Makeup Subscription Box Benefits & Challenges

makeup subscription box

Written by Adriana Pope

October 25, 2021

A makeup subscription box can be an awesome way to grow your beauty products business. 

You can benefit from more consistent revenue and income, plus a more loyal customer base.

Overall you’ll see more sales from old customers as they buy more over time. 

Those loyal subscription customers will also be more receptive to up-selling. 

As you might have guessed, a makeup subscription box is not without its challenges. 

The logistics of offering a makeup box with an ever-changing variety of products can be rigorous.

Building quality relationships with beauty product suppliers will be necessary to give your store an advantage in the market space. 

Let’s take a closer look at the amazing benefits and challenges of offering a makeup subscription box.

Benefits of Any Makeup Subscription Box

Recurring Revenue 

Creating a makeup subscription box for your store can bring an array of benefits. 

At the core of these benefits is the recurring revenue that subscriptions produce. 

Subscriptions create a more reliable business model for your store. 

Recurring revenue makes your cash flow more predictable, enabling you to make more confident decisions about growing your business. 

If you have a steady stream of revenue, you’re more likely to expand your business offerings. 

Maybe you wanted to expand your general offerings for your store in the past, but you were hesitant to take the risk. 

For example, say that you created your first makeup subscription box offered at $20 a month. 

After several months you have a firm number of subscribers generating consistent revenue.

Now that you have some secure revenue in place, you can begin to focus on growth. 

You can grow your subscription options gradually, by offering a $30 and $50 a month subscription.

Lower Acquisition Costs

When you only offer one-time sales purchases, your business model is more about survival. 

Much of your energy goes into marketing for sales from customers you might never see again.

Not to mention, acquisition costs are climbing higher so it’s quite expensive to get new people constantly on your store.

Creating a makeup subscription box for your store gets you out of survival mode and into growth mode. 

You can focus on selling subscriptions to your customers, which helps create an ongoing loop where they order again and again with an automated process.

Sales Boost 

Adding makeup subscription boxes to your shop offerings can give you a long-term sales boost. 

Recurring revenue can create additional sales by getting your customers to buy more over time.

Customers subscribed to your makeup subscription box are less likely to look at makeup products of competitors when using your service because they don’t need others. 

You’ve potentially locked in a customer for life when they subscribe to your subscription box. 

When you only make a one-time sale, it’s much less likely that a customer returns the next month solely to purchase a makeup box. 

A makeup subscription box offers a unique opportunity to let your customers try new products. 

In fact, you can create circularity within your shop, by exposing your subscribers to new products offered within your store (made by your brand).

This is what makes a makeup box an incredibly unique candidate for a subscription box. 

Convenience & Value

Countless makeup products exist for consumers to try. 

You’re offering consumers a unique opportunity to sample makeup products that you review beforehand and select for them. 

Consumers love the convenience of subscriptions. You’re offering them a great value in time saved in a world that’s becoming more and more about efficiency.

Simply put, customers want subscriptions; that’s why they can create more sales for your store.

Offering a makeup subscription box is a must for any Shopify beauty products store. 

It will either put you at par with your competitors or ahead. 

Loyal Customers 

The customers that sign up for your makeup subscription box are likely to be your most loyal.

Subscribers trust your products if they’re purchasing them regularly. 

Trust goes a long way in business, and subscriptions aren’t an exception to this rule.

Loyal subscription customers will be the first to share their experience on social media. 

A share about a new product on social media (or better yet, a content post) is free marketing and can generate sales.

It’s not just about social shares, a personal recommendation from a friend or family member is perhaps the most sure-fire way to pick up new sales. 

Makeup subscription boxes will open the door for these loyal customers to increase in numbers.

Up-selling to Existing Subscribers 

Those loyal customers that I just mentioned are more likely to be receptive to upselling. 

Customers enrolled in a makeup subscription box trust your brand. 

You’re recommending them new makeup products on a regular basis. 

This means that when you begin selling a new product in your store, they’re going to trust that it’s worth purchasing.

Subscribers enrolled in cheaper makeup subscription box options are also more likely to enroll in more expensive subscription options once they’re tried your entry-level makeup box. 

Existing customers are much more likely to upgrade to that prized $50 monthly makeup subscription box with additional and more premium products after purchasing your $20 and $30 offerings. 

Predictable Income 

A makeup subscription box can give you predictable income that will help you sleep at night. 

Predictable income means you don’t have to worry about keeping the store lights on. 

If you have employees, your most valuable asset, it means secure paychecks. 

That goes the same for you as a business owner. The last thing you want to be worrying about is your personal finances while you’re managing your store. 

Makeup subscription boxes give you, as a beauty product store owner, peace of mind. 

Automated Recurring Billing

Recurring billing for your makeup subscription box can be automated through the Ongoing Subscriptions app available on Shopify. 

This is a great benefit of offering a makeup subscription box as it’s a huge time-saver. 

The customer portal is available to subscription customers and saves you time by allowing them to view and update their billing and subscription information themselves. 

With the customer portal, you’ll be spending less time on emails about billing questions.

As a user of automated recurring billing from Ongoing, you’ll get a seamless payment service. 

Ongoing is PCI (Payment Card Industry) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant, as it uses Shopify Payments API to process all transactions.

This means the app is on par with industry data security standards. 

Challenges of Any Makeup Subscription Box

Keeping Customers 

One major challenge of offering a makeup subscription box is keeping customers subscribed. 

Your customers are trusting you to deliver interesting products on a monthly basis.

It’s your responsibility to retain customers and maintain a low churn rate. 

A high churn rate could be the result of bad customer service or losing out to competitors. 

Take note of what makeup products your competitors are offering to consumers. 

What are their makeup subscription box options? Do they offer something that you don’t?

Create engagement on social media to keep your customers interested in your brand. 

Give your customers the chance to choose a product in their box each month through a poll on social media or your website. 

Offering a makeup subscription box is a great asset for your business, but it doesn’t end there.

Makeup Subscription Box Shipping Costs

The logistics of a makeup subscription box don’t have to complicated. 

One aspect that might take a little time figuring out before you launch is fulfillment costs.

Shipping can be expensive and or it can be super cheap. It all depends on the packaging, weight, delivery times and carrier you choose.

We recommend figuring out which carrier is right for you.

Do your research before choosing providers so you can find the best choice for your type of product and demographic (where you ship to the most). 

We recommend checking out Shopify’s guide to understanding shipping. It’s a great place to start and learn the ropes.

Creating New Boxes Every Month

You’ll also need to fulfill makeup subscription box deliveries with a changing variety of items inside every month.

Sourcing a wide variety of products can be a fun project, as you know you’re giving your customers the gift of discoverability.

Try to establish good business relationships with beauty product suppliers. 

If your suppliers are fond of you, you might be the first person they call when they have a new product available. 

It’s important that you’re organized and on top of your game. 

Luckily monthly subscriptions will make your orders more predictable than one-time purchases.

Best Makeup Subscription Box App

What’s the best way to create a makeup subscription box for your Shopify store?

Ongoing Subscriptions makes it easy to create makeup subscription box offerings in minutes. 

The app comes with a collection of time-saving features any business owner would love. 

A merchant dashboard allows store owners to analyze their subscription revenue. 

You can analyze historical subscription revenue along with future revenue projections.

Nearly every feature on the app is automated, allowing you to seamlessly offer subscriptions. 

Makeup Subscription Box Summary

  • Offering a makeup subscription box can be a game-changer for your store. 
  • It gives you access to a new customer base that wants subscriptions. 
  • Subscriptions can create predictable revenue and income.
  • No more worrying about keeping the store lights on because of the inconsistency of one-time purchases. 
  • Can create an overall sales boost with your company
  • Your loyal subscription customers will be easier to up-sell and will be the first to promote your brand on social media as well as to their friends and family. 
  • Can create some challenges you’ll have to navigate through.
  • You’ll need to keep your customers engaged to prevent a high churn rate.
  • Do your research on shipping providers to find the best option for your store. 
  • Build good relationships with your makeup suppliers; they’ll reward you in return. 
  • Ongoing Subscriptions has everything you need to seamlessly offer subscriptions on Shopify, including automated recurring billing convenient for you and your customers. 

You May Also Like…

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *