How I started a subscription box business in Australia
Last year I decided to start a subscription box business during a pandemic. Having worked in a corporate marketing role since the beginning of my career, I was determined to now spread my wings and start something I was truly passionate about. AUSSIE BIZ CHIC is a monthly subscription box & learning hub designed to up-skill & provide female entrepreneurs in Australia the tools and resources to grow their business.
Ideas Phase: Why choose a subscription box?
Coming up with ideas is tricky. Especially when you don’t have any sort of skill that you can transfer into a business. Say you’re great at design, you might start a clothing line or if you’re in the medical profession, you could start your own practise.
Yeah, that wasn’t me. Could have become a marketing coach, but nah.
So really the first thing we did, I say ‘we’ because I have a partner in this business; my boyfriend Luke.
We actually first thought of the business model. We knew we wanted to do a recurring revenue model. We felt this would be more of a consistent way to drive revenue and profit month to month.
THEN we did some research in the market. What was happening at the moment. We’ve just hit a pandemic, people are at home and so there was more of a need for getting things delivered straight to your door.
In the US and UK, subscription boxes are HUGE and they are only just gaining momentum down here in Australia. So this is the perfect time to get into this business. So we settled on a subscription box.
Now what were we going to have in the box?
WELL honestly, I just thought what have I struggled with and what would I love to get every month. That’s how the Aussie Biz Chic box came to be.
Pre-Launch Phase: Target Market research, Building an Audience and having a Founding Members Launch
So we had our product and I had a general idea of who the target market was. Australian female entrepreneurs looking to really upskill themselves, who love to read books and learn, plus love stationery.
BUT THAT’S NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION. I NEEDED TO KNOW MORE.
BUSINESSES ARE ALL ABOUT FIXING PROBLEMS.
SO I REALLY NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WERE THE STRUGGLES OF BEING A FEMALE ENTREPRENEUR.
So at this point in the business, I needed to gather information. I did this by first starting up my Instagram @aussiebizchic (yes shameless plug) go follow me for amazing daily stories.
I also set up a very basic landing page so I could start capturing emails as well.
So now I had both of these up. But of course how can I gather information if I don’t have an audience to ask. This is where the hustle kicks in.
On Instagram I was ENGAGING every day. Looking for where my audience was. Following relevant hashtags, commenting and doing what you’re meant to be doing on a social media platform. ENGAGING.
Once I had an audience, I started surveying my audience. So on Instagram I would use the poll stickers, ask what my followers struggled most with and what they wanted to learn when it came to growing their business.
I directed followers to the landing page, where they could sign up to the mailing list if they wanted dibs on an offer I was running for when the pre-launch started.
I had an automated welcome email go out, that encouraged subscribers to fill out a little survey. I use Typeform and essentially I asked things like what do you struggle with most, what stage were you at in your business, what products would you like to see in the box.
That way I was able to get a good picture of WHO this lady was and I was able to tailor my messaging and marketing to that.
From early responses I was then able to create a lead magnet to capture more emails. My audience wanted to know how to get more Instagram followers. I created the eBook on growing an Instagram following. To this day, this lead magnet is a constant source of new email subscribers I can market too.
I then ran a Giveaway just before pre-launch started, so I could collect more emails to market too.
So I was building up hype on my Instagram and on email. I was showing myself behind the scenes working on the business.
I called this stage the founding members launch. Because those who bought during this pre-launch stage, were buying this box SUPER early. I honestly didn’t really have a product at this point.
But this allowed me to get some capital very early on to invest in buying boxes in bulk. So I am forever grateful to my Founding Members.
Launch Phase: Members and Shipping
So pre-launch ran for a week, I went live with the website and I secured some capital. I also had founding members from my pre-launch.
I actually sent founding members a gift in the meantime. As it would still be a whole month till they would receive their first box. I also gave them early access to the learning hub.
This was great because I actually got some early social proof of how happy members were being part of the tribe. So having that social proof early on really helped me then market the launch date and build excitement.
THEN WE LAUNCHED ON SEPTEMBER 1st 2020.
Did we sell out? No
Did we get more members? Yes
Was I happy? Absolutely
I was having the time of my life. At this stage it was all systems go. Honestly the hardest thing was shipping. Living in Melbourne, we were still going through terrible shipping times because of COVID.
In our first few months, we actually had to deliver boxes in Melbourne because we couldn’t trust the shipping cause of COVID. But you know what it made for some GREAT content. Always look for the positives.
Growth Phase: Why choose a subscription box?
Launching the business was such an amazing milestone and it cemented that we really had a viable product on our hands. Now it was time to scale and grow.
We really started to hammer down on our Facebook ads. Having launched the business, collecting data, understood what my audience responded to well in terms of content really helped us get those Facebook ads RIGHT. With Facebook ads running we were really starting to get some great brand awareness and consistent sales week to week.
I ran both a cold traffic campaign and retargeting campaign.
Secondly, we fixed our website and simplified the offer. I started out with having three subscription options and looking back now it was way too complicated. When we got rid of those and tidied up the website the conversion rate on the website really improved.
It also helped that I was getting amazing unboxing pictures and reviews from members which I could put on the website.
I then started to get on Tik Tok, and got some GREAT organic reach on that platform. I find video so fun and I’m so happy that REELS and Tik Tok are in.
The last phase of this growth stage I’m going to talk about is our amazing offer. We offered new members 50% off their first box on a 6 or 12 month plan.
This really skyrocketed our next month to 175 members.
We won’t be running this offer forever, and we are actually going to test out different offers in the future.
PHEW, AND THAT’S IT. WOW.
Believe it or not, there’s actually so much more I’m going to be implementing in order to scale the business. I’ve only just scratched the surface.
If you want to join me on this journey, be sure to subscribe to this channel and follow me on my instagram. I’d love for you to be a part of it.
But I hope you enjoyed this and got some inspiration. I hope to see you in the next one!