How to Sell Subscription Boxes to Anyone

14 min read

Starting a subscription boxes business can be a smart move for your blooming ecommerce business. The subscription business model is a great way to improve customer retention when compared to traditional methods that require constant customer re-engagement.

The subscription market continues to grow by 100% every year, which has enticed major and established companies to make the switch to recurring billing. This popularity has a lot to do with customers’ growing demand and preference for convenient, personalized, and low-cost ways of buying online.

If you have the passion for it, some consistency, and a dash of creativity, you can make a unique subscription business to sell personalized boxes on a subscription basis. This model can be a fun and worthy venture for many. So read on to see how you might reap the benefits of this buzzy model in no time while creating a stable revenue stream.

There are about 6 essential steps to successfully get started and sell subscription boxes:

Pick a niche and a unique subscription box business idea
Create an online store
Set up subscription/recurring payments for your store
Research your market and set a price
Set a marketing strategy
Get started on your launch phase and start taking orders

This can be a very competitive market, but for many entrepreneurs, the pros outweigh the cons. Thankfully, it is easier than ever to get started on recurring payments thanks to the low startup costs offered by platforms like Ecwid and the easy access to a variety of innovative technology out there.

This makes it a great time to start a subscription box business, with thousands having already made the switch and reaping great results. Continue reading as we go into further detail on all of the steps mentioned above and get you on the right path to successfully sell subscription boxes to anyone.

Pick a Niche and a Unique Subscription Box Business Idea

Make sure to evaluate your options and choose something relatable to your passion and skills, and once you do, give it a twist or simply make it your own. The cool thing to remember about the subscription business model is the freedom available for sellers to sell anything they want. There is not one specific idea or product needed for this business model to work, with many currently making consistent revenue from things like meal prep boxes for men or women to something as simple as a pet snacks subscription box.

Overall, subscription boxes are curated and niche-oriented, making them an exciting product already to sell to anyone. Just make sure to study the competition, narrow your options, and test your choices. In the end, it all comes down to the experience you are willing to provide your customer; this is what will mark whether your subscription box business is successful or not.

Create an Online Store for Your Subscription Business

Once you have evaluated your options and picked your subscription business idea and niche, you’ll need to create a landing page space where your customers can learn more about your products and where transactions can take place.

A website landing page can encourage your customers to take action and recognize you as an honest and genuine small business.

Do you feel like creating a remarkable website that represents your brand and mission is too complicated and not worth the effort?

So do many other small businesses in your position. But the truth of the matter is:

You may find yourself concerned about this part of the process. After all, it does require a lot of time and effort to successfully set up and operate an online store. No doubt this can be a very daunting process when you don’t have access to professional-level experts in web design and marketing, or high-level tools. Thankfully, with the help of an ecommerce platform like Ecwid, you can easily set up an online store and provide your customers with a fast, secure, and simple shopping and checkout experience.

Sellers can easily set up recurring billing by simply connecting Stripe payments to their store. Stripe provides you with all the necessary technology to manage all of your customers’ subscriptions. To learn more about how to set up an online store and recurring payments with Ecwid, check out our recently updated guide How to Create an Ecommerce Online Store with Ecwid.

Ultimately, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to have a visually appealing and well-working website for your store. This is certainly not something to be afraid of or a reason to abandon your goals; we promise this part of the process is not as complicated as it sounds. Just make sure you can provide your customers a website that represents the value of your brand and offers them a quick and reliable subscription method.

Set Up Subscription Payments for Your Store

As briefly mentioned above, after you have set up your store and added your products, you’ll need to add a recurring payment method to your store. The use of a recurring billing tool makes it easy for subscription business owners to charge their customers every month, or any other billing period they decide to choose. If you were to rely on payment methods like PayPal or emailing your customers whenever a payment is due, it’d be extremely difficult to keep track of everything else going on in your store.

It is very easy to set up recurring billing if you use a platform that allows for an easy and quick setup. Once ready, your customers will be charged every paid period without having to constantly put in their card information and go through the whole transaction process over and over again.

To learn more about setting up recurring payments with Ecwid, and saving your customer’s card information for future billing and purchases, check out Recurring Subscriptions on our Help Center. You’ll find a step-by-step guide on how recurring billing works and how to add them to your store.

Research Your Market and Set a Price

Now that you have your store set and ready, consider researching your niche to understand more about your potential customers’ demand, demographics, interest, etc. This will not only help you learn more about the kind of target message that works for your audience but also help you set an appropriate price for your products.

Proper market research should help you measure the impact of your prices based on customer demand. The key to success is not solely limited to the offering of a cool subscription box delivered to your customers, but also in the offering of competitive prices that stand out

from the rest. If you were wondering how subscription boxes make money, this is it right here.

Set a Marketing Strategy Based on The Subscription Model

Alright, so now that you have your store and product prices set, you might be wondering: “How do I actually get people to subscribe?”

The answer seems complicated, yet is very simple!

This is the part where you’ll need to get started on planning, planning, and more planning—then some testing. Yes, there is a lot of planning behind a good marketing strategy, especially when it comes to the subscription business model. The good news is once customers begin to respond to your message and subscribe, the repeated billing business should provide you with reliable revenue for the future.

It is important to make note of the fact that the recurring billing method is different from a traditional method like the one-time purchase, and this is why it typically requires a different approach and key messages.

This is exactly what we are about to cover here, so read on!

Know Your Value and What You Have to Offer

To successfully market your business and key messages under the subscription model, you must first be knowledgeable of these and why customers prefer to buy the product you sell on a subscription basis instead of a single purchase.

Here are some of the top reasons many choose to subscribe to a subscription box rather than buy products individually:

Savings. Customers love the savings and price accommodations you can offer them under a subscription model. Think about it: stores typically charge more for a single product than if you were to buy it in bulk. Also, you can offer lower prices under this model thanks to the safety you get from having a reliable and consistent revenue stream. Take these savings, make them one of your key messages to customers, and find a good way to communicate it to your audience.

Convenience. Everybody loves a convenient purchase. We live in an era where people have less and less time for miscellaneous tasks. Many consumers love the idea of being able to rely on the delivery of their products to their homes at regularly scheduled times. This is where your business steps in and offers a solution to a common problem, making it another one of your key messages.

Experience and Excitement. In the end, people love the experience that comes with a subscription box. The excitement of new products added to their next delivery, the loyalty and partnership created between them and your brand, etc., are all part of the experience they seek. You’ll be surprised at what you can achieve by finding the best way to communicate to others about what your brand has to offer them.

Once you have set apart your key messages, you’ll want to find the best communication channels for your audience.

Just a few recommendations:

You can choose to set up an email list and segment those who have shown interest in your products.

You can work with influencers in your niche with large followings.
You can choose to create a blog with ongoing SEO tactics.
You can rely on Paid Per Click advertisements, which have proven to be very helpful.
You can choose to produce content that resonates with your audience and awakens a feeling of curiosity.

Education is key. You’ll want to have a solid knowledge of your options and find the best one for your specific business needs, not what is working for everyone else. You can read more about marketing your subscription business here 2021 E-commerce Marketing Tips for Beginners.

Time to Launch Your Store and Start Selling Your Subscription Boxes

Finally, we have reached the last step and probably the most important one to start selling subscription boxes to anyone. Now, all that is left to do is to set up your store and put together a marketing plan, is for you to launch your new subscription business and start selling. This is unfortunately the part where many become scared and back up. We are here to remind you nothing happens in the comfort zone, and the biggest reason many people fail is fear of starting.

We encourage you to take the leap and give yourself the opportunity to work on your goals. Remember with Ecwid and all of the easily accessible technology out there, you have very little to lose. Take that final step and share your experience with us!

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Apr 30, 2021

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.