Last weekend, while I was helping a friend to move into her new house, I came across some cute boxes and asked where she got them from. She called them her beauty boxes which she subscribed to every month. I had a look inside and what I discovered was so interesting that I just need to share it on this blog. If you are looking to start an online business in the beauty niche, here are some top beauty subscription boxes that you might want to consider.
What and Where Do They Come From?
Firstly, for those who don’t know what beauty subscription boxes are, they are generally beauty items that come in a small bundle, delivered to your doorstep at a designated time. This idea was pioneered by Birchbox in 2010 and has quickly become every woman’s addiction (at least in the US).
As more eCommerce stores and YouTube makeup gurus joining the scene, product sampling has entered a whole new level. For women, this means that they can try different beauty products at an exceptionally low price. Who doesn’t like that, right?
Here’s the exciting part. It turns out, most of these subscription boxes come with affiliate programs. That means, when you recommend a beauty box to someone and she subscribes to it online, you earn a small payout (aka sales commissions) through the purchase.
Now, let’s have a look at what brand of boxes that are currently popular online.
Top 5 Beauty Boxes Brands
1) Sephora
Sephora is probably one of the biggest beauty retailers that have more than 20 eCommerce stores worldwide. They offer popular brands as well as their own private labels in a variety of product categories for females and males.
Their subscription box, called Sephora Play!, contains 5 deluxe samples, a collectible make-up bag, a handy book on beauty tips, a tutorial pass to use at your local Sephora outlet and of course, free shipping.
- Subscription fee – $10/month
- Affiliate Sign up – Rakuten Linkshare
- Commission payout – up to 10%
2) Birchbox
Birchbox is another big beauty company that operates in the US, UK, France, Spain, and Belgium. Each of these countries has its own beauty subscriptions tailored to their local customers’ style. The US version offers two types – the original Birchbox for women and Birchbox for men.
Inside the box, you’ll get 5 samples that are curated for your skin, hair and style, how-to guidebooks and occasionally a free gift.
- Subscription fee – $10/month
- Affiliate Sign up – Rakuten Linkshare
- Commission payout – $5 per referral
3) Beauty Box 5
For a small amount of fee, Beauty Box 5 delivers 5 deluxe samples and full-sized products to your doorsteps. You can expect luxurious, drugstore and even vegan brands inside this bundle.
- Subscription fee – $12/month
- Affiliate Sign up – ShareASale
- Commission payout – $6 per referral
4) Pop Sugar Must Have
If you are looking for something randomly interesting, this box might be the one. Inside Pop Sugar, you’ll not only find beauty products but also napkins, scarves, and inflatable drink holders. How cool is that? They come in two types of plans; Must Have and Must Have Mini.
- Subscription fee – $18.95 and $39.95
- Affiliate Sign up – Impact Radius
- Commission Payout – $10 per referral
5) Fabfitfun
This box truly reflects what it says. They don’t deliver samples; they give you full-sized premium items that offer a mixture of beauty, fitness and home products to perk up your life every season. Obviously, you can expect a pricier subscription for this one too.
- Subscription fee – $49.99/season
- Affiliate Sign up – Affiliate Window
- Commission payout – $9 per referral
How to Launch Your Beauty Box Online Business
I know what you are thinking right now – “Why haven’t I thought about this?!” – right? Well, it’s never too late to start. First, you’ll need to get yourself a cool domain name, create a website/blog with it and publish some interesting content about all these subscription boxes.
Granted, you should also subscribe to some of these services to have a better idea about the products within. You can include topics such as product reviews, beauty-tips and coupon offer to attract readers to your site.
If you are looking for some real-life examples, check out this blog and her awesome content.
Are Beauty Boxes Worthy of Your Time?
I personally find this marketing concept very beneficial for both consumers and the beauty companies.
- For a small amount of fee, you can try out different brands and write product reviews based on your own experience.
- You can help readers decide which box brand is better suited to their budget and style.
- Most (not all) of these services over-delivers – meaning, you pay, for example, $10/month, but the actual value of the total products is probably around $30 to $40. Besides the fun factor, such ‘discounted offer’ simply makes a customer happy and want to continue with their subscriptions.
- When you have subscribers, you’ll build a loyal community of readers on your site.
Ok, even if you are not totally obsessed about beauty stuff, there are other types of boxes you can promote, for example, geek box, baby box and even adult box (if you are really into that niche) 😉
Just to prove to you that I am not making things up, this is what Google Trend has to say about beauty boxes for the past 5 years.
See how all the spikes are going up and beyond? That’s a sign of popularity and high demand. If you can place your website strategically along those lines, you can easily monetize from these top beauty subscription boxes as an affiliate marketer.
Now, don’t just sit on those exciting ideas. Check out the training at Wealthy Affiliate and start profiting from this niche. I’ll be inside the training area to help you out too.
Have any questions or thoughts about this topic? Feel free to leave them in the comment space below and I’ll get back to you soon.
I have noticed of late that these types of products have become very popular. In South Africa, the equivalent is the Little Black Box. I see there is also a Fashion Box with handbags and high-class accessories to compliment the latest seasons looks.
I think these things are so popular because women love to get surprises, and you never know what you are getting in your box each month.
Now you have given me an idea. Must find out if they do an affiliate scheme.
This is a very interesting idea. It would be good for someone to make a bit of extra money on the side, but with the cost of the memberships being so low it would need a huge amount of sign ups to make any significant income, wouldn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong. It sounds like a lot of fun and I guess it would be a fairly easy sell. It also sounds fairly new so there probably wouldn’t be too much competition, but I have come to steer away from low cost affiliate programs, because you have to do just as much work as promoting the bigger ticket products.
Still, if you join a membership site like Wealthy Affiliate you could use this to learn the business and gradually work your way up to the more lucrative products.
Hi Deb, I look at it this way. It’s actually easier to sell/promote smaller ticket items, say $10-$50 products, because consumer are likely to swap their credit card online as compared to products that are worth $100 and above. The bigger the price tag, people would feel more reserve hence taking longer time to finish the consumer purchasing cycle.
Definitely start with a small product and as your online traffic and reputation grows, you can move on to bigger ones.
Hey Cathy,
Wow I never knew these box packages are a thing! I saw Sephora and I love that brand! Not for me of course but I buy gifts a lot for my sister, my family, friends and I even have a membership but I never knew they have beauty boxes. Definitely checking it out!
Have you heard of Sprezzabox? I’m new to the whole subscribing and getting surprises thing so I spent on some ties there and ended up subscribing. We can’t buy individual items when it comes to these packages, can we?
Subscription boxes group the items together and I’ve never seen individual items being promoted through these services. I’ve not heard about Sprezzabox, but now I know that there’s an upcoming niche for men subscription boxes as well. It will be interesting to write an article about that 🙂
Hi Cathy
Great article on subscription boxes. I have never heard about them until I read your article. I think it is quite interesting that there is an affiliate marketing aspect in this niche. Thank you so much for the eye opener. I think out of the 5 subscription boxes you mentioned, the one that gets my attention is Sephora.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? That was my exact reaction when I discovered this type of niche. Do you know that there are subscription boxes for men too? I’ll be doing some research on that topic so stay tuned 🙂
Once and again, you come up with more ideas of great niches and business ideas. Beauty boxes were new to me, but I am not surprised. It is almost more surprising that nobody has thought of it before. It also proves the point of creating value for your customer. Like you say, these companies often over delivers and this makes the customer come back for more. The more you give, the more you get.
Hi Jojo, I think beauty subscription boxes have a lot of potential. The amount of new released brands and products out there are enormous and these boxes, through affiliate programs, will give people an affordable way to check out new stuff on the market.