basis?
A brainstorm can help with this: what are you interested in? What would your box have in it? What makes your box exciting and unique, and different from other boxes? How do the elements of your box circle back to your main theme?
Fitting into your niche is one of the most important first steps in cultivating your subscription box. Let’s say you wanted to create a fun box for kids. One filled with opportunities for creativity and fun. But creativity and fun are two vague categories. How can you break it down to be more specific to your niche? How will your objects inspire creativity? Or how will your product produce fun?
This reveals two groups of people who fit into a respective niche. So you’ve decided to choose between one or the other—fun crafting projects or games—and you’ll need to decide between one or the other, in order to break down and designate your audience.
In the long run, it’s easier to conform to a specific audience (even when it seems like you can fit multiple concepts in one package) in terms of marketing and sales, which is why defining your niche is so important. Here, you will need to define who you believe your customer is, and it’s crucial to define your customer as specifically as possible: how will they use this product? For example, probably parents with kids. For parents with kids, how old? How else can we break it up? Is it targeted at girls and boys, or both?
Some other questions you can ask…
- Who are competitors in your niche? How does their box connect with their audience?
- How can you learn from the market analysis of your audience?
- How does your box reflect the main theme and benefit you provide?
- How will your box be specifically tailored to your chosen audience?
From here, you can begin to put together a sample model of your first box, and move forward toward starting your subscription box company.
Did you know that at Evans, we provide subscription box fulfillment services? While you’re working on researching your market, molding your niche, and putting together your first box, we can worry about funds distribution, the best carrier to use, delivery rates, order tracking and inventory, and returns. We can also take care of custom labeling and packaging, and can customize the delivery experience to your specifications. Get in contact at 1-800-OKEVANS and we can help get you started with the exciting prospect of starting up your own subscription box company.